I thought that I would post this to ask a few questions and to give a few hints to anyone who might want to do this... My questions are in bold, the rest is in normal font.
I have found that when cresting, the paint dries very quickly (as the paint is going on at a reasonably high speed). This allows thin and even coverage. The problem is that to get enough paint on there, you need to get a lot of paint on your brush. Do you guys thin your paints at all? I am using modelling acryllics. They look very nice, but I find that I need to have a little blob on the end of my brush to get enough paint onto the shaft.
I have found that regardless of how much I try to straighten the arrows, there is still a little wobble. One thing I have found that works very well is to have the brush pressed against the shaft so that rather than having just the tip touching, I have the brush bending around the shaft a bit. This means that as the shaft moves in and out slightly, the brush handles it. This is of course only capable with a thin brush. The idea is that the bristles are always splayed to the maximum width regardless of how the shaft might wobble slightly. Has anyone else done this before?
I might note here that I am using Vic Ash shafts. They are pretty straight, but not dead straight and trying to straighten them is fairly difficult.
Cutting the nock taper first (if you are doing it that way) makes the shafting easier as then you can check the point of the taper to centre the shaft in the tubing on the cresting jig.
Make sure that you have your cresting jig be variable speed!!! It is absolutely terrific.
When doing your first coat of varnish, make sure that the varnish is thick enough (do multiple coats if necessary) to fill in the fissures in the wood's surface.
Learn from me - a dark coloured dip/spray is harder to use than a light coloured one. Mine was black - it meant that for my read and blue lines, I needed to do a white undercoat.
If any of the more experienced guys can point out where I might improve/have any tricks and tips - please feel free to impart your knowledge!
Lastly, have fun - it is really great. Also, have plenty of shafts to play with as you might find it kind of addictive.
Cam
