2 wing, twisted foot shafts.... to complete arrow.

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Buford
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#31 Post by Buford » Mon May 16, 2005 3:49 pm

:shock:
oops! :oops:

everybody knows hot to check spine and lacquer arrows right? :D

The spine tester in lore & ledgend is the one i made and use
http://www.jamesmhill.com/Spine_Tester.html
and lacquering is self explanitory, yes?

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#32 Post by Buford » Sat May 28, 2005 10:51 pm

I know I promised to get alot done this weekend but time has been short yadda yadda....

anyway, next is the fun stuff :D Cresting!
obviously, you need to decide on color, design and feather choices before you do anything. I usually draw up a very basic design with MS paint.

the attached is a first draft. the colors can and most likely will change but its just to get a rough idea on which direction i'm going. Most of the time my colors designs will change at the last minute depending on what feather colors i have, what paints i have that haven't dried out :P or simply, what mood i'm in. :D
so again, the design, not the colours are what is important at this stage. :wink:
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#33 Post by Buford » Sat May 28, 2005 10:58 pm

The white section at the nock end of the shaft is going to be a half length white cap (half length means it will come down half the length of the feather when it is glued on).
Quite simply, you can either dip your shafts in thinned down paint or spray them. I am from the same capping school as Jeff, and i find a simple can of acrylic spray paint works just as well as anything. only real difference between this and dipping is you need to rub a little back after the first coat and give it another go to get an even covering. :wink:
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#34 Post by Buford » Sun May 29, 2005 7:40 am

When the shaft is dry enough to re coat, rub it back a little with fine grade (000 or 0000) steel wool (you can get this at any paint/ craft shop). You don't need to go back till you can see timber, it's just to eliminate any think spots the may flake off if the feather is knocked by something when shot.
Use your own judgement as to how much is needed. You might find that if the first coat was fairly light, you may not need to rub back much at all. :wink:
I have had the front half an inch of a feather get caught on my hand and rip off once while shooting my old self bow. Ouch! :x
Reasons for this will become a little clearer in the fletching stage. :wink:
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#35 Post by Buford » Mon May 30, 2005 11:05 am

I forgot to mention above..... there was one coat of lacquer applied before the capping went on. sorry. :roll:
And if you have footed the shaft as I have you need to cut your shaft to you desired length now as you wont be able to trim it from either end later. :wink:

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#36 Post by Buford » Mon May 30, 2005 11:20 am

I use a brush on lacquer called 'Speed Clear'.
I'm not sure if you can still buy it as I haven't seen it in shops for a while, but i have a large tin that has been on the go for about 1 1/5 years. :shock:
Any waterproof, out doors type lacquer is ok.
Bunnings sells a marine varnish/ lacquer that i have herd good things about. :wink:

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#37 Post by Mick Smith » Mon May 30, 2005 6:47 pm

I don't understand mate. How come you haven't cut your nock taper before spraying the cap on? I would imagine if you cut it later there will be raw timber visible where it joins the nock. I always spray or dip after I've cut the nock taper. :shock: Maybe you've already done it :?

I know you will have a very sensible and reasonable answer and if I just waited, I'd find out in due course, but unfortunately I'm so wrapped up in what you're doing, I can't wait. :roll:

Mick
There is no use focusing on aiming if you don't execute the shot well enough to hit what your are aiming at.

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#38 Post by Buford » Mon May 30, 2005 6:53 pm

Mick,
much to learn young grasshopper. :D

i cap right to the end then cut the taper so the nock, once installed, covers the end of the cap. :wink:


anywho....

remember how I said I will probably change the crest design as per mood? :D well guess what? I've been listening to salsa music all arvo and am going for something different to the above design! :D 8)
I won't post another design pic. I will just let it unfold......
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#39 Post by Buford » Mon May 30, 2005 7:01 pm

Just finnished the first colour, black 8) , will let it dry overnight and do the next tomorrow. :wink:
I always do the widest colour bands first. then the thinner ones over/ next to them later. It's a good idea not to have a light colour over a dark colour. eg. a medium width white band over a wider black band might need multiple coats to achieve the right colour. Try to avoid multiple coast as in my experience, they are never as good as getting an even colour in one coat.
light pin stripes over dark colours are ok though.


Colour scheme has also changed :D will be using natural timber colour(apart from the white half cap) crest and feather colours will be a concoction of whites, reds, blacks and maybe a little silver. 8) (depends on what tunes i'm listening to tomorrow.
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#40 Post by Buford » Mon May 30, 2005 7:03 pm

don't worry if the base, thicker bands are of varying width or have rough edges (within reason) as we will be covering them up with thinner pinstriping colours. :wink:
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#41 Post by Buford » Tue May 31, 2005 11:35 am

stace wrote:Mat
Hope you don't bust any in practice before the Hunter shoot mate
cheers
stace
:lol:
guess what stace? one of em didn't even make it to practice!! :lol:

*When straightening out your shaft before cresting.... be gentle or this can happen! :evil: :D
DOH!! :roll: :lol:
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#42 Post by Buford » Tue May 31, 2005 7:00 pm

CameronPotter wrote:I NEED to make myself a cresting machine, but I should probably get some shafts first... :roll: :lol:
Cameron, a cresting machine isn't esential. Granted, it does make things a poop load more precise and effective. :D but up until about 6 (?) months ago, I was making do with a cordless drill clamped on its side on my bench with the arrow shaft jammed into the chuck! :shock: :lol:
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#43 Post by CameronPotter » Tue May 31, 2005 8:48 pm

But how is that different from a normal cresting machine in effect? I would think that would be fine... Please enlighten me as to why you built the machine with dimmer etc?

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#44 Post by Buford » Wed Jun 01, 2005 12:10 pm

CameronPotter wrote:But how is that different from a normal cresting machine in effect? I would think that would be fine... Please enlighten me as to why you built the machine with dimmer etc?
1stly to get the rotational speed way down and 2nd, so i didn't have to try and hold the trigger down with one hand and crest with the other!! :lol: :lol:

You also gain the foot pedal speed control to leave both hands free to crest. :wink:
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#45 Post by Buford » Wed Jun 01, 2005 1:11 pm

this is the second colour that went on last night......

*note. In the pic with the arrow pointing towards the nock end of the shaft. this is indicating where the black paint has 'soaked' into the nock taper. This is an example of what would happen to the entire crest/ cap if you didn't apply 1-2 coats of lacquer before cresting. It just soaks in and spreads out and you cannot get a sharp pin stripe. In this case it doesn't matter as the nock, once installed, will cover that unprotected/lacquered section of the arrow. :wink:
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#46 Post by Buford » Wed Jun 01, 2005 1:18 pm

.........and here are some pics of the finnished crested arrows. For the silver stripes, i used a 00 size needle point brush. I would usually use an 000 brush for a thinner line, but i couldn't find the little blighter and couldn't be bothered going out to buy a new one! :lol:

I have again indicated the overpainting on one of the arrows, i dunno why i did it again? but as said before, the nock will hide it. :wink:

From here, i will give 2 coats of lacquer when the crest is dry and move onto splicing some feathers. :wink:
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#47 Post by CameronPotter » Wed Jun 01, 2005 4:34 pm

Here is a link to a thread with some piccies of a cresting machine, complete with Matt Hood.

http://www.ozbow.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.p ... c&start=60

Also a simple how to:

http://www.stickbow.com/stickbow/arrowb ... sting.html

These are just posted to make the thread more complete. It is afterall being kept for posterity.

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#48 Post by Buford » Wed Jun 01, 2005 5:34 pm

Thanks Cam.
There are also some close up pics of the dimmer switch set up in my personal gallery if anyone is interested. :wink:
http://www.ozbow.net/phpbb2/album_pers ... user_id=93
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#49 Post by Buford » Fri Jun 03, 2005 1:28 pm

I would have been upto the feather splicing and the fletching itself this weekend but my order of nocks hasn't shown up! :x I will have a scratch around the shed to try and find some old ones i can use as a temp thing. stat tuned. :wink:
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#50 Post by Buford » Fri Jun 03, 2005 6:00 pm

Mick Smith, this bit is for you matey. :wink:

Found a couple of mixed colour nocks which i have bunged on temporarily
I actually cheated a little when it comes to hiding the rough paint near the nock. :oops: :)
Normally i would have installed the nock before cresting to get the lines right ontop of the overlap, but as stated above my order of nocks and stuff didn't show on time (almost a week late now, dang customs! :x ) so i went ahead and did the cresting first. :D

So in short, i got nuthin........ no special way to hide the bare timber. :P :) cause if you nock up before cresting, you have nothing to hide :wink:

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#51 Post by Buford » Fri Jun 03, 2005 6:02 pm

Side note*

If your going to make self nocks, you would obviously install them before the cap or crest is done. :wink:
I'm too lazy to make self nocks so there :P
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#52 Post by Buford » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:45 am

When I first started cresting, I just tried to copy arrows I had seen at other shoots from memory. I didn't have a set of 'how to' instructions, therefore Ijust figured out a way to do it by myself. :wink:
With regards to setting off the nock and putting pinstripes over any joins in colour, this is a technique that we use at work when decorating cakes! :shock: Where the icing stops, pipe an icing rosette or shell. :wink:
I just so happens that that is what arrow artists had been doing long before i was even thought about! :lol:

So it doesn't matter where you get the knowledge/ inspiration from mate. :wink:

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#53 Post by Buford » Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:02 am

Mick Smith wrote:Obviously you have to have an eye for colours and design to make a truly original work of art, but I'd say someone with less designer ability could do well just by copying existing designs (that would be me :oops: ).

Mick
there is nothing wrong with getting ideas from others mate.

Half my designs are taken from part of one design, mixed with a part of another one. :wink:

It's a great way to improve your skills. If you find an arrow that is beautiful and you can replicate the design, you must be doing a good job yes? :D

But when I do an 100% original, I just keep the colours of the crest and feathers closely matched.
Almost any single colour can be matched to a black and white base. And if you want to go into more than one additional colour, make sure they will suit each other. My sister is a hairdressing TAFE teacher and deals with people's hair colour choices all the time. She recommends either keeping the colours all in the same range, like different shades of the one colour (light blue, royal blue etc.) or using colours that are the opposites in the colour spectrum (black and white is the oldest example, but every secondary colour has an opposite)

hope this helps. :wink:

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#54 Post by Buford » Sat Jun 04, 2005 9:50 am

couldn't sleep much last night, so I made up an arrow to show y'all as I don't anticipate being able to get to do much more this weekend. Doing the boyfriend/ girlfriend thing, :D (tough decision eh? work on arrows or watch chick flicks all night and fall asleep in each others arms? :D :D :D )

anyway, thats today. Last night, as stated, I went right through to the finnish with one shaft just for all you guys. :wink:


I'm splicing feathers cut from full length feathers of various colours.
The method I use is simply butting sections together.

***I use glue on my feathers, in previous attempts, I have found fletching tape not suitable for this method as the feathers will want to slide sideways after the clamp is removed due to the fact that the quill has been cut. If using tape, it would be best to splice in this way as the quill remains uncut and wont move around........

http://www.stickbow.com/FEATURES/ARROWM ... licing.cfm

First step in splicing is to decide exactly what you want to do. It should tie in with your cresting colours as best as possible because fluro pink feathers don't look too good on a black, white, red and silver crested arrow. :roll: :lol:

Mark out on a bit o' paper the length of the feather you intend to cut and mark the relevant "change points" as per your design.

The pic at the top is all you will need......feathers :roll: feather chopper (or burner) some low adhesion sticky tape, a fine sanding block and a sharp knife.
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#55 Post by Buford » Sat Jun 04, 2005 9:55 am

next is to cut out the sections of feather to be used.
When picking feather pieces, make sure they are all similar or it wont "mesh" together. What I mean is, make sure the thickness of the quill is the same and the angle of the feathers 'lean' is the same or you will have gaps between the colours.
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#56 Post by Buford » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:09 am

you need to make sure that there is no quill sticking out further than it needs to be. sand/ cut back the quill till there is only just enough left to hold the feather together.
Then place the feather pieces in the chopper (if using one).
Place a length of the low stick tape across the base of the feather to hold it together while cutting.
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#57 Post by Buford » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:13 am

now simply cut your feather. :wink:

The vario clipper that i use in incredibly strong, made from steel not plastic, so i can do this...............
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#58 Post by Buford » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:16 am

Give the base of the quill a light sand to make sure it all sits flat.

If everyone has stayed with me so far then the glueing of the feather to the shaft shouldn't need explaining. :P :)
but just for the sake of the thread here's is the standard "bitenburger clamp shot" :lol:

this feather is the cock feather, the other two will be less elaborate in design. :wink:
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#59 Post by Buford » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:23 am

After doing all 3 feathers, you should end up with something like this........ :D
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#60 Post by Stickbow Hunter » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:48 pm

Matt,

What do they call that type of feather cut? It is unusual the way the rear is concave like it is.

Jeff

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