How do you all do it? I was at the shop the other day and over heard one of their techs tell a customer not to soak their arrows in acetone to clean them as it weakens the shaft. Is this true? I strip off the fletching, drop the shaft in a jug of acetone for a few minutes then simply wipe away the glue residue. Is this really something I shouldn't be doing? I have wrecked a couple of shafts by trying to scrape off as much of the glue reside as possible before. This was even with using a "defletching tool". I find it way easier to soak and wipe but if this is bad, guess I will find a new way to strip glue residue.
I put some Goof Off on a paper towel and wipe the residue off. Then I wipe the shaft down with isopropyl alcohol. Work pretty well. Although I use wraps so there isn't as much residue.
I've seen some guys say a potato peeler works great, then follow up with acetone on a paper towel. As for soaking in a solvent ...I don't think that would be a good idea with a carbon arrow.
Technically Acetone doesn't harm the carbon, it harms the resin. All carbon arrows are made up of carbon and resin. I have used it in the past but not soaking. Just to quickly clean off residue. Now days I use wraps all the time so clean up is much easier.
I use wraps, so what's left, a little denatured alcohol and a rag gets it off quickly. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
Thanks every one. I won't be dipping the end of the arrow in the acetone any more. I have always had good luck with out wraps and liked that I could easily repair one fletching if I needed to but maybe I will give wraps a try for their ease of cleanup.
I got mine from Onestringer.com. You can get custom ones made. I just went with solid white for visibility and because they are cheaper.
I ended up buying some of the NAP Quikfletch (without vanes) to try. Now hopefully when I get them, I can get them on with out air bubbles. I just wasn't sure how easy those wraps you roll on are to put on nice and straight.
I've used the Quick Fletch with vanes and it's not the easiest thing to get them on without bubbles. I had the most success with waiting for the boiling bubbles to subside a bit and then go straight down allowing the water to push the air out easier.
This is what I use and I have had no issues with bubbles. You just want to make sure that the water is hot enough and dunk them in slowly. I just put them flush to the end of the shaft and it shrinks up to about 1/16th of an in. From the end of the shaft. They are extremely durable too, my vanes year before ripping the wrap. And when you remove them no glue residue at all!!
The potato peeler is an awesome idea. I'm definitely going to do that. I had the Bohning Fletching Stripper but it really didn't work any better than a dull knife. I certainly would not soak in a solvent. Like Coop said, it is the resins that hold the carbon fibers together that are affected and could very well begin to deteriorate depending on the solvent.
I use acetone at the shop I work at. I apply it to a rag and rub off the residue after I've scraped off as much as I can
The guy at the shop is the exact reason I started doing them myself. They gouged the crap out of more of my arrows than I have!
It has been a while since I had any reflected I buy 6 arrows every year and shoot only 1 arrow. I am fortunate to have an excellent bowshop as well.
I'll tag onto this since it's relevant. So if you use arrow wraps, do you have to replace the wrap every time you loose a fletching? I saw the ones on OneString seem fairly durable but I don't see it being very cost effective to have to replace the arrow wrap and then all 3 fletchings every time. And if you don't have to replace the wrap every time, how do you get the glue off to replace the fletching without screwing up the wrap?
