One thing (I got many) that I have not done as soon as I should - is to let folks know how great the sponsors are that I have dealt with here on Trad Gang. Well, I'm gonna start with Matt Gundock (Magnus here on Trad Gang).
A while back I was offered a deal I couldn't refuse on some footed shafts a guy had that he attempted to make into complete arrows. He gave up at some point - and by looking at them when I got them I knew why! - He did about as well with them as I would have...
Here's what they looked like when I got them (in this case the pictures make them look better than they really were...
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I decided that I'd like to see these arrows looking like they could if somebody with some talent got ahold of them. I contacted Matt (magnus) and asked him if he'd be willing to refinish these arrows - I also sent him a picture of what I wanted them to end up like.
Matt was very honest with me - he had alot going on as he had recently purchased stringstretcher's feather grinding business and was actually leaving on a several day trip to go pick the equipment up. He said to send them over and he'd do what he could.
It turns out (common sense should have told me this) that refinishing arrows is at least as much work as starting from scratch, what with stripping off all the old paint and sealer before he could even get started.
Matt was never anything but honest and very forthcoming about what my arrows would take to get where I wanted them to be - he stayed in touch with me regularly to let me know where he was at - I have had bowyers who did not come close to Matt's level of service and the amount of money involved was much larger in those cases!
The best part of all this was making another great friend through Trad Gang! Here are the finished arrows with my 1962 55lb Bear Kodiak:
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Now I just have to get going with all the other great Trad Gang sponsors I've dealt with....