New batch of arrows on the rack

[LostHawg]

I'm having fun with my new house. This weekend I started working on another batch of POC arrows. Sanded 'em down and straightened on Saturday. I then Stained the main shaft with Fiebings leather dye. I mixed a bit of yellow and russet with turquoise to get an olive color (simular to the old green gamegetters, but lighter). For the crown, I used straight Fiebings black. My fade-away cap I used a mixture of red and russet to give a deep-dark red color. Looks good. Once the shafts dried to the touch, I cut to length and tapered the nock and point ends (usually done prior to staining). I hung them from the line and stained the nock tapers and let them hang over night.

Sunday, after throwing the urethane on the selfbow I inspected the shafts. Steelwool and clean-up and then a single dip in gasket lacquer. I let that hang from the line for about 6 hours. Now I used odds-n-ends and placed my primary crest color on the shaft. Red. Reds one of the tough colors to use in odds-n-ends. If you get it too thick, it'll split. Too thin and it's transparent. So, I put the red on and let harden a bit while still rotating on the jig. I then hung the shafts on the line again. Will complete cresting tonight with aluminum, green and black. Will be back tonight after this is done.

Anyone else working on arrows?

[Cull]

Sounds like they are looking good! I am going to try my hand at cresting on my next batch of carbons. Good luck!

[Linedawg]

Sounds like some fine arras there Tracey. You going to have them at the Chester shoot?

[LostHawg]

When I got home yesterday, after taking care of a few necessaries, I went back to the arrows. The red had set nicely. So far, they are just looking like sticks with red painted on them. That little hamster in my head starts to a'runnin on the wheel putting thoughts in motion.

I draw open my cresting paint drawer, hold my mouth a certain way and take a look. I've learned during this arrow building episode that MINERAL SPIRITS works great to keep the brush smooth and the paint thin enough to work evenly. This weekend I stopped by the local Wal-Mart and found for little tubs in the cooking ware department. Works great for holding a user's amount of mineral spirits. Just dip the tip of the Camel Hair brush in the mineral spirits, soak it out with a paper towel or mix it in with your paint (either works). You don't want the paint too thin. Well, I got the motor a'running and began the continuation of cresting.

First I laid a band of black paint down the middle of the primary crest and liked the looks of it. Well, for me, that wasn't enough so I put another smaller band up on the cap about midway between the nock taper and the crown fade. I repeated this throughout the 12 shafts and hung the arrer as I went. Looking at my watch and listening to my stomach told me that I needed to take another break. As the shafts hung, drying the black, the kids and I enjoyed a meal of Frito Pie!!!! :lol:

After eating, I took the shafts and put borders of aluminum on the primary crest and the black band of the primary crest. I then laid a line about 3 inches fore and aft of the primary crest. Hung them to set for a little while and put a generous coat of water based polyurethane to seal the crest. I'm gonna let that set for a day or so to get good and hard.

Hopefully, this time the lacquer won't bite through the urethane and damage my paint. My last two batches of arrows were rushed and I let my crest get wasted by the gasket lacquer. Shootability is what I require, looks is what I desire. They don't necessarily go hand in hand. :shock:

I'll try to post some pics before I dip. They don't look half bad.

[hogslayer]

Lost, A friend of mine who makes arrows, weighs them to get them uniform. You can get an inexpensive scale and other items from Jim Balyszak at www.traditional-archery-supply.com check him out he is a great guy!

The friend uses the lacquer coats to achieve uniform weight, sand to make lighter, urethane to make heaver...

[Linedawg]

Them are sounding to purty to shoot. You actually think about which color to use? I just reach in my little box and pull out a crayon! :) Save me some of those frito pies. That and a couple of adult beverages and I can clear a house! :shock:

[LostHawg]

The purdy'ns are the fun ones to bust. :!: :lol: :lol: :twisted:

Slayer, these are preweighed by a reliable source, a very reliable source. BUT, I do need a grain and spine scale and will check out your site. Thanks. I've been considering the ones Cabela's or 3Rivers carries.
http://www.3riversarchery.com,
http://www.clearforkarchery.com,

I get my shafts, points, and nocks from Clearfork generally and my feathers (Right Wing) from 3 Rivers. But, this last time I got the feathers off eBay and the points (145 grain) from Clearfork. I'm planning on tipping 3 with Howard Hill 160 grain broadheads and the remaining 9 with the 145 grain fieldpoints.

This is test season. I'm going to test the HH broadheads to see how they fly. Then, barring a perfect flight, I'll drop down to either 135 grain Zwickey Deltas or 130W grain Ribteks. If I drop to the zwickeys or ribteks, I'll also pull the 145 grain fieldpoints and install 125 grain fieldpoints. Just having fun mostly. :D

[Frontloader]

LH

Make it easy on this old man and show a pic of them arros. My head hurts from reading and trying to visualize all your hard work. :?

[biggen]

Where do you find the time Losthawg? I barely have time to shoot! Sounds like the arrows are looking good. But are they as good as Van's. :wink:

[LostHawg]

I'll show one. This is the only one you get till I'm done.

[LostHawg]

Aw heck, one more. Bad lighting, but, these are them.

[LostHawg]

I like to fade or bleed the caps. Don't know why, just do. Think it looks cool. :lol:

[Linedawg]

DANG TRACEY!!!! Them are purdy! :!:

I have not shot the Howard Hill heads but I have shot 160gr ribteks and they flew well. I never shot them at any game but just decided not to use them. I still have one pack you are welcome to. Email or pm me your snail mail addy and I'll send them to you. Lately I've been shooting the Wensel Woodsmans. I have taken two hogs with these and they did great. I would like to weight them up a bit though. Let us know how the testing goes. Remember, with the change in weight there may be a change in spine.

[Cull]

Those are looking great!

[LostHawg]

Note the board in the background of my second picture. Gonna have to flip it over. Thats what I test my colors on. :D It's also marked for my arrow lengths.

I took the added point weight into consideration. Trying to find the perfect flying arrow. The 135s and 130s do good, but I think I can do better. I've still got a half dozen of each broadheads; 130W ribtek, 135 zwickey, and 160 Howard Hill. I may try to find me some 145 Magnus or Ribtek and see how they do also. But, I'm well set for broadheads, more or less. Oh yeah, and I've got 4 more zwickeys mounted, 3 130W ribteks mounted and 2 more 125 Magnus Journeyman. I keep curling the tips of the Magnus though, I think I have a bad batch. Hold onto your HHs Steve, you may decide to use them later.

Thanks for the compliments. One of the benefits of shooting traditional, you have a wide range of arrow material to work with. With the wood arrows, you even have more options as to how you want your bullets to look. I have fun with it. Then I go break them. :shock:

[Tomme]

Those look great.

So that's how you do it. I was wondering why I wasn't getting the results I wanted with the three cans of auto spray paint I was purchasing at Walmart, but I just figured that my hand wasn't steady enough.

[Linedawg]

When you get ready to brea... I mean shoot them start with a soft back stop! Those are some lookers. I may have to send you my shafts! :shock: :wink:

[LostHawg]

It'll be Friday before I fletch them. I have to run to Abilene tomorrow to close on my house up there. Will be glad to be done with it. We have a zero balance on any savings we had a year ago. :(

Gonna use Barred Red Banana cut feathers with maybe a natural barred cock feather. Red nocks. Not what I'll use for hunting, but, 3D season is coming up and all that visibility isn't such an issue. For hunting I'll be back to yellow. The arrow I got my buck with this year had black feathers, but, they were still visible as they were darker than the buckskin. Also, I had nearly no stain on the shaft and used white nocks. But, I prefer yellow feathers and yellow nocks for hunting. These red and black are for fun.

I did my second dip of lacquer today and low and behold the crests didn't run for a change. YIPPPPPEEEEEEE.

[LostHawg]

Was just surfing and noticed the prices for completed wood arrows have risen again. 80 bucks for a matched dozen. Wow.

[Linedawg]

There's you a new business venture! :D

[LostHawg]

I'd have to learn how to crest first.

Got 4 fletched. Won't use banana cut feathers again (unless I forget).

These arrows have received 3 gasket lacquer dips as well as two coats of water poly on the crests. The poly was used to prevent the crests from running during lacquer dips. Worked out great.

[Linedawg]

Why do you not want to use the banana fletch again? I just bought a banana chopper. I've used them once before and thought they did OK.

[LostHawg]

Well, I've seen banana cut on other arrows and they looked great. But, for some reason the cut doesn't seem to go with my crest/cap/crown pattern. I think if I didn't cap the shafts they may look okay, the way I bleed the cap, but I like to bleed the cap. Not sure, the arrows aren't finished yet, the jury is still out. Could be, and probably is, just because I've not used banana cut before. They just look different. Could be the color scheme I used too. Well, I suppose I shouldn't say never. One thing about the banana cut, you have to watched to make sure your helical alignment is correct. Easy enough to do.

I wouldn't throw my chopper out, if I had one. I just like the shield cut better. I'm thinking of trying the pope and young cut. I'll probably end up trying all the cuts eventually. I like to experiment. One cut I don't really care for is the high back parabolic. The standard profile parabolic looks good but the high back gives sort of a flu-flu appeal to the arrow.

Anyway, we'll see how they do when I put them in flight. The banana may turn in to a "Cinderella". Hope so.

[LostHawg]

Well, arrows are all fletched. Spent the day looking for my alc burner. Moving kinda got it hidden amongst all the JUNK. Well, like I said, got 'em all fletched. Stepped back and took a second look.


I think I'll keep them!!!!

They look a lot better than they were leading me to believe they'd look. Reckon I just had to get used to the nanner cut. Come Monday, I'll haul 'em to work with me and take a pic before the folks get to work. I open the building at 6 and folks start rolling in about 6:30.

Well, the barred red with a n'trl barred cock feather works purdy good. The crests are red, black and silver. The silver compliments the n'trl barred and the black and red the red barred feathers. Topping it off with a red nock and they turned out purdy good. Like I said, I'll have pics on here Monday.

Then, we'll see how they shoot...

[LostHawg]

For intermission purposes; The arrows on my hip, I used the black fletched for deer season. The Yellow and yellow barred I got the shafts from 3 Rivers and they, of course, didn't match the grain weight. But, they turned out okay despite the 85 grain spread in shaft weights. I really like the way the yellow ones turned out, lookwise. There were 3 that came out to 500 grains, 3 came out to 480, and the rest were spread out around those weights with the heaviest one being 545 and the lightest being 460 grains.

[LostHawg]

Okay, here's the finished product.

[LostHawg]

Whatcha think? I reckon, they surprised me, cuz I like 'em!!

[biggen]

Looks good Losthawg. How do they shoot? My arrows always go low to the left! :)

[LostHawg]

Well, taking the me factor out, they shoot great.

[LostHawg]

I was shooting for that digi-cam contest on tradgang.com. Sitting flat on my butt. The arrow glanced off the edge of the target and lost in a contest with a mesquite as to who belonged where. It slapped the tree midshaft and here's what you get. :lol: :lol: :oops:

[biggen]

Tracey, I know you really robinhooded that one!!

[Cull]

Those are great looking arrows. Congratulations on a job well done.

[Linedawg]

I agree with the others Tracey. Those are great looking arries! Now quit slapping trees and wives with them and they willl last a lot longer!

I probably would have called that a robbinhooded arrow. Just sounds better. It's always hard to see the first one go. :cry:

[LostHawg]

It would just be wrong for me to have an even dozen of matched arrows. :?

I tried the Howard Hills, no good. I still like the head and will try to figure out how best to use them. Mounted two with Zwickey Deltas... DRILL BITS!!! Dang, they flew purdy. Gonna have to lose the 145 fieldpoints too. Just a little too much FOC for the spine of the shafts and the poundage of the bow.

Thanks all.

Who's next?