1 (edited by Moose 2017-11-25 01:30:06)

Topic: Alibow arrows

Looking to get some carbon alibow arrows, anyone have experience with them before?

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Re: Alibow arrows

Sorry, no, but maybe someone else has...

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3 (edited by geoarcher 2017-11-25 22:33:22)

Re: Alibow arrows

Yes but only the carbons. 

And they're ok for what they are.  You can get them at just about any length which is nice.  I'm not sure if its the sturdiest carbon but I've had Korean carbon arrows break at roughly the same rate so I guess if comparing other foreign market carbons they more or less hold up the same structurally.  Maybe a tad less well.  Goldtips are really my fav carbons but they won't make them at any length you desire.

Anyway, biggest point of critique would be the threading at the ends of the fletching.  Its a tad bulky and just not as skillfully done as say what you'd get from other arrow makers who do the same thing.  I don't use them for my Korean bows but have been pleased with how they perform with my AliBow and one of my Mariners.

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Re: Alibow arrows

geoarcher wrote:

Yes but only the carbons. 

And they're ok for what they are.  You can get them at just about any length which is nice.  I'm not sure if its the sturdiest carbon but I've had Korean carbon arrows break at roughly the same rate so I guess if comparing other foreign market carbons they more or less hold up the same structurally.  Maybe a tad less well.  Goldtips are really my fav carbons but they won't make them at any length you desire.

Anyway, biggest point of critique would be the threading at the ends of the fletching.  Its a tad bulky and just not as skillfully done as say what you'd get from other arrow makers who do the same thing.  I don't use them for my Korean bows but have been pleased with how they perform with my AliBow and one of my Mariners.

Thanks, would I be able to take that threading off easily and do it myself? Or is it glued down enough to ruin the fletching?
 
Im currently using uncut goldtips but theyre only come to 33 inches, which i can make work but am underdrawing by about half an inch. I looked for longer tips but theyre also much heavier, might be an option once i start upping my poundage but i think its just better to look for something that will work for me.
 
Also i figured theyd be worse quality wise as, theyre half the price of goldtips.
 
Do you have an alternative longer carbon arrow that I should buy instead of alibow ones? And why dont you use them on your korean bow?

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5 (edited by geoarcher 2017-11-27 01:56:01)

Re: Alibow arrows

Yeah I hear you about over-drawing....

To answer your questions:

-I think you could get the threading off.

-Not really...problem of overdrawing persists in Kyudo as well but you can buy aluminum Kyudo arrows from Sambu-Kyuguten up to 110 cm at a set of 6 for like 120 USD.  But that's not including shipping.  Also you'd have to modify the nocks for a Korean bow.  And the funny thing there is all they are are Easton aluminum shafts but Easton will only sell them to the Japanese arrow makers at 110cm since they buy them in bulk.  Not sure if the rest of us could even get Easton to sell to us individually in bulk.  Someone in my dojo is looking into that but I don't know how that is going.  You could always get a hold of Easton yourself but be prepared to buy in bulk which could be like 500 shafts for all I know.  I went through this awhile ago myself and gave up but this is the only other path I know of to address the issue.

-l didn't have them made for my Korean bow which is of a much higher draw weight and since that bow is so powerful and the Alibow arrows so weak I have declined to shoot them that way.

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Re: Alibow arrows

geoarcher wrote:

Yeah I hear you about over-drawing....

To answer your questions:

-I think you could get the threading off.

-Not really...problem of overdrawing persists in Kyudo as well but you can buy aluminum Kyudo arrows from Sambu-Kyuguten up to 110 cm at a set of 6 for like 120 USD.  But that's not including shipping.  Also you'd have to modify the nocks for a Korean bow.  And the funny thing there is all they are are Easton aluminum shafts but Easton will only sell them to the Japanese arrow makers at 110cm since they buy them in bulk.  Not sure if the rest of us could even get Easton to sell to us individually in bulk.  Someone in my dojo is looking into that but I don't know how that is going.  You could always get a hold of Easton yourself but be prepared to buy in bulk which could be like 500 shafts for all I know.  I went through this awhile ago myself and gave up but this is the only other path I know of to address the issue.

-l didn't have them made for my Korean bow which is of a much higher draw weight and since that bow is so powerful and the Alibow arrows so weak I have declined to shoot them that way.

Hm i might give them a shot. I shoot indoors with a fairly light bow. I dont really want to shoot aluminum shafts, theres a kyudo club here, ill go and see what theyre shooting maybe ill find out more for you.

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Re: Alibow arrows

I have experience with Alibow, but only bows, not their arrows.
The price, at least, seems reasonable attractive.
You most probably get target shafts, not cross-wound 3D/field shafts (which would be heavier, more expensive, but more robust).
That would be fine for indoor, got some cheap Avalon Tyro arrows (4,- Euro each) for my daughter last year, and almost no loss up to now with less than 20#.
I'd be interested to hear how they can muster shafts of 38" length (95cm), as promised on their page.

I'm shooting Easton Inspire 500 (32" long) with bows ranging from 25# to 40#.
However, my draw length hardly exceeds 31".

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Re: Alibow arrows

Perhaps we sort of missed the most important question which is: what is your application, or what drew you to the alibow arrows? Last I looked at them they were neither cheap enough to be considered cheap arrows (60$ a dozen) nor expensive enough to pass for "good arrows." As a result I passed them over. What interests you about them matters though, as it'll affect what/why they would or wouldn't be a good purchase if that makes sense.

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9 (edited by Moose 2017-11-29 05:59:31)

Re: Alibow arrows

CTR wrote:

Perhaps we sort of missed the most important question which is: what is your application, or what drew you to the alibow arrows? Last I looked at them they were neither cheap enough to be considered cheap arrows (60$ a dozen) nor expensive enough to pass for "good arrows." As a result I passed them over. What interests you about them matters though, as it'll affect what/why they would or wouldn't be a good purchase if that makes sense.

Honestly its the aesthetic, i like the fletchlings ive seen and since wood/bamboo arrows are banned at my club. So having arrows that are proper length, and look authentic with the bamboo design is appealing.
 
I shoot gold tip 400s which run quite a bit more. I think i spent $120 cad for 6? As you said these arrows are not cheap or expensive, so it has me a bit weary. Thats why im looking to see if anyones shot them. Seems no one is willing to take a risk on them though haha.

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10

Re: Alibow arrows

Natural arrows banned at your club? SAVAGES! tongue

I've seen several people who run in Manchu circles who have purchased them because, if you can't make your own arrows, there are precious few ready-made options for Manchu bows. None appear to be ecstatic nor feel like they were ripped off. If you wanted more information, that'd be where I'd go to ask if I were you.

Hope that helps.

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Re: Alibow arrows

CTR wrote:

Natural arrows banned at your club? SAVAGES! tongue

I've seen several people who run in Manchu circles who have purchased them because, if you can't make your own arrows, there are precious few ready-made options for Manchu bows. None appear to be ecstatic nor feel like they were ripped off. If you wanted more information, that'd be where I'd go to ask if I were you.

Hope that helps.

Apperantly a lot of bamboo arrows from kyudo were splintering or something into the targets, so they banned them.

Thanks for your help. I think ill take the risk on the alibow ones!

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Re: Alibow arrows

In my club, wood arrows are also not allowed for FITA targets. If anyone cares is another question ...
For the 3D training area, wood and bamboo are certainly allowed.
And for 3D competitions, carbon arrows are not allowed for the primitive/horse/longbow classes, i.e. wood or bamboo are mandatory.

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Re: Alibow arrows

ragnar wrote:

In my club, wood arrows are also not allowed for FITA targets. If anyone cares is another question ...
For the 3D training area, wood and bamboo are certainly allowed.
And for 3D competitions, carbon arrows are not allowed for the primitive/horse/longbow classes, i.e. wood or bamboo are mandatory.

People care here. My club is poor as hell so they're pretty strict on making sure equipment stays in tact for as long as possible.



Anyways, after a month I finally got my arrows. Shipping put them up from $60 CAD arrows to $100 CAD arrows. I'll post some high quality pictures later as I'm sure someone somewhere at sometime will be curious about them.

My first impressions, they look gorgeous, the designs are painted on, the carbon definitely feels cheaper than my gold tips. The arrow heads on these are a weird shape that makes it quite hard to pull them out of a standard target, but thankfully they're threaded the same as every other standard arrow head you can buy in north america, so swapping them out is very easy.

The nocks are not glued in at all, all are just pressure fit inside, says the inner diameter is 6.2mm. I highly suggest swapping the nocks out as they're cheap and have very sharp mold lines left..

As GeoArcher said the threading on top of the fletching is kind of bulky. Ontop of that some of them are quite lazily put on the bow. It also seems they put a layer of glue overtop of it which makes whatever material they used very rough. The ends of the fletchings are very hard due to the glue they used on the edges and cut clean through a thin leather glove, and chewed up the leather guard on my hwarang i believe they used too much glue going up the fletching instead of using it just on the tip and then protecting that tip with the string wrapping they use. Seems like they could definitely do better there.

Aesthetically they are very pleasing though. I'll be wet sanding their logos and arrow specs off as well as fixing the fletching by shaving the ends down a bit and then redoing the string with some green, blue, or red silk thread with the purpose of cleaning up the transition from the shaft to fletching, as well as changing the tip and nocks. Also as much as I like the way the fletching looks, nocking and drawing starts to pose a problem because the fletching reaches all the way past the bow due to the korean low brace height. I'll probably be rectifying this when I fix everything else.

Next time I'll probably just see if I can buy the shafts alone if they'd be willing to sell me them at a discounted price if i buy them in bulk.

Again it took me a month to get them, overall not too impressed with quality, but that is kind of what I expected. As I stated elsewhere, I just really like the aesthetic.

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14 (edited by geoarcher 2017-12-30 19:18:04)

Re: Alibow arrows

Ha, I initially thought you wanted them to resolve an arrow length issue.  That's actually what drew me to them initially.  Though I think they look kinda cool too especially their more rounded cut fletching. 

Yeah that threading job they do at the fletching ends is abysmal.  Probably the worst you'll find among a professional arrow maker. 

Sadly enough, after buying an Alibow, but also seeing some others people ended up with, I trust their arrows more than their bows.

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Re: Alibow arrows

geoarcher wrote:

Ha, I initially thought you wanted them to resolve an arrow length issue.  That's actually what drew me to them initially.  Though I think they look kinda cool too especially their more rounded cut fletching. 

Yeah that threading job they do at the fletching ends is abysmal.  Probably the worst you'll find among a professional arrow maker. 

Sadly enough, after buying an Alibow, but also seeing some others people ended up with, I trust their arrows more than their bows.

That was the issue, what lead me to alibow arrows is the fact that they're carbon and look like bamboo, however i'm sure i could use 33 inch uncut goldtip with longer points and scour online for longer nocks to get somewhere around 33 1/2".

I'm sorry to hear that, mine actually don't have the back end of the fletching wrapped, but yeah i don't think they're anything more than aesthetic, they're still using an adhesive overtop of it and then have still also glued the fletching down so you really feel this hard knob underneath this sand papery threading, its quite silly. That said I've been shooting with my nocking point about 2/3 an inch below it should be and have punished my hands because of it.

We will see how these arrows do with my 40 lb smg, if they do alright I wouldn't mind sticking with them, just want to only buy shafts off of them, and if I can get them long enough for some of the kyudo club members then i could probably buy them in bulk for cheap. I think 95cm is enough for some of the smaller people, but I have no clue about Kyudo.

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16 (edited by geoarcher 2017-12-31 17:55:53)

Re: Alibow arrows

Come to think of it mine are only fletched at the one end although usually when an arrow maker does this both ends are wrapped...another unique quality to AliBow merchandise discovered.  Probably for the better anyway as then you'd have two lumps to deal with.

I just shoot them with my AliBow bow but also Mariner.  From chronographing and doing the relevant math, I learned that my Korean synthetics have great impact upon penetration so I've backed off from using the AliBow arrows with them.  I remember my SMG being a particularly hard hitter as well but never chronographed it before selling it so I wish you luck with your trial run. smile

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Re: Alibow arrows

And I planned to order arrows from Alibow with the next order ...
I could get shafts (bamboo and carbon) for about the same price her as a complete arrow from Alibow, but your reports about the quality make make me think.
BTW, I know at least one source of >33" carbon shafts - look here : https://www.nijora.de/carbonschaefte/to … ng-36-inch
It seems there is no english version of the website, though.
The shafts have a fairly good reputation here (Europe), and the owner is a quite successful archer himself.
I have no personal experience with his shafts, but for 34+ inches, there are not many alternatives.

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18 (edited by Moose 2018-03-03 06:07:58)

Re: Alibow arrows

After a couple months with them, im quite surprized.

Although the fletching quality isnt that great the carbon shafts work fine. Ive flung 33" 400 spine arrows off a 40lb bow with no problems.

As i stated the fletching wrapping and general put together of the arrow isnt great.

That said I asked if I could buy uncut shafts and the reply i got was "If you wish to have the bamboo pattern carbon shafts, it will start at $28 for 6 shafts" And at $4.60 a shaft I have no complaints.

Now I just need to find good feathers that I like!

ragnar wrote:

And I planned to order arrows from Alibow with the next order ...
I could get shafts (bamboo and carbon) for about the same price her as a complete arrow from Alibow, but your reports about the quality make make me think.
BTW, I know at least one source of >33" carbon shafts - look here : https://www.nijora.de/carbonschaefte/to … ng-36-inch
It seems there is no english version of the website, though.
The shafts have a fairly good reputation here (Europe), and the owner is a quite successful archer himself.
I have no personal experience with his shafts, but for 34+ inches, there are not many alternatives.

Awesome thanks. The main reason I went with the alibow ones is because of the pattern. Trying to keep the authentic look but abide by club rules.

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