Have you ever left a set of shafts completely unstained for better visibility of the arrow" I sometimes stain arrows leaving the last 9- 10 inches unstained. Especially white colored wood like POC or hickory and ash. Like a natural crown.

yes. Almost never use stain.

Sometimes i stain the whole shaft, half of it or enough to look like its been dipped and sometimes none at all.

Sometimes i stain the whole shaft, half of it or enough to look like its been dipped and sometimes none at all.

I've left the whole shaft unstained. But I have never left just the crown unstained.

I never stain or paint or crest shafts

Phil, that's interesting. What do you use for sealer?

I make them all different. Depends on fletch color and season but all are dipped in Min Wax poly.

Deno

I do not stain my own cedar arrows when I seal them with plastic finishes. I do stain them when I use stained, blond something, Watco Oil. Watco oil makes a good arrow finish, but don't do it. It takes a week of dry, warm and breezy conditions to get it to dry with three wipe on coats. I have about a quart left, i am using on everything around here just to get rid of it.

ny yankee

I give my bare wooden shafts one, sometimes two coats of PU varnish ... that's it

I haven’t stained any shafts in a long time. Now days I use Pure Tung Oil to seal. About 3 coats. I used to stain when I dippedover with Fletch Laq clear or used polyurethane. But both of those finishes attracted stuff from the bales or targets so I stopped using them and staining.

I often don't stain by wife's, daughters', and sometimes grandkids. They lose them faster than I can make them. To make up for my convoluted thinking, and being somewhat OCD, if I make single or double tapers on MY shafts, I stain the tapers osage and the mid section walnut. It does make it easier to ID them when shooting with parallels.

OkieJ has it, leather dye, you will never go back to stain.

Nice arrows I like a stained shaft and a cap/crest Im also thinking about getting a flame crester

I sometimes leave the crown alone

I just stained a dozen using Provincial by Minwax. Light brown, really "pops" the grain. Three coats of semi-gloss poly. I'll crown dip white w/white nocks and feathers. Should be able to see those.

beautiful arrows M60gunner ... love the colour scheme

Minwax makes a poly color called Honey Pine and it real makes the ceders have a golden hue

The lighter colored arrows are bare shafts with just the Honey pine,,and the darker color is a cherry stain,creasted then finished with 2 coats of hiney pine

Theres also a minwax color i use,,Royal mape,,,the banana fletched arrows are this color on bare maple shafts

Been making quite a few for people with the stain fading about the crest and leaving the crown natural wood. Seems to be popular.

I finish with wipe on poly, but beyond maybe doing a crown, I like the wood shaft like it is.

-Bones

Great pics of arrows guys!!

These were POC shafts from the mid 80s I had lying around. Red leather dye and natural crown.

I liked powdered rit dye with denatured alcohol, but the powder version is getting harder to find anymore. The newer liquid rit is all but worthless for staining wood.

Been using Fiebings dye too for years, which is excellent, but the powdered rit is easier to do nicer blends with. The leather dye penetrates and stays there too good for smooth blending.

Used to use gasket lacquer years ago to finish my arrows, but it only makes sense when doing a lot of arrows at a time and often. These days I usually only build 4-6 arrows at a time as I need them and wipe on poly is easy enough, inexpensive and very durable. Never had a problem with poly over rit or leather dye either. Can't say the same with G/L...

I like Minwax with Surewood Douglas fir shafts. You get a good contrast in the grain when you sand before sealing. Been doing this quite awhile.

Snag, your work is always tasteful and appealing.

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