Wood Arrow Questions

[RedStag5728]

Hey guys I am thinking about changing from carbon to wood arrows out of my longbow. But I have a few questions...

Ok to start off with, I am planning on at first purchasing some shafts from 3rivers and finishing them myself (tapering the nock and business end, staining, sealing, fletching and cresting myself). But I was wondering...

Do you guys prefer POC, Sitka Spruce or Douglas Fir?

At what stage do you guys normally crest? I mean do you stain the arrows first, then apply crestings (and do you use acrylic paint for cresting), then seal and fletch?

Also I am planning on using Minwax Wipe on Polyurethane for the seal so what types of glue would work best? Just so you know I use the Arizona Ez Fletcher.

Thanks,

Randy

[Craig]

I stain then clear, crest and clear again. I don't use a wipe on, but if you do make sure your cresting is dry so you don't wipe it off. I use testors model paints for cresting and dip my arrows in a product called zip guard. It's a water base poly and I only need 2 coates. I have been using this method for over 20 years.

[Tree Killer]

I prefer douglas fir shafts.  

I'll stain, crown, dip in poly twice with steel wool between dips.  

Then I crest with Krylon Short Cuts...and another dip of poly.

I use Duco cement for fletching and nocks.

Good luck and have fun!

[Bjorn]

Making woodies is a blast! If I were starting out today, it would be Doug Fir from Surewood-much of the good POC is a thing of the past. Most of my arrows just transport the BH to the animal, so I make them look good, and fly well, but no cresting-good cresting is a whole other art form. So I stain, dip twice and fletch.

[Gordon Jabben]

What Craig said.  All the woods mentioned can make good arrows.

[toehead]

I have never used Douglass but have had go luck with cedars from the nocking point and heavy hard wood shafts from Kevin Forrester ( I believe they are both sponsors here).  Also cedars from 3 rivers.  

I stain up to the cap line, then dip the cap.  Once cap is dried ( usually a coat of white base then 2-3 coats of color) I crest.  The last step I do is dip in poly over all of it.  

I do taper my nocks prior to dipping and staining however.  

Found duco works the best on the water based sealant.

[toehead]

Oh once more thing.  I used acrylic from Walmart for the longest time (water based) but the testors model paint from hobby lobby seems to flow a lot better and makes a neat line.  Also the poly doesn't make it run as long as its dry in my experience.

[RedStag5728]

Thanks everyone for the input! Yeah I saw the Testor's Hobby paint used for model cars and planes is this the paint you use Toehead?

[Surewood Steve]

I use Testor's for my cresting after I stain and put on two coats of clear on the shafts.  If you can get acrylic rather than enamel that goes on smoother.  Over the cresting I put on a water base clear coat so your cresting bands don't smear when shooting.  Fly shops sell a clear head coat for flies that works fine, remember water base.  Solvent base will ruin your finish.  I know I speak from experience.  If you want to try Doug Fir get a hold of me.  Steve

[toehead]

Thats it brotha!

[Fletcher]

No matter what you do with an arrow, it will never be better than the shaft it is made with, so if you want good arrows, start with good shafts.  POC is a fine arrow wood and good shafts are available, but IMO Rose City aren't. 3RA or Wapiti should be fine.  Sitka Spruce from Hildebrand is also good; lightweight and tough.  Douglas Fir has been my favorite arrow wood for many years and Surewood's premiums are the best wood shafts currently available, again, my opinion.

I will stain, dip clear twice, crown and crest if doing that, then a final clear.

Take your time and enjoy the journey.

[Ray Lyon]

Originally posted by Fletcher:
No matter what you do with an arrow, it will never be better than the shaft it is made with, so if you want good arrows, start with good shafts.  POC is a fine arrow wood and good shafts are available, but IMO Rose City aren't. 3RA or Wapiti should be fine.  Sitka Spruce from Hildebrand is also good; lightweight and tough.  Douglas Fir has been my favorite arrow wood for many years and Surewood's premiums are the best wood shafts currently available, again, my opinion.

I will stain, dip clear twice, crown and crest if doing that, then a final clear.

Take your time and enjoy the journey.

Other than I haven't tried Hildebrand shafting, the above quoted advice is real solid. I'd also personally get some shafts cut and tapered from Surewood so that all you need to worry about the first time is finish work.  You'll be less likely to be turned off by wood arrows on your first try that way.  Good wood shafting, built correctly and correctly spined for your bow are very accurate.  There is a tutorial in the how to section by by Tradgangs very own cyber administrator Rob DiStefano and it's extremely well done and has lot's of excellent pictures. Even if you don't follow the instructions, it'll be another viewpoint that will help your learning process.  If you go with Douglas Fir shafts, using a sanding disk type tapering tool or having it done for you is the way to go over the hand tools.  As noted elsewhere, the cut isn't clean on Douglas Fir like on cedar with the hand tapering tools.  I've done a lot of arrows on my own and it's an enjoyable journey. Sometimes I like to get stuff from the pro's all complete except the fletching and here's how that looks:

   

I'm not that good with my painting and cresting so it's a tradeout of not doing it yourself or having perfect lines (some guys have invested in professional quality jigs and cresters and can do this kind of work at home).  Anyway, good luck with your journey.

[Gator1]

Ray those look sweet

[Ray Lyon]

Thanks Gator. David Lawson at Wildneress arrows did the 'total spa' treatment on those shafts for me. I just had to fletch them and add points.

By the way, here's the link to Rob's how-to thread in the How to Resources forum towards the bottom of the main page. He does a nice job with tapering with a hand tool, but note in the first couple of pictures where he shows tapering Douglas Fir shafts how there's some 'chatter' to the shavings versus a smooth swipe that you would get with the same tool and cedar shafting.

  Rob\\'s making wood arrow tutorial

Randy,
 To answer your question on the glue over minwax poly, I've used Duco with great sucess.

[Craig]

It's funny when I read these arow building threads and see how many different ways we tell people how to build them, also the materials we use. So the bottom line is flip a coin and try the one that wins. They all will work fine if you use there materials. Don't switch up on some paints and clear it might not be compatible with each other. The whole thing is have fun with it.
Good Luck

[LittleBen]

I agree with craig. I think just go for whatever sounds good to you. If we were talking about painting and finishing a wooden table we'd realize all these ways are just as good. They're arrows but they're just piewces of wood.

I mulled over these different approaches for weeks before making my first set of woodies. I endeed up using minwax wipe on poly, and crqaft store acrylic paints. They're not ideal, coverage could be beter but it defiantely works .,.. no doubt there.

[RedStag5728]

That's the whole reason I posted, and is what I wanted, different views and different ways to do so that way I can pick out a method that suits my taste and the materials I have.

With the black and grey lines (the actual crestings) do you guys use a brush? or I've heard of some people using different colored and sized permanent markers or pens.