Primitive arrow stains

[WhistlingBadger]

Hi, all.  What do you use to stain your arrows?  Browns are easy--the lower bow in my pic below was stained with strong tea.

However, I've always painted my arrows orange, red, or yellow so they're easier to find when I launch one at a rabbit.  I've been experimenting with primitive arrows lately.  Here are some I made with home-processed turkey feathers, sitka spruce shafts, self-nocks wrapped with silk, and "stained" by rubbing them with dandelion flowers. 

(It takes about six blossoms per shaft to arrive at this depth of yellow.  Sometimes it's good to have a nine-year old daughter)

I'd like something a little deeper, easier to spot in tall grass, but still primitive (and hopefully not extremely difficult).  Any ideas?  What do you use?

Thanks--Thomas

[EdwardS]

Poke weed berries will do a great purple.  Don't stick your fingers in your mouth while staining, wash up real well, and seal them with something as poke berries are poisonous, but even a coat of shellac will protect it once it dries.  Once dried into the wood it should be pretty safe to handle.

[WhistlingBadger]

We don't have poke weed around here, but I've thought of using chokecherries for red/purple.  I suspect over time it would just turn brown.  Maybe coating it with shellac or grease would prevent that.  Might have to give it a try...

[Pat B]

Most botanical stains will fade or brown out with ultraviolet light.
 Boiled onion peels will give you a nice yellow color as will osage sawdust.
Finely ground pigments carried with alcohol will give you more permanent color. You can use water too but it will raise the grain of the wood.

[WhistlingBadger]

So, I wonder what would happen if I soaked chokecherries or onion skins in alcohol...

[Hawkdancer]

If you use choke cherries and Everclear, you will probably get the Devil's own drunk! .  Should be a fairly deep red.  Black Bing cherries should work, too.  Might try some blaze orange paint near the fletching, not real primitive, though, or a white zonker wrap at the back end of the fletching.
Hawkdancer

[WhistlingBadger]

Yeah, I've used the fletch-lac paints from 3rivers in the past.  It does make the arrows a whole lot easier to find when I make a bad shot.  But yeah, not at all primitive.

Hm, Everclear can make people act like cavemen,    so I guess that counts, right?

[Pat B]

I was washing dishes and realized that the turmeric I used in our supper last night stained our porcelain dinner plates. If you want a good, vibrant yellow color, use turmeric, available in the herb and spice section of the grocery store. I also take turmeric daily as an anti-inflammatory in capsule form. Turmeric is what makes curry yellow. 

[backwoodsguy]

Several years ago while looking for a Native American paint design for my bow, I came upon a website (nativeway.safewebshop.com). Wilkie Collins told me that many Native Americans used "bluing" for decorating wood. I bought "Mrs. Stewart's bluing" at Walmart. It worked great on the belly of my bow and the arrows. Bluing was invented in the 1700's in case you need to stay period correct.

[Pat B]

What color do you get...blue?

[M2A]

Dandelion...may have to steal that idea from you and test it out .

I have used bloodroot on a bow or 2 with good success. I think it would look great on arrows. It can give you an orange color. I make my own by grinding the roots to a powder and adding alcohol but it looks like you can buy the powder online at various sites. Still a work in progress for me but I do like the color. Have not tried yet but I think you could make a stain from beets  that would be more of a dark red color. I suppose either on of those may fade or brown out some over time.

Took a pic of how the bloodroot looks on white wood but having some issues getting pics transfered from phone to computer. Hope to sit down and get the bugs worked out soon.

Mike

   

[backwoodsguy]

Past B, the bluing on a oak bow came out dark and rich. If you have one of the following packages in your kitchen, the color is close. (Skinner garden style twirls, Martha White banana nut muffin mix, Progresso bread crums) '' All cholesterol free"

[WhistlingBadger]

I just realized I left this thread hanging.  I ended up trying turmeric in Everclear.  It did indeed stain my arrows a nice, bright, but natural-looking yellow.  Unfortunately it took me a few days to get around to greasing the arrow shafts.  I didn't want to grease the wood before I fletched them (afraid the fletching wouldn't stick to the grease), and being fairly new to using raw turkey feather, it took me several days to get them finished.  By then they had faded to a light, yellowish brown.  I think I'll try again, maybe dying the already-fletched arrows so I can get some coating on them right away.  If oxidation is what caused the fading, that should help.  If UV caused the fading, nothing much will help.  Stay tuned...

Thomas

[jelweini]

Most botanical stains will fade or brown out with ultraviolet light.
 Boiled onion peels will give you a nice yellow color as will osage sawdust.
Finely ground pigments carried with alcohol will give you more permanent color. You can use water too but it will raise the grain of the wood.

[WhistlingBadger]

Yeah, I think you're right.  Most botanical stains are going to end up brown.  Greasing them right away does seem to help.  I really like the color that tumeric gives.  Might try soaking some buffalo bearies and/or choke cherries in alcohol and see what that gives me. 

We got about 6" of snow last Sunday, with another few inches forecasted tonight, along with record lows.  Old Man Winter is flexing his muscles, and having some nice, bright colored arrows is going to be pretty important with all this snow.  Might just have to go back to modern paint...