Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: OsageBender on January 02, 2009, 02:11:18 pm
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I went to Home Depot this afternoon, and picked up a really straight grained poplar board. I plan to rip it up into 1/2" x 1/2" square stock for arrows. I have never tried poplar for arrows, has anyone else? How does it compare weight and durability wise to other arrow woods? Thanks.
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I like poplar shafts allright. I made some out of 3/8 dowels last year. Tapered the back ten inches and they flew sweet and seemed to be fairly durable. Promptly lost 3 of them in our haystack after using them for our state games
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Poplar makes good arrows. Medium weight, stay straight pretty good. The one I've used is tulip poplar/yellow poplar.
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HillBilly, is Poplar, and Aspen the same tree? When I was in Wisconsin, on my Aunt, and Uncles' Dairy, Farm, they called them poplar. But in the west they call them Aspens. Thanks,
Wayne :)
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I have an walnut footed Aspen arrow that Art Butner gave me. Pat
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My brother made a set of poplar arrows. They were excellent shafts. I would cut them to 3/8" squares though, as the ones Kyle did were a little finicky and seemed to like to gouge/
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I made some out of poplar boards before. I just ripped to 3/8" stock then hand planed. They are heavier than cedar and I think pretty durable for a softer wood. The poplar takes dye quite well.
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how about 3/8" poplar dowels and then compressed down to a smaller diameter shaft like a 23/64" or even compressed down to an 11/32" shaft... has anybody tried this????
i am in dier need of some shafts and i was thinking of going to lowes here a little later and picking up some dowels to make arrows and i didnt want to use the 5/16" oak dowels i really like the look and feel of a thinker shaft but i think the 3/8" dowels are way too thick....
i was also going to try and make a compersser block but not too sure how this would work..
sorry Ossage bender... didnt mean to jump in and ask too many quetions but i thought id ask since they are realated to your question... ;)
Hey, Ossagebender are you planning on making the 1/2 x 1/2 squar stock and then running them through a dowel cutter or were you going to plan it down with a thumb plan???
i made one arrow from a 1/2" x 1/2" squar stock that i bought from lowes and i picked up ther thumb plan there too.. bout 6-7 dollors and i did the thumb plan thing and then chucked the close to round shaft in my cordless drill and then sand paper in hand and drill sanded it... i really like that arrow, it shot really true but it ended up kinda barrel tappered... and i never made another taht way thought it would really be difficult to try and get a set to come out all the same way....
thats why i'm waiting to get a dowel cutter and compression block...
but i was thinking of if i could get a compression block made up and then just by the 3/8" poplar dowels then i could be in bussiness alot faster... for now ;)
wonder if that would work??????
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Shooter, how about grooving a board, and lining it with sand paper, and putting the near round shaft in the drill, and then putting it in the grooved board, with the sand paper lining it, and putting a grooved block on top to hold the shaft, and then hitting the drill trigger. should give you some consistency......
Wayne
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The Poplar shafts that I have used shot nice, but needed to be checked for straightness every time I pulled them from a 3-d target. They were easily hand straightened and seemed fairly durable at 23/64 thickness. These were made from poplar boards, never tried dowels.....Terry
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Poplar is pretty strong in soine. You may want to try 3/8 ". Poplar hand planes fairly well. See Pine Shaft Hints on my site. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/
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That should say that poplar is pretty string in spine.
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HillBilly, is Poplar, and Aspen the same tree? When I was in Wisconsin, on my Aunt, and Uncles' Dairy, Farm, they called them poplar. But in the west they call them Aspens. Thanks,
Depends on what part of the country you're in. :) Aspens are true poplars, in the willow family. What we call poplar in the Southeastern US is tulip poplar (tulip tree, yellow poplar.) It's not a true poplar, it's in the magnolia family. It's one of the most important commercial lumber trees, so I'd say that most of the "poplar" lumber on the market is tulip poplar. It's probably stronger wood than true poplar.
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a buddy and i made hundreds of poplar arrows a few years ago. we made a jig using a router to turn 1/2'' square stock we ripped up from store bought lumber into 3/8 dowels.then we chucked them in the drill and sanded them to 23/64 . they made great arrows that i would compare to cedar. we also made some ash shafts that where nice and heavy. boo