Anybody got a picture of some arrows with gray stain on them? Thinking of a new color theme for some arrows and want to include gray. Also were you purchased it at. Thanks for replies.Flint
Never tried it, never seen one (gray arrow finish)
I'd play around with whatever "clear" or neutral finish you normally use and add a few drops of india ink in it. Try out on some testing sticks or shafts before hand.
On my compound I made a custom grip out of bondo. Had to work fast but mixing india ink into the batch made for a very nice, very dark, matte gray. I imagine a few drops of ink would be all that's needed for a stain.
No pictures but have used the liquid water based gray stain from three rivers. Easy to use and looks good after you apply the finish over it. The bottle I got should be enough to do about 10,000 arrows. Maybe not that many but a lot.
3 rivers has greybark stain iirc.
used RIT dye ....tons of colors ...cover with clear coat, sorry no pics..Doug
When I was making custom arrows I got a nice gray by using Minwax Ebony that I thinned with mineral spirits. I stayed away from water based stains simply because it raised the grain on wood shafts, they would then have to be steel wooled to smooth them up and sometimes the process resulted in an uneven stain pattern. The water based stuff just cost me too much extra time and work. But if you are just doing them for yourself then the Rit dye in alcohol can work out well if you are careful.
You can get gray shades in Aniline Dye as well.
Again, no pictures, but I have done arrows in the past using black stain. Getting black actually takes quite a few coats, but by using just one or two coats with steel wool you will be left with a very nice grey color.