Stain or Dye Carbons?

[eminart]

Is it possible to stain or dye carbon? I have some GT Traditionals and I'd like them to be darker. I can't really find any info on this. I'm not sure if they would be porous enough to hold any pigment. I have some leather dye. I may try a small speck on one and see what happens. Just curious if anyone has tried it.

[Zradix]

You'd have to put clear over it to keep whatever you use from wearing off.

are you wanting to keep the wood grain pattern?
..that might me a real trick.

[eminart]

Yeah, I'd like to keep the wood grain pattern, just make them darker. I just don't know if the carbon will hold any dye.

[Guru]

I've used leather dye to stain some carbon Express shafts that had the older "Buff-Tuff" finish on them.Stain actually absorbed into the finish. They went from camo to almost black with kind of a ghost camo if you looked close.

Not sure about the Gold Tip finish....

Give it a shot on a small spot and let us know how it goes....

[eminart]

Originally posted by Guru:


Give it a shot on a small spot and let us know how it goes....

I think I'll try it when I get home from work. I'm planning to wrap them anyway, so I'll just do a spot on the nock end of one and see what happens.

[KSdan]

I used India Ink on GT trads.  Went on beautifully showing the grain.  I then hit them with a light clear coat.  In fairness, I have not had much wear yet so I do not know how they will hold up.  

 

[eminart]

KSdan, Nice! What kind of clear coat did you use?

[old_goat2]

Yeah, what would a person use for clear that wouldn't crack with the flexing involved with an arrow.

[eminart]

Alright, fellas, I did a trial run, and it actually seems to work pretty well. I did a couple of test areas with some Fiebing's leather dye. After it dried, I scrubbed it with some dish detergent and water to see how well it would hold. A little of the color came off, but not a lot. I think with a clear coat of some kind, it would hold up pretty well.

Unfortunately, I only have a tiny bit of brown dye left. I think, instead of ordering more, I'm going to try some shoe polish and see how that does. It's cheap and readily available.

The only thing that worries me is that whatever I use for clear coat might take the dye off. And what do you guys recommend for the clear coat? I have some polyurethane for wood.


And before anyone asks why I don't just use woodies if I want my carbons to look like woodies, I probably will next year. But, as a new traditional shooter, I decided to limit some of the variables this year until I learn how to shoot.

[KSdan]

I just used some Krylon clear finish (used for art projects etc to seal and protect). Dries in 10 minutes.  I use it over my cresting too (I use testers acrylic for cresting).  I just use a light mist.  As I said above- I really do not have extensive use to give a fair assessment of wear. But it seems to work pretty good.  

Dan

[Redfeathers]

Where might one get some india Ink?
Thank you

Brent

[eminart]

You should be able to find India ink at art supply stores like hobby lobby or michael's. Traditionally, it was black, but apparently, it comes in other colors now.

[Jhawk]

I did not have good success with leather dye. It did darken it up a bit, but not wha I was hoping for. Also the dye came through the crown paint and had to use three coats of Kills to get the paint from turning yellow. I will go with the India ink as I saw KSdans arrow and they look sweet.

[wtpops]

I would try it without the clear coat, into some targets just to see how it works. You may only need to do a little shoe shine...i mean arrow shine every now and then and not worry about the clear coat.

[KSdan]

Here are the complete arrows.

ALSO- FYI.  The way I learned about India Ink and clear coat was from a very respected and known bowyer who told me you can touch up bows and entire limbs for various reasons simply with a touch of India Ink followed by a light shot of polyurethane or other clear coat.  

I tried it on both bow limbs and on these carbon shafts and it sure seemed to work.

And YES- India Ink is in many different colors at a place like Hobby Lobby, etc.  


 

 

[eminart]

Looks great Dan! Thanks for the tip. I actually just got back from Hobby Lobby with some india ink of my own. Like I said, the leather dye I tried seemed to work pretty well, but I'm about out of it. So, today I tried some shoe polish, which didn't seem to work well at all. I now have a test spot of india ink drying. Judging by your arrows, and the way it went on, I think it will work great. We'll all see how it holds up.

[Redfeathers]

Appreciate the info! Now to find some old arrows to do the testing on.

[eminart]

Update:

I wasn't happy with how the brown india ink turned out. The kind I had ended up more like a translucent paint that I could scrape off.

So, I am now trying an oil based wood stain. We'll see how this one goes.