Tung oil arrow finish

[the rifleman]

For those that use tung oil to finish wood arrows.:
How many coats?
Does Duco work well with it?
Do you crest first and/ or will tung oil smear-- what cresting paints?

[Orion]

I've soaked arrows in Watco oil, which I believe is a tung oil, sometimes under pressure, to increase the weight of my wood shafts.  

When under pressure, they bleed for at least a week afterward and I wipe them down daily.  If I just rub on the oil, I do about a half-dozen treatments with a day or so in-between and a couple more days before I attempt fletching.  

I sometimes crown dip at that point with Bohning lacquer and fletch with fletch tite.  I have used duco  to affix the feathers with no crown dip.  Works fine.  If you crest, crest after the tung oil is completely dry.

[M60gunner]

I use pure Tung oil but not in fletch area. I spray a cap, crest, then use MinWax Waterbased polycrillic to seal. Use NPV to glue feathers. I read about the Tung oil on another site from England. The man fletched first then applied Tung oil. He had issues fletching over oil but he failed to mention glue he used.
 
If your in a hurry forget the Tung oil. It takes at least a week to cure. I put on a coat, wait an hour, wipe off any excess, wipe on another coat and let set overnight. I do this three times. I skip one of the steps about steel wool between all coats.

The "pure Tung oil" can be had through "The Milk Paint Co." It is OK to ship and they have a website. I like it for a couple reasons, I don't get target residue on my arrows, I can add a coat anytime I feel the point ends need touch up or for areas of nicks on the shafts.

I use stained interior Watco oil, same stuff as the exterior, just stained and a little thinner. I wipe on two, or would that be wipe in, even coats.  I let it hang out in the sun and breeze for a time on the clothes line.   The stuff needs encouragement to dry in less than a few days. The last coat, the third, is wiped on leaner and with some pressure.  I use duco for  the nocks and feathers.  If the shafts start showing a little target wear, the finish holds up better than water based poly, a simple wipe down of the shaft will bring it back up to good coverage, but it will once again need a little encouragement via the sun and the breeze to dry in a day.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I use it most often, Formbys Tung oil blend. 5-6 coats wiped on the entire shaft. I use Duco for cement and have zero failures. I don't crest arrows. I do finish a lot of my bows with it and the pen I use to mark the bows doesn't run.

[frank bullitt]

Yes, agree with Pearl on this.
Gary Davis got me on to Formbys back in 1990.

Dip or wipe on. Tough, durable finish!
Arrows and bows!

[toddster]

Formbys Tung Oil Blend?

[PEARL DRUMS]

Yes. Its not pure tung oil. I believe it has some linseed oil and another oil in it. I haven't read the bottle in a long time. It takes a few hours to dry between coats.

[PEARL DRUMS]

You can always wipe a few coats of paste wax on if the shaft starts to show wear spots. I usually do anyhow just to make pulling them a breeze.

[Rob DiStefano]

there is tung oil and then there is tung oil.

REAL tung oil is to be avoided like the plague because it will never ever cure ... kinda like nitrocellulose lacquer.

most commercial "tung oil" is a hybrid blend with resins and dryers.  this includes min-wax tung oil, which i've used quite a bit in the distant past.  

i no longer use any form of tung oil because even the stuff that includes resins takes way too long to cure.  i'd much rather use a faster and harder curing substance, and my choice is min-wax wipe-on gloss polyu (for all manner of wood - arrows, bows, gun stocks, guitars, etc).

[slowbowjoe]

I've been using tung oil on my arrows for 4 or 5 years. usually three coats, but when I have the patience 4, maybe even 5, looks nice. Three coats has been reliably durable: as in arrows lost in the woods for a few seasons still in good shape.

Drying time is around a day, longer if in humid or stuffy surroundings. Duco works perfectly well with it. I do some simple cresting with a black sharpie and a silver "paint" pen; neither has run either between coats or on top of the final coat (when I forget to do it earlier!)

One of the main reasons I went to it is that it adds very little weight to a shaft, which may be good, bad, or not an issue at all, for you.

Like I mentioned Watco can get to be a real pain if one does not have the right conditions and then patience is still a requirement.  Like today warm and breezy, but humid and it is going to rain tonight and tomorrow. Not a good time for the Watco oil arrow finishing.  For wood that gets a lot of water exposure it is the best stuff out there, as in wood on canoes. Linseed oil mixed with turpentine is used to coat and on good wood canvas canoes like Stewart River canoes it is used as back coating as well.  A canoe will not rot in a life time of exposure once it is applied.  However, tongue oil can affect glue lines on bows. allso, tung oil and linseed oil rags can get really hot in an enclosed space like a trash can and start on fire.  I had a plastic trash outside, waiting for the trash truck to show up.  By the time the trash guy showed up they were smoking when they hit the truck.  I pointed it out to the trash man, he jumped out with a fire extinguisher and said 'no problem, it happens more often than most would think.'.

[SuperK]

Tru-oil works well on arrows and has proven to be durable.  It is a lot easier to work with than tung oil and Watco too.  I just dip my gloved finger in the bottle and spread it on the shaft.  The next day I lightly steel wool and put on another coat. I normally put on 3 coats.  I used to buy it at WallyWorld but they don't carry it anymore.  Getting hard for me to find around home.
I've been using wipe on Poly lately.  It works good too.  Just another option to consider...

[Rob DiStefano]

i want as hard and durable a finish coat on a wood arrow as i can get, with reasonable cost and curing time.  i've tried quite a few concoctions over the decades and the only two i'll use these days is min-wax wipe-on or tru-oil.

[the rifleman]

Thanks for the information.  I had had great success in the past with tung oil when building custom longrifles and smoothbores.  Sounds like the minwax poly is the way to go for arrows.

[Rob DiStefano]

tru-oil is excellent and better yet if the bottle is warmed up before using so as to increase its wetting out and lowered viscosity for grain filling.

the gloss version of min-wax wipe-on polyu is just a better quality than the satin version.  this is usually true of most finishes, including pigment paints.  a light buffing with 0000 steel wool turns the gloss into satin, if need be.  you want resin based only - avoid the water based type.

tru-oil is thicker and much more viscous than the mw wipe-on, and is a bit more amber.  either will offer a hard and durable finish that can cure in under an hour at 70F/50H.