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looking for input on galvanized shafts vs. stainless (riffe style) shafts

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

spot638

New Member
Jun 29, 2004
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I was just wondering what everyone out there had to say about this. I had a couple of shafts that I picked up in Tahiti that were tough, cheap, and worked well. I am pretty ignorant when it comes to knowing metals, but Iam pretty sure that they were galvanized because of their shiny almost chrome look. They actually handled way more abuse than my Riffe euro shaft did. even though they were 1/3 the price. I have another shaft(ghetto home made one) that I think is also galvanized for my other gun that has outlasted any of my other shafts. So the question is, ' why are are galvanized shafts cheaper?' What are the drawbacks of it? What are the best blanks to make shafts out of?
 
Rob allen is probably the best person to reply to this thread as he is probably the leading exponent of non stainless shafts in the world.but in his absence : people use stainless because it doesn't rust.This doesn't make it the best choice for everyone, because other materials such a spring steel may perform better.
the drawback is that spring steel rusts and needs maintenance , whereas stainless stays nice and shiny. Stainless in 17-4PH is widely thought of as the best material to make shafts from at the present time. however galv or electroplated spring steel is probably stronger and much cheaper to buy.
Blanks? I am not sure what you mean.
 
I AGGREE WITH THE ROB ALLEN THEORY. I THINK THAT THE LARGER SPEARGUN MANUFACTURERS JUST DON'T WANT DIVERS TO KNOW THAT SOMETHING SO SIMPLE AND CHEAP WILL WORK BEST. THEY WANT US TO KEEP BUYING THEIR GROSSELY OVERPRICED CRAP. THE PROFIT MARGIN THAT THESE COMPANIES MAKE OFF OF US MUST BE OUT OF CONTROLL. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
 
Hi SPOT638,

We use a very high grade spring steel. It is not readily available (off the shelf) as it is especially made for us. We purchase 4 tons at a time.

The hardness is 52RC and the tensile is 1950MPA.

Good luck in finding some,

Rob Allen.
 
'shiny, almost chrome look'....

Sounds like stainless steel to me....

I had a galvanised shaft on my Omer once - it blunted and bent very easily and it was very flexible.
 
Little off topic but, Rob allen would you ever consider making a small calibre shaft 6mm ?I was using 6.5 mm on a stock Picasso with 20mm bands and changed to a 6mm seatec with 16mm bands it is deadly, reminds me of using a blowpipe!
have you ever tried making small dia shafts?
 
Hi Huan,

Yes we are looking at a 6,3mm. We presently use 6,6mm, 7mm and 7,5mm.

Rob.
 
If anyone ever wants to know what kind of metal a shaft or any other metal part is really made of, send it postage paid both ways to me in Corpus Christi, TX, and I will walk out of my office and hook a Positive Metal Identification machine to it. I work for a metal inspection company. I’m the controller, so I don’t know that much about it, but I have access to high-tech high-dollar equipment and the people who know how to use it.
don ;)
 
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by the way, anyone knows what is the cressi shafts made of? They are hard as nail and deserves the adjective "ROCK PROOF"
If you want 6mm readily avilable go and get one you will not dissappoint.
 
I haven't seen nonstainless spring steel shafts in ages, but, when they were available, they were MUCH better than stainless spring steel, besides being cheaper. Ours were cadnium plated and soon rusted like crazy. The rough rusty surface would wear the inside of our slings into an oblong in a year or so.

Connor
 
REPLYING TO WHAT BEN GOWLAND SAID,
I BOUGHT ONE OF THOSE OMER GALVANIZED SHAFTS BEFORE AND IT WAS A TOTAL PIECE OF CRAP. THE ONES THAT I MENTIONED IN THE ORIGINAL THREAD WERE DEFINITELY DIFFERENT.
 
HEY DONMOORE, I WOULD LIKE TO SEND YOU A PIECE OF ONE OF THOSE TAHITIAN SHAFTS. I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO SEE WHAT IT IS MADE OF. HOW CAN I GET THE MAILING ADDRESS?
 
hi;
I`m interested in making my own shafts, and probably in NONstainless steel;
so could any one tell me what kind of steel I could use (it doesn`t have to be the best steel possible, just any non stainless steel that can be used for shafts)
 
has anyone ever used titanium which is stiffer than most steels or one of the stiffer series of aluminum alloy (which, for those of you who feel compelled to dismiss the idea offhand, can be, inch for inch just as strong as steel) to make a spear shaft? perhaps on a big gun you wouldnt even want to shaft to be that light but on a small gun that seems desirable.
 
Actually I was thinking of going the other direction. That is making it heavier by using a hollow rod and filling it with lead or something. This is because it seems the shaft needs weight to counter the drag of the water. Iya did some tests with a Riffe MT-0 using up to 6 9/16” bands and different widths of shafts. When the gun was powered with several bands only the 3/8” shaft seemed to benefit from the extra bands. The extra bands had no power effect on the thinner shafts. From this we theorized that to use additional power in a short gun, you needed to make the shaft heaver (more mass). If you could increase the weight without increasing the diameter you could get a fast shaft with big punch.
Just theorizing,
don
 
Your on the money there mate heavy shafts hit harder however a shaft with a smaller diameter but more weight will travel further and hit harder than a bigger dia for same weight. There was an excellent test done on this by a Russian guy it was published in International Freediving and Spearfishing news about 3 issues ago. Mid to late 2004.
This guy used the same BIG pneumatic gun on sveral different power settings with a range of shafts and checked velocities and penetration lighter shafts lost velocity faster than heavy and got less peno but a shaft of the same weight only longer and smaller dia. was faster and better peno than a short fat shaft. The energy is mass x velocity but then you lose some throgh displacement of water and friction the thinner shaft is more hydrodynamic I guess thats why ships are long and thin not short.
This is where aluminium alloys or titanium is lacking.
Regards Peter
 
Very interesting Peter. Ideally I would like to get more weight in a small diameter, without increasing the length of the shaft so it would not hinder maneuverability. I did a quick Internet search and found a table of weights of various metals. There are several metals significantly heaver than steel. Many over twice as heavy. I wasn’t familiar with any of them. Wonder if any of them are cost effective, have a high tensile strength, and are corrosion resistant?
don
 
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Just at a guess I would say no nothing else will have better Hardness stiffness and 17/4 or 630 PH Stainless as Used by big name US spear copanies or a well coated high tensile spring steel spear as used by SA spear manufacturers,
Tungsten would be hard and heavy enough I guess but probably brittle and very expensive too I guess
 
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