I paid extra money to taper the nock end of an arrow yet tradition says we crown and crest it.    
Would not it make sense to leave the paint off that end and put it in the middle of the arrow?
 :p  

Paul

no paul. when we crown the rear of the arrow, it is because we are doing it to help us track it in flight. and the rear portion is the most visible to us in flight. and the cresting just is the icing on the cake.

Halsey,
Sure.Bright fletch will help with flight tracking but whats the point of tapering an arrow to fill it back up with paint?

Paul

I agree with you Legolas;  stain the fletching end a light color but no more paint.

I've done it both ways. I've crowned the end of arrows and I've also left the last 9 inches unstained. I did cover it with polyurethane (profin) It made no real differene other than personal prefence.

I don't believe that the crown dip is thick enough to replace the wood that was lost during the tapering process.

right on night hawk. unless your putting an unimaginable amount of fletch lac, like a whole pint on an arrow, your not filling in anything with paint.

I believe the purpose was to make it your arrow.  It makes it pretty, and it designates the owner, from many steps away.

I also think that, like everythig else human, having something special or flashy is a show of importance or wealth or simply being special, so the more ornate the arrow, the more you look wealthy to me.  

I think that when cresting and cap dipping began, folks weren't too worried about tapering.   I don't personally see my cap dipping while the arrow is in flight, but I can most certainly see the difference between 5" regular fletch and 5.5" high back fletch while in flight, especially white and red or yellow fletch.
ChuckC

Paul:
When you taper an arrow, say 23/64" down to 5/16" your going from .362 to .312 that's .050, paint will only add .002-.003 to the dia.
Bob

Or you could just use dye as a crown.

I'm with Chuck! Hap

Why? Because it so cool to see a white crown change to red from your treesstand. Immediately kills all doubt.   :D

You should not be able to see the crown colors when the arrow is in flight if it is well tuned. Only thing I see is the nock and the back of the fletching up to its highest point. Crowning is purely aesthetic. I love it cause I like pretty arrows. I would however, think that foregoing the crowning should help a tapered arrow better achieve its purpose.

I put a single line around my shafts.
It's an instant check on my brace hight.

Mr. Bob Burton of Wispering Arrow,
Crystal clear. Numbers always helps.
Paul

I'm with Dan...nothing shows red like white!

White tails on arrows make 'em easier to find in the grass. Does nothing good in snow though. Ease of locating is the only reason I use white on my arrows.

I doubt that paint would make a noticable difference, and Bob's numbers bear that out.  I use stain for most of my wood arrows anyway, not because I'm worried about the thickness of the paint, but just because I like the way it looks.

Adds a tremendous mount of MO-JO.

Crowning was originally to make cresting more visible and thus allow identification of an arrows owner.

I do it now because, well, it jsut looks entirely too cool not to !

Jeff:
Actually, crowning was originally done to keep the feathers in place on the arrow shaft. Back when, animal glue was used to fletch arrows, which is not water resistant. So after the arrow was fletched, the shaft was painted with a brush, even the feather quill was painted to protect the glue. I have many arrows in my collection that were made in 20's and earlier that were treated in that manner.
Bob