Logs to shafts

Rose City Archery's wood cutting process is very involved and complicated.  We only utilize Port Orford Cedar Wood.  We start with logs and cut the wood into bolts with chain saws.  Then the bolts are brought into the mill and run through a series of saws.

   Creating big blocks,

then small blocks,

 (George & Vernon processing & inspecting wood)

  until they have been cut to thin slats.

 The boards are inspected for quality and sorted at each saw.  A considerable amount is discarded that  will not make quality arrow shafts, rejected slats and dowels are sold locally as firewood, garden stakes, kindling or ground into sawdust for oil, The sawdust is also collected into a vacuum system off the saws so that very little goes to waste, the oil is sold worldwide for it's insect repelling, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiseptic properties.

Smaller pieces that won't make standard blocks are processed through other saws to salvage any usable slats and squares that might make an arrow shaft, these slats are then molded individually through molder machines.

 The best quality slats and squares are then stacked and dried to eliminate moisture.   

  (Above, Dale operating the saw)( Below, racks in dryer)   

After drying, the slats are processed through molders to form wooden dowels.

 
The dowels are sorted and separated by quality and straightness.  A large percentage of dowels never make it to the next stage.

(Above, Kaleb sorting dowels) (Below, doweling area)    

Dowel Finishing Process

The dowels run through a series of doweling machines which is the process that determines the diameter of the shafts.

They start at the biggest diameter doweling machine and are inspected, the best quality dowels go to the grading room for further assessment and to be spined, the low quality dowels are run through smaller diameter doweling machines and inspected again, and either approved or processed through other smaller doweling machines.

Split, broken and unacceptable shafts are discarded at every step, leaving only the best quality arrow stock.

      (Above, MMH operating a dowel machine)                                                                                                                                       (Dale & MMH inspecting arrow shafts)
      (Below, The spine machine)

The arrow shafts that make it past the doweling process are already sorted by diameter and go to the grading room where they are run through the spine machine.  The spine machine uses a 2 pound weight with pressure in the center of the shaft to determine the strength, then separates the shafts into spine weights in increments of 5 pounds.

The shafts are then hand graded by spine weight to weed out the crooked shafts, split ends, bad grain, knots that may weaken a shaft, etc.  At this point the dowels are sorted into 4 categories per diameter and spine weight: premium shafts, garden stakes, a re-do bin and trash.

                                                                                                                                                           (Above, Cindy grading arrow shafts for top quality)

The premium arrows shafts are then stocked in bins for retail sales or boxed for shipment to our distributors through out the world.

     (Bins of Premium arrow shafts ready for packaging)                                                                                                                           (Boxes of premium arrows shafts ready for shipment)

Many of our shafts go to the finishing room to be completed arrows.  Please read the finishing page for more information on RCA Processing.