Monday, August 28, 2023

Refurbishing Vintage Fiberglass Arrows

I recently helped an older gentleman liquidate his archery and bowhunting inventory.  In the collection were various early fiberglass arrows.  The nocks were brittle, the heads were rusty, the fletch was all but destroyed.  These arrows intrigued me because they felt pretty heavy.  A particular batch of 10 were woven brown glass shafts with the number "11" as the only marking.

I decided to try to put these back into service.

 

 





The project was such a success I decided to start on these #10 shafts also.


Here they are the #10s with the fletching removed and sanded lightly with 100 grit.



Here are both batches completed:

I read and actually heard from the gentleman himself that a common complaint was that the shaft would split upon hard impact.  Swinehart didn't care as he said he, "had a lifetime supply".  I decided to foot them with a inch length of aluminum arrow and epoxy that on for a stability collar.  

The project tuned out well but the spine was a little much for my current Northern Mist longbow.  So I will keep them for later.  I have plans to work into a higher draw weight bow in the future now that I have made my transition and have been shooting left handed for some time.