Ash Wood Arrow Shafting Review

Very Fine Shafts

The shafts I received were straight and uniform and required very little sanding.Even if a shaft is a little crooked, it is easy to straighten with a little heat. I love ash shafts because they are heavy and result in excellent penetration, and of course they are tough. Ash can be hard to stain, but I use alcohol based stain for gun stocks, and prefer a lighter hue anyway.If you… read more like a hard shaft, it will require multiple coats of stain.

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I would not recommend--wood was too porous.

The ash shafts were much more difficult to work with than cedar or fir shafts. Shafts not straight and wood was very porous requiring a great of preparation prior to finishing

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Hard to straighten, even with lots of heat.

I make arrows for customers, but always straighten the shafts before making them up. I found the ash shafts impossible to straighten without lots of heat, and even with heat, they were very resistant to straightening.

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Runoff

Out of the 12, about 4 had significant runoff. First shafts i have bought from 3 rivers. I also ordered to POC shafts, and they look fantastic. But, i was really looking forward to the ash, and I am hesitant to order more now.

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I love these

They will require work, sanding, use of heat to straighten. ( you can not use heat but they will naturally bend back if you don't") Very consistent in weight and accurate, nice grouping with my English longbow. Very happy with the durability, they are heavy but i like heavy arrows to quiet the bow down.

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Switching to these over POC

Long time POC (Port Ordford Cedar) user and bought Douglas Fir, Ash, and Birch shafts to run some tests against each other, weight, penetration (gel block), flight, strength, etc... Mainly to see if there was anything better than POC for my particular setup. Disclaimer* the tests run were based on my current *individual* setup and in no way based off of industry standards for… read more testing. However, scientific methods were used across each of the types of wood. All shafts were spined the same and were shot multiple times from the same bow and recorded. The ash shafts were heavy to the touch and pale in color compared to POC. The grain pattern was light and the surface of the wood was rough and almost splintery to the touch. The weighted more than the Douglas Firs on average about 45 grains and almost 100 grain difference between the ash and the POC. I use the Apple arrow power saw and Woodchuck power taper tool and both had a hard time cutting through this hard wood. What normally took me seconds to do with my POC, was taking minutes per shaft. The difficulty in tooling is the main reason for the 4 stars and not 5. Its not for the beginner fletcher. The shafts eventually (after much sanding and cleaning) took a solid coat of alcohol stain, but it was not nearly as nice as the Douglas Fir or Cedar shafts. These shafts though, like most things in life, are worth the patience and effort. They are the hardest hitting, best flying shafts I have seen in a long time. On the gel block they increased the penetration by almost 3 inches compared to the Ash and almost 5 compared to the Cedar. The arrow speed was also took a solid hit. While I unfortunately do not have chronograph readouts, the drop in speed compared to Ash and Cedar shafts was visually noticeable, though not by much. These shafts are great, but its certainly a trade off between speed and penetration with regards to POC. Personally, with my setup, I'll take the speed hit for a better penetrating, smother flying shaft. Hand straightening the shafts was a bit difficult, but a bit of solid heat did wonders to help ease the fibers loose. I have yet to post my review of the Birch shafts, but will do that when I am able to get the data recorded.

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Tough shafts!

I really love these shafts! You need heat to straighten them, and if you get them hot enough, they are quite easy to bend. They are very durable, which is a plus when hunting large and small game.

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Tough as nails

These shafts are tough as nails for stump and 3d shoots. The dozen I bought wont stay straight for very long and need a lot of attention for that. For short range they are excellent and forgiving when straight. I cant recommend them due to the price however.

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Great product

After getting a few put together I had to shoot them. By far the hardest hitting arrow. I shoot a 65# long bow it moves the target around. Ready for fall to see how they do against a big bull

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Awesome opossum

Best shafts makes poc look like toothpicks , solid as a rock

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