I'm messing around with wood arrows again . This time I'm looking to do more than some plaint sealed woodies .

I have a shaft fully painted cobalt blue, and another full length yellow .

Another day and they will be fully sealed up. I'm wondering who shoots shafts fully painted? How do they hold up with repeated shots into targets? So they get ugly quick or hold up well ?

I'm painting some rough shafts , I don't have hardware for them as they are 5/16 shafts so real world testing is out for me.

When I was a kid (way back when) I remember shooting fully painted shafts. Best I recall, they didn't take long to start wearing off the paint, but that was before the type of finishes we have today were used........and, those arrows weren't being babied as to the type of targets they were being shot into either. Haven't shot any fully painted shafting of late.  

Here is a yellow shaft I'm working on . 3 coats of poly

Here is a blue I'm trying

Certainly are pretty,..... and look "   ol' timey"  

I have made all white ones with Gasket lacquer and they didn't hold up well but yours look like they will do better.

The best luck I've had has been with gloss poly sealer that wasn't thinned more than 50%.

I have some fully painted shafts from Arrow Art and they seem to hold up pretty well.  I also remember and have some of my old arrows from the  early 50's that were fully  painted.  Haven't shot them in decades but the paint still looks acceptable.

I have some chocolate brown painted shafts with black and white fletching. They look pretty good and don't draw attention.

I think your poly is going to protect 'em pretty well Brian.  The poly may show some target burn in foam, but it shouldn't effect the paint.

Just make sure to get the grain right .For safety sake mark the top of each arrow. You never know!.  

They do get worn as you shoot 'em, but that's justan excuse to make.more. That blue would be stunning  with some barred turkey feathers.

I made some white ones years ago that still look pretty good, although you can tell they've been shot.

QuoteOriginally posted by Ironfist_Canada:
Just make sure to get the grain right .For safety sake mark the top of each arrow. You never know!.      

Agreed. I put a slight dimple in the wood at the index mark of my nock . With em painted you will lose the grain orientation   I bet the poly will do great protecting them

Well my kustom king order arrived , and in it was my deluxe taper tool and points so I'll get to cutting and tapering after my finish is all done!!

Did you know that you can get Fletch-Lac Gloss Lacquer in colors other than clear?  When I was shooting wood arrows, we used to dip our target and stumping shafts in yellow fletch-lac, because they showed up so well in the grass and leaves.

Should hold up good as long as the are sealed well.

It's all about what you use to overcoat the paint. As long as the finish hold up, so will the paint.

Been fully painting my wood shafts for years, using water based paints from Hobby Lobby. I always used gasket lacquer to seal. The last batch of gasket lacquer I've used has given me problems cracking after about a year.  But the paint always held up after lots of shooting.

Bow hawk,
Are you just wiping the hobby paint on the shaft?
That's how I did the blue and yellow. I just squeezed it onto a papertowel and twisted my shaft thru it to coat.

If you don't want to mess with paints or laquers you can get pretty good results with leather dyes for a LOT less effort and odor.

I use Fiebings Leather dye.

Blue & yellow

 

 

Red


MinWax poly over the dye to seal it.  Fletch with Duco or Bohning tape.

Brian, I usually brush it on. Takes a little longer to do, but the majority of my arrow making is in the winter time, so no need to hurry.