It's been 30+ years since I've made up a dozen wood arrows. My question is. Do you stain and seal the entire shaft before applying a crown dip or wrap ? Or, do you dip/wrap and then stain and seal from that point forward ? Thanks.
I use a primer and then paint on the crown dip end of the arrow and put stain on the remainder of the shaft. Then, I use poly coating on the arrow. I have read descriptions of numerous approaches to "painting" arrows, so there are obviously multiple ways to get the job done.
I would only stain to the point of your crown dip to keep the color bright. I like to clear dip the entire shaft , steel wool it, and then dip clear again before crown dipping. I use Fletch Lac. If you use a wrap that would be the last thing.
I've done it both ways. Really doesn't make a lot of difference. However, for the brightest crown dip, I don't stain that area. I stain the lower part of the arrow, then dip the stained area in clear fletch lac (2 coats). Then I dip the crown area in two coats of white (my preferred crown color). For a different crown color, I put one coat of white down first, then two coats of the top color.
I've also stained the entire arrow and then dipped like above as well. Really difficult to tell the difference in color. No difference in durability.
When I stained I dipped the cap end first in Fletch Lac white. Then other color like yellow. Once that dried I taped it off and stained. Never could understand why guys stained whole shaft then put on the cap paint. The paint is more than adequate for sealing the shaft. I also used Bohning stain so I wouldn't have a paint/stain mismatch issues. Then dip in clear. Then crest. Now days they sell little bottles clear sealer to protect the crest lines. It's waterbased. I found MinWax waterbased Polycrillic works as well for lot less money. I can protect the whole area not just the lines. In fact I used to dip the whole completed shaft in the poly.
These days I spray the cap, crest, seal in poly, and Tung oil the rest of shaft. Got away from Laq for a couple reasons.
I spray the crown first. When dry, I wipe on stain from the crown to the tip. Then I dip in Min Wax semi gloss polyurethane.
Deno