Refurbishing Vintage POC Arrows

 Refurbishing Vintage POC Arrows

 

I recently helped an older friend of one of my Great Uncle sell some of his archery gear.  Mr. Porter hunted several times and even had Bob Swinehart as a house guest on one occasion. The man was a true Hill devotee even down to pinning his HH broadheads onto the shafts. 

Well, I decided to refurbish several groups of the old Port Orford Cedar (POC) shafts and I was amazed at the quality.  These shafts were very straight.  I soon discovered the nocks were old and brittle, but after replacing a few I shot some and they were also surprisingly durable.  Hmmm...Right then I decided to put those arrows back in business.

I first redid some of the old glass shafts and I had a Post on that here: 

 First I carefully heated and twisted off the old nocks.

Then, I scraped the fletching off trying to be careful not to gauge the wood.  i used sandpaper to get off the old glue and any quill that was left.

I re-dipped them up to the pinned Hill heads in white rustoleum. Glued on some new feathers and put them on the feather burner trying as best as I could to match the "French curve" shape of these classic Howard Hill feathers.  

One of them was inscribed with "The Spirit of Robin Hood" so I masked that off with scotch tape and peeled it back when they were dry.  That one may hold some luck in the future?  I used the gentleman's multi-fletcher and gave the straight clamps a slight offset.  Just like the originals.

Some had the fletching still pretty solid so I just painted those with a foam brush up to the feathers.  The blue ones were really cool.  All had the pinned Hill heads.

These are ready for a stout bow and a short shot!

These pair up well with my new Howard Hill Wesley Special 62@28 I picked up that has the classic black back and white belly. Old wood, back in service!