Arrow Shaft Woods

Most of our cheap, standard and competition field and target arrows are made from European Pine and Spruce, which is strong, straight, simple to straighten and inexpensive.

Our warbow arrows, specialist and bespoke arrows can be made from pretty much anything - from traditional arrow woods found on the Mary Rose, or in texts such as Ascham, to an old stick that you've found in a barn in Norway (yes, this has happened to us recently, and they look pretty nice!).

For the bamboo enthusiasts, we do also make up grass arrows, which are simple, but strong and effective.

Pine/Fir/Spruce:

Available in a wide variety of spines and standard sizes, from 1/4" up to 23/64" (and beyond, if necessary)
Straight and easy to straighten
Inexpensive and easy to work with, reducing build time costs
Tried and tested
Sustainable
We currently use European Pine and Spruce arrow shafts for our cheap, standard and competition matched field and target arrows and are increasing our sourcing of UK grown shafts with the intention of being fully UK sourced by 2019.

Birch, Oak and Ash:

Available in 3/8" and 1/2" as well as other sizes for special orders
Straight, stiff and suitable for warbows and higher poundage traditional bows
Heavy enough for heavy warbows and some EWBS spec arrows
Traditional, being preferred by Ascham
Sustainable
Most of our warbow arrows are made from these woods, and we will have stocks of one or another available all the time, but if you have a preference we can usually supply them, just get in touch.

Tulipwood (often sold as Poplar):

Available in 3/8" and 1/2" as well as other sizes for special orders
Straight and easy to straighten
Suitable for bows up to around 80lbs in 3/8 and 120lbs in 1/2"
Light (though sometimes too light for heavier bows)
Not traditional
We have some stock of Tulipwood, mainly in 3/8", but are phasing this out. If you're not fussy - keep an eye on our sale page.

Poplar (Populus Tremuloides):

Rarely available - sorry!
Traditional (many of the arrows found on the Mary Rose were Poplar)

Port Orford Cedar:

Traditional American arrow wood
Strong and straight
May not be sustainable
Supply and quality issues
We're not experts in sustainability, but as this is on the IUCN Red List we've decided to phase our stocks out. It is expected to recover, with current conservation practices, so hopefully in a few years we'll be able to work with this again, as the smell in the workshop when it is cut is wonderful! We also hope that the quality and supply issues that we've found will also be sorted out.

Bamboo:

Available in a wide range of spine weights
Standard lengths up to 39" (for oriental thumb draw archers) and sometimes longer shafts are available
Strong and straight
Front of centre balance point due to the natural taper
We're not specialists in bamboo, and unfortunately suppliers aren't always precise on exactly which bamboo is used for these shafts, but we receive either Tonkin (Pseudosasa amabilis) or Japanese Arrow Wood (Pseudosasa Japonica) - both of which are of good quality for arrow shafts.