I've been wanting to make some new traditional arrows for a while now. I picked up some beautiful Douglas fir shafts from the knocking point booth at OJAM a few weeks ago.
I've done a lot of reading and testing on how to go about making and finishing a traditional arrow.
The first thing I done was inspect and straighten the shafts then I cut them off to match my other arrows. I used the cut off pieces to test finishes and tapering tools. I also made a guinea pig dowel. That being said I have never done any of this process before. Besides straightening and fletching.
I spray painted the fletching end white after dying the shaft with green rit dye, which turned out mostly brown for some reason. But I liked the color on the test.
I borrowed a friend's cresting jig and made up a design I like. I crested all the shafts and the test dowel. I used sharpie markers. I will buy some paint for the next go around.
I made me an arrow dipper from some pvc. And dipped the shafts after waiting 24 hours for the marker to cure. They turned out nicely after 2 coats of poly acrylic in my dipper. I'm going to sand them lightly then put 2 more coats on.
It was raining this morning so I decided to dye some feathers. Which I have never done before. They turned out awesome! They were easy to do with kool-aid!
Here are a few pictures of my progress at the moment. I call them my Patriot missiles!
Patrick