I plan on sealing some shafts with spar varnish.  Should a crown dip (oil based) go OVER the varnish or should I crown dip (white) THEN seal with the varnish?  Maybe I should even seal, dip, then seal again?  All my past experience has been with water-based polyurethane and no crown dipping.

I always dip or stain the crown then seal with spar.

Thanks Eric.

I forgot to mention cresting. I like the seal over the cresting as well, keeps it from wearing when it crosses the arrow rest.

Eric, have you ever done an arrow build along?  I'm sure, I'm not the only newbie who could learn a thing or two from a pro!

I am in the process of doing an arrow buildalong... the blind leading the blind.  My first effort at making arrows.   I sealed under... two coats rub on poly...  then dipped... just finished posting the section on cresting yesterday.  I plan to put on two more layers of poly over the paint.

I'm posting each session of work in "Dick Makes Arrows" on the Howard Hill Shooters web site.   I've also sent notices to the lists when I post a new section.  You can see the whole operation, from setting up the workbench to where I am now on the thread "Follow That Arrow"

Here is a direct link:

http://www.howardhillshooters.com/arrowmaking/arrowmaking.html

This sure isn't a chance to "learn a thing or two from a pro", but you can watch a beginner make his mistakes and then avoid them yourself  :^)

dick

I always seal first with one stain (if I'm a staining) then 2 or 3 coats of poly over. Then crownn, etc. I think most do it this way.
I personally like a plain stained shaft with maybe alil cresting.

I almost dipped the whole arrow!   The most important purpose of arrow color for me is finding the darned thing when i miss!  I dipped10" of white, then 7" of yellow.

Here's where I am right now on this first batch of arrows:



the pin striping is kinda sloppy, but they're bright!

They look great Dick!

Just checked out your link.  Neat stuff.  Hope you are not done yet.  Would like to see you do the fletching.  Keep up the good work.

Thanks... the series will continue all the way through seeing them shoot.  Hopefully, next week will see the fletching.   May be some delay... two root canal/caps to be done next week.   Everything considered, I'd rather be doing the fletching...

Dick

I crown, crest then seal with water base poly. I let dry 2-3 days before I seal, I like to make sure paint/stain is good and dry/hard before I seal . I apply 3 coats and I do not sand until the the 3rd coat, then I sand very lightly and put the finish coat on. They come out like glass. Alan

Water based? oil based? It's confusing. Is it just personal preference? Seems like there is as many ways to make arrows as there are types of arrows....spar, minwax, lacquer,.......

I opted at first to keep everything water based.  I'm working in a small space and didn't want fumes.   However, I did buy both water based poly and the wipe on true poly.   I did a test shaft with each... no comparison, the wipe on true poly was so much better you could see it in the pix.  I then tested my water based enamel color paints for adhesion on the poly... no problem, so that's where i ended up... wipe on poly and water based latex enamel.   This morning I put the first of two more coats of the poly on over the paint.   Tomorrow will be nocks and points, then next week the fletching.

Check my post above for a direct link to the whole operation.

Well, I'm going to do a tester with all oil-based. I wanted to use Spar urethane for it's durability and it's oil-based.