Cody wrote: Thinking about trying to fletch my first set of POCs and I read somewhere that the cock feather needs to be set on the stiff side of the arrow. Just wondering if this is true. I bought a dozen of the Tred Barta series form 3 Rivers and have looked them over and I can’t see that the cock feather is set on any specific area of the grain. A spine tester is the only way to test it I guess but I don’t have one. I’m sure it matters some but just curious if it might be a little overkill. Thanks for any info

Wish I could answer your question. Any replies would help me out as well. I do have a question for you though. Which Fletching Glue are you Using?

Wood shafts (with the exception fo Hex shafts) are spined on the edge grain. When the arrow is nocked, the growth rings should run perpendicular to the bow string (i.e. string is up and down; grain runs left and right). If you nock your arrows and the grain runs every which way, I’d return them and buy from somewhere else, because the person fletching them didn’t have a clue what they were doing.

If you get hand spined shafts they should be spined against the edge of the “grain”, so that is how you should orient the nock and cock feather. According to the old standards, arrows should be fletched so the pointers on the top of the shaft point away from the archer/toward the point. That is how I do it. Some fletchers don’t believe it matters. Electronic spine testers don’t care either.

Shrimp, IMO, Duco is the fletching glue of choice for most wood arrow finishes. Saunders NPV works well, too.

J.Wesbrock wrote: Wood shafts (with the exception fo Hex shafts) are spined on the edge grain. When the arrow is nocked, the growth rings should run perpendicular to the bow string (i.e. string is up and down; grain runs left and right). If you nock your arrows and the grain runs every which way, I’d return them and buy from somewhere else, because the person fletching them didn’t have a clue what they were doing.

I set my arrows up this way as well, but honestly, I’m not seeing the difference. The first dozen arrows I fletched were incorrect and they fly fine. I’ve since made 3 dozen arrows (the correct way)of the same spine, length, and point weight and they all fly the same.

My understanding is that if the arrow were to fail on the string, setting them up this way would prevent injury as the arrow would break away from the archer.

Until someone shows me proof…I’m a skeptic but it doesn’t hurt to be on the safe side.

I’ve spine checked a lot of shafts and find there isn’t much difference between spine with or across the grain, rarely more than a couple of pounds. That two pounds may be enough to move you away from good arrow flight, tho. Spining against the edge of the grain normally gives the stiffest spine, but not always. I spine all of my shafts against the grain and build the arrows that way, too.