So what if somebody missed the range bag and buried an arrow into the wood siding of an out building? Upon inspection the shaft has a couple of rough spots that are barely detectable by feel/touch. How can I smooth up the shaft? TIA

Be very careful when trying to take away from the shaft of a carbon.

1st grab the arrow by each end and bend it, if you don't hear any cracking or the arrow doesn't break, you should be ok. I would probably discard the arrow if the burrs were in the rear of the arrow around the fletching but, if they are down by the tip and the arrow doesn't crack or snap while bending you can just take some fine sand paper and smooth out the bad spots.

I sand the glue off of my shafts w/ fine sand paper when refletching. While refletching you, have to use a good cleaning agent to remove the carbon dust after the removal of the glue.

Good luck

Reloader

quote:

Upon inspection the shaft has a couple of rough spots that are barely detectable by feel/touch. How can I smooth up the shaft? TIA

If the the flex test suggests the shaft is not damaged I'd leave the scratches alone. If it still shoots well then pretty is as pretty does, but if you weaken the shaft by abrading it inappropriately things could get ugly.

Throw away ANY damaged carbon arrow... Even if it's just "questionable". It's easily replaced for $5-$10. Not having to go through this... is worth every penny!!

I would have to concurr with ManCannon on this. Discard carbon arrows that may be questionable. It isn't worth the risk and, as his picture illustrates, they can cause some bad injuries if they come apart on release.

I used to push the limit on carbon arrows.I used to think that if it didnt break or sound crackly when you bend one in your hands it was ok to use.I shot a buck with one of my chipped up carbon arrows.I saw the arrow hit right where I was aiming.But it sounded like a 22 going off.I thought I hit the off shoulder since the arrow didnt exit the other side.I got down to look for blood and didnt find one drop.I just went in the direction the buck went.About 60 yrds I found it.The arrow didnt hit any bone except a rib.It was all splintered.I could have had a deer go off wounded because I used an arrow that should have been in the trash.With the angle of the shot and the closeness of the deer that arrow should have penetrated through and be sticking in the ground.Throw away any questionable arrows.