I'm trying to find some stains in different colors, like red, white, yellow, grey, etc. for staining  wood shafts, something that lets the grain still come through. Does anyone know a good source for these stains, and have you used them before ?
Thanks
Jerald

I use waterbased stains from Lowes.  They have a wide variety and not to bad on the price.   I have some yellow, green and black.   I have mixed them in small amounts and get my own custom colors.

Try Leather dyes such as Fieblings.

Bright colored stains like that can be a little tricky to find, especially white.
I'd suggest water base analine stains for the colors.  On white, I've have good luck with pickling stain from a craft store.
For *really* bright stuff go with a stain called Woodburst.  Should be able to get that and the analine stains through a specialty woodworking catalog like Woodworker's Supply.

Guy

Thanks folks,
I have some shafts I want to start on and I wanted to do things a little different, this go around.
Jerald

I have used some Fieblings water based stain on wood shafts. I noticed the red and yellow smears and runs a bit when dipping in Fletch Lac clear to seal the shafts after staining. I havn't tried it with other finishes yet. I will be soon. Jim.

I recently used water based stain I got from 3 Rivers. I've only tried the black, which gives the arrows a gray look and brings out the grain very nicely. I used the minwax finish I always use on arrows over top of the stain and it worked fine. The water based stain they sent is actually a leather dye, but it worked great. Here's a link to this product:

http://www.3riversarchery.com/Product.asp?c=2&s=60&p=97&i=6420X

One thing I did find is that within a couple dozen cedars, the variance in color when I was done was considerable. Some shafts soaked it up like a sponge and were quite dark while others seemed to stay quite light grey. They all looked good though.

I used a sponge brush and really evened out the color variance.  puts on a nice even coat.

If you're having an uneven color from one shaft to another you may want to try a pre-stain conditioner.  It's a product that evens the stain penetration in the wood.  This may not work with all types of stains but if the uniformity of finish is important to you it's worth a look see.

Guy

It's really hard to beat rit dye powder mixed with denatured alcohol.  Plus it's very cheap...Van

I have used rite dyes for plenty of different things, but never thought about wood stains.
Thanks !
I have found a few other stains that I am using, that I will post photots of when I'm finished, so far, they are killer arrows !!
Jerald

Black powder mixed with water thoroughly makes a nice quick drying grey to bblack stain...I used maybe 20 grains of powder to do a dozen.