[Ansteorra-archery] Fiberglass shafts was Re: Since we are talking combat archery

[Eadric Anstapa]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Catron" <meggiddo at netzero.net>
>
>When did a fiberglass shaft break? <snip>
>

MY apologies for not jumping into this sooner.  I am still quite ill and
have spent the better part of the day out of it.

There were several broken fiberglass shafts found on the field at Gulf War
and one broke while only being flexed a few inches.  Afterwards at the
request of the Society Combat Archery Marshal we started doing some testing.

We discovered  that the stuff that was breaking easily was recent purchased
from Gene Bolton sales and that stuff purchased from GBS as far back as
about 18 months ago seemed to be far inferior to what they were offering a
couple of years ago.  The CAM issued a warning urging everyone to reconsider
the purchase of shafts for GBS.

I have spent a lot of time talking to GBS and more importantly to the
company that manufactures their rod (Tencom Ltd.) and the bottom line is
that their product is not intended to be strong.  It is intended to be
cheap.  I have tested three lots of shafts purchased from GBS and one lot
that I received directly from the quality control engineers at their
manufacturer and they were all what I would consider inferior rod.

It appears that by far the best fiberglass rod that you can buy is Extren
500 produced by the Strongwell Corp.  Strongwell has stocking warehouses
across the nation.  Here in Houston I buy the product from I.M Pena but they
will not ship.  You can basically tie Extren in a knot before it will break.

NorthStar Archery http://www.northstararchery.com sells cut to length combat
shafts from rod produced by Maclean Fogg.  It is also good fiberglass but
not as good as the Extren.

In addition to avoiding rod manufactured by GBS you should also for the time
being avoid ordering rod from MSC Direct.  An archer from Bryn Gwlad was
recently making some new combat bolts and while shooting the bolts against a
wall to seat the blunts he had several shafts shatter in a liner fashion.  I
am currently talking to MSC about their product.

As mentioned earlier tubular fiberglass arrows shafts that you can buy at
your local sporting goods store are not allowed.  However the solid
fiberglass fish arrows are allowed.  You really don't want to use the fish
arrows because they are larger than 0.25" and therefore much heavier and
they are about quadruple the price of other shafts.

Be careful if you try to use rod from bicycle safety flags.  I have yet to
find rod from these flags that was a full 0.25" in diameter.  Therefore not
only does it not meet our specs but it also wont seat securely in a Baldar
Blunt or in the 0.25" hole you drill in your homemade blunts.

 The month of May has kept me really busy with work and SCA in addition to
being ill  so I haven't done a lot more research in May.  I have materials
from several other suppliers lined up to do some comparison testing and
hopefully by the end of June we will have some sort of better guide that we
can offer.

If you want to read some more of my rambling thoughts and see some pictures
of some broken rod take a look at
http://www.baronbows.com/scafiles/shafts.htm

I already have some updates that I need to make to that page and as testing
proceeds there will be more information there.

Always in Service,

Lord Eadric Anstapa
Coastal Regional Archery Marshal, Ansteorra
eadric at scabrewer.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Catron" <meggiddo at netzero.net>
To: <ansteorra-archery at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2002 1:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra-archery] Since we are talking combat archery


When did a fiberglass shaft break? The only one that I am aware of is
the one that was used for demo purposes at Gulf Wars in between battles.
This demo involved attempting to bend the shaft into a 90 degree angle
and expected it re-bound to the original shape.

Michael of the Fray
Remember, we are always outnumbered!

Se Fray Stente Festa!


Timothy Rayburn wrote:
>
> >> Where might I get a steady supply of shafts to make crossbow bolts for
war?
> >> I have seen fiberglass shafted arrows at stores and assume that those
can be
> >> cut and made into war bolts but is there another source that I can buy
from?
>
> Generally commercial fiberglass arrows are hollow shafts, which are not
legal.  Ours must be solid fiberglass.
>
> >A much more economical source for fiberglass rod is Gene Bolton Sales.
> >They are actually a sign and flag company, but they these use fairly
> >large quantities of 1/4" fiberglass rod and will sell it for a decent
price.
>
> Gene Bolton has changed their suppliers recently, and the new fiberglass
they are selling is truly INFERIOR stuff.  I would strongly suggest speaking
with Eadric Anstapa about a different supplier.  Eadric is on this list, and
has been doing research of late for the Society Marshall for Combat Archery
on fiberglass shafts.
>
> Bolton's previous fiberglass used to be quite good, but in short they have
a new supplier which is using more filler and less resin and because of this
their shafts have been breaking in combat sometimes.  They certainly are
still a legal source, but I wouldn't suggest them as a good investment.
>
> Timothy of Glastinbury
> Graduate of Eadric's 'Combat Arrow Materials' class at AoB
>