wood arrows????/

[3Feathers]

Wondering if you can glue on the nock before
staining/??New at this.Stained a couple shafts with a dark leather dye and can,t tell the way the grain goes.Don,t want to put the nock on wrong.

[cedar]

No reason why you couldn't nock first other than the fact that you would have to be more careful not to get stain on nock.  I like to stain the bare shaft to make sure I get it sealed good around where the base of the nock will be.  I mark the end of the shaft with magic marker where I want the nock to be located before I stain.  Then just place the nock according to my mark.

[bendbig]

What John49 said, just use a marker. Has worked for me for a long time.

[RAU]

I dont cut my nock tapers till I stain and seal, then i cut the tapers and im looking at bare wood and its real easy to see the end grain.

[JRY309]

When I make wood arrows,I'll cut a little V-notch at the point end for putting on the nock at the proper orientation.A V-notch will be there until I'm ready to cut and do the point taper.I used to mark it with a marker but that would sometimes disappear with the stain.

[Stumpkiller]

I mark them with my fingernail at the top of the taper (on the shaft body) before dipping.  The little groove shows up even with the thickness of the paint.  Then I just line up the nock index with the little groove.

[Bjorn]

You can glue the nocks on anytime. If you can't see the grain after staining it generally will show up after the first dip. I always mark mine with a sharpie anyway.

[cbCrow]

Since going to wood a couple of months ago I buy my shafts from Hildebrand already cut to length and tapered. I install the points and nocks and simply use painters tape over them then go ahead  stain and finish.

[Fletcher]

There is more than one way to skin a cat and the same goes with making arrows.  I glue the nocks on after the finish, but doing it before will work, too.  You could probably sand a spot down on the point end to find the grain or re-cut the taper just a bit to find it.

Oil base stains will bring out the rift grain in a shaft, whereas the dyes seem to color everything the same.