Wood worked fine, fiberglass worked better, aluminum worked better, pultruded shafts worked better. Biased-wrapped carbon works better still also.
Could mostly go along with you until you went there, Pinwheel. With that, I' m in flat disagreement. Aluminum is still top dog. Yeah, it bends but I' ve got an arrow straightener! Carbons (the ones I can afford) come from the factory bent and ain' t nuthin' I can do to fix ' em.
Maybe I can do carbons like I do wood.... Since they' re bonded with thermoset resin maybe I can sit by the ol' campfire and straighten them with heat.