My vanes are curling!

Thank you for choosing TAC Vanes! We’re sorry you’re having some trouble, but without seeing them, it’s hard for me to determine 100% what might have happened because there are multiple scenarios.

• If this curling happened shortly after fletching them, then most likely there was too much primer on the vanes when you fletched. If that was the case, there’s nothing you can do but re-fletch them and reference the notes below.

• If they’ve been fletched for more than a day and they were perfectly fine, then a lot of things can bend them (shooting through targets, sitting the arrows flat on a table, putting a lot of them in an arrow tube, holding them too tight together with a rubber band, etc) but a hair dryer will bring them back really great if any of these scenarios caused it. Boiling some water on the stove and holding the vanes in the steam brings them back well also.

• If they “deformed” within a few hours of fletching them, here are some tips to avoid this from happening in the future;

  • The primer liquid is 3 times thinner than tap water, so it’s very important to make sure you don’t have too much on the felt tip when you’re priming the base of the vane because it easily leaks down onto the body of the vane, making the acetone in the primer eat the material, which will cause this curling and deformation.
  • Reference the instructions printed on the primer pen and also here.

In short:
When you’re fletching, always have a piece of scrap paper handy to confirm the moisture level of the felt tip before priming every vane. The wet “dot” the pen makes should not exceed 5/16” otherwise it’s got too much on it. Also keep a paper towel handy so you can roll the tip on it if the dot is larger than 5/16” in diameter. Once that’s confirmed, you only make ONE pass on the vane’s base with the primer pen. No scrubbing or going back and forth. Start at one end and make one swipe (go slow so you’re getting coverage) to the other end and then you can apply glue 2-3 seconds after that.