Is it possible to stain or dye carbon? I have some GT Traditionals and I'd like them to be darker. I can't really find any info on this. I'm not sure if they would be porous enough to hold any pigment. I have some leather dye. I may try a small speck on one and see what happens. Just curious if anyone has tried it.

You'd have to put clear over it to keep whatever you use from wearing off.

are you wanting to keep the wood grain pattern?
..that might me a real trick.

Yeah, I'd like to keep the wood grain pattern, just make them darker. I just don't know if the carbon will hold any dye.

I've used leather dye to stain some carbon Express shafts that had the older "Buff-Tuff" finish on them.Stain actually absorbed into the finish. They went from camo to almost black with kind of a ghost camo if you looked close.

Not sure about the Gold Tip finish....

Give it a shot on a small spot and let us know how it goes....

QuoteOriginally posted by Guru:


Give it a shot on a small spot and let us know how it goes....

I think I'll try it when I get home from work. I'm planning to wrap them anyway, so I'll just do a spot on the nock end of one and see what happens.

I used India Ink on GT trads.  Went on beautifully showing the grain.  I then hit them with a light clear coat.  In fairness, I have not had much wear yet so I do not know how they will hold up.  

KSdan, Nice! What kind of clear coat did you use?

Yeah, what would a person use for clear that wouldn't crack with the flexing involved with an arrow.

Alright, fellas, I did a trial run, and it actually seems to work pretty well. I did a couple of test areas with some Fiebing's leather dye. After it dried, I scrubbed it with some dish detergent and water to see how well it would hold. A little of the color came off, but not a lot. I think with a clear coat of some kind, it would hold up pretty well.

Unfortunately, I only have a tiny bit of brown dye left. I think, instead of ordering more, I'm going to try some shoe polish and see how that does. It's cheap and readily available.

The only thing that worries me is that whatever I use for clear coat might take the dye off. And what do you guys recommend for the clear coat? I have some polyurethane for wood.


And before anyone asks why I don't just use woodies if I want my carbons to look like woodies, I probably will next year. But, as a new traditional shooter, I decided to limit some of the variables this year until I learn how to shoot.

I just used some Krylon clear finish (used for art projects etc to seal and protect). Dries in 10 minutes.  I use it over my cresting too (I use testers acrylic for cresting).  I just use a light mist.  As I said above- I really do not have extensive use to give a fair assessment of wear. But it seems to work pretty good.  

Dan

Where might one get some india Ink?
Thank you

Brent

You should be able to find India ink at art supply stores like hobby lobby or michael's. Traditionally, it was black, but apparently, it comes in other colors now.

I did not have good success with leather dye. It did darken it up a bit, but not wha I was hoping for. Also the dye came through the crown paint and had to use three coats of Kills to get the paint from turning yellow. I will go with the India ink as I saw KSdans arrow and they look sweet.

I would try it without the clear coat, into some targets just to see how it works. You may only need to do a little shoe shine...i mean arrow shine every now and then and not worry about the clear coat.

Here are the complete arrows.

ALSO- FYI.  The way I learned about India Ink and clear coat was from a very respected and known bowyer who told me you can touch up bows and entire limbs for various reasons simply with a touch of India Ink followed by a light shot of polyurethane or other clear coat.  

I tried it on both bow limbs and on these carbon shafts and it sure seemed to work.

And YES- India Ink is in many different colors at a place like Hobby Lobby, etc.  

Looks great Dan! Thanks for the tip. I actually just got back from Hobby Lobby with some india ink of my own. Like I said, the leather dye I tried seemed to work pretty well, but I'm about out of it. So, today I tried some shoe polish, which didn't seem to work well at all. I now have a test spot of india ink drying. Judging by your arrows, and the way it went on, I think it will work great. We'll all see how it holds up.

Appreciate the info! Now to find some old arrows to do the testing on.

Update:

I wasn't happy with how the brown india ink turned out. The kind I had ended up more like a translucent paint that I could scrape off.

So, I am now trying an oil based wood stain. We'll see how this one goes.