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OK, 90 views, and 15 replies, and I haven’t even started.
BTW: If this in any way resembles the way you SHOULD build arrows, it was pure coincidence. Trying to do this unhindered by convention, science, or rational thought.
First step is to get the shafts. I like 5/16, don’t know why. Go to a big box store, they have something called dowels. You will find a bunch of them in a bin. Take them out and put them on the floor, take each and roll it on the floor, if it is not straight it will become obvious. Flex them a bit, if they break, you do not want that one. Out of the bin you can find about a dozen that are straight. Good idea to take someone with you to watch out for racing forklifts. If you can not find enough good ones, go to another big box store. I also got one that is bent, just to test straightening technique I thought up (later). They are 48″ long, if you are normal (like me) you can make 2 24″ arrows out of each dowel. Cost 88 cents per dowel, thus 44 cents per arrow (frugal, not cheap). Good thing we are not using our real names here, 3Rivers is NOT going to like this. It says they are hardwood, I’m thinking popular. They also have oak, but I thought that was a bit heavy… No science, just a feeling. If you want you can take your spine tester to the store with you and spend all day there.
Why doe’s Arwen always get hungry when I’m in the middle of this? “Eat an apple, and throw it away when you are finished. Saving half an apple under your pillow is NOT a good idea.”
Feathers: I’m using goose primaries that someone was good enough to send me. AWESOME gift. I have what amounts to a lifetime supply (not much at my age). No pigeons were harmed in making these arrows. I used a Fiskares rotary tool to cut the feathers down the middle of the quill. This is an AWESOME tool, I do lots with it. I knew about it, but it seemed pricey, and I was to cheap (not frugal, cheap)to buy one. When Mom went to the nursing home, I found one in her sewing. Thank you Mom. I know you are supposed to use a belt sander, but I would never try it, because I don’t think I could hold/control it. Down below there is a pic of a feather with a ruler. You will notice that the quill is really thick on the left, but hardly any on the right. Since you can only get one fletch from this feather, take it from where there is less quill to sand down. I used the fletch holder from the fletching jig to hold the feather and sand paper taped to a flat surface. SIXTY grit sandpaper. Yup the real course stuff. The feather quill has a pithy center, and the outside is HARD, same stuff God uses to make bear claws, lobster shells, and your fingernails. You don’t need a slick surface, you are going to glue it, you want a rough surface so the glue will stick better. OK, if you want you can use your 200 grit, and spend an extra hour. My philosophy is that anyone who would spend an hour sanding when he does not have to needs a sex therapist.
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FLETCHING:
BTW: Birds have feathers arrows have fletches, don’t really know where the feather turns into a fletch.
It’s the last day of the season. You have passed up a couple shots knowing that you would have shots at something bigger, better. Now you are not so sure. Its raining. But you are wearing the latest hunting togs, waterproof/breathable/silent/scent proof/camo (which cost more than your wedding/funeral suit your wife made you buy when her sister got married for the third time). Its not a heavy rain, a heavy drizzle. The leaves are too wet to rustle, the twigs too soggy to snap, so you are still hunting. Moving slowly… quietly… looking for your quarry. You know he has found a dry spot, and is bedded up, and not wanting to move. You see him!! It is the shot of a lifetime, he slowly rises, looking off to your right. You draw, release. The arrow jumps from the bow, does that little but wiggle, and….
Two fletches (the cock, and one hen), come off the arrow, and seem to float in the heavy air… The arrow takes an abrupt 45 degree turn up and to the left to embed itself in a old pine up and to the left of the quarry.
The critter you were trying to kill, glances up at the arrow quivering in the pine, then gives you a depreciating look (as if to say “I spend half the afternoon looking for a dry place to take a nap, and this jerk has to show up.”), and sort of ambles off into the underbrush’ while the two fletches flutter to the ground.
At this point you have melted into a quivering puddle of human excrement still dressed in your hunting togs (waterproof/breathable/silent/scent proof/camo), thinking the glue didn’t SAY it wasn’t waterproof.. You wander over to the pine tree wondering why the third fletch didn’t come off. No you cannot reach it, and there is no way to climb up there. Your arrow will be up there for YEARS (with the special cresting so that everyone will know it is YOUR arrow). As you drive home you keep asking “Why didn’t the third fletch fall off?” but you will never know because that is just one of life’s unanswerable questions.
You jerk! NEVER in the history of marketing has a label ever said what the product did NOT do!! There are lots of glues on the market, the two pictured below will work. They are waterproof (dishwasher safe/exterior/whatever), and they are GELS. If you use a superglue that is not a gel, it will flow (chit isn’t the only thing that flows downhill) down into the fletching jig, and glue the feather to the jig (no, they didn’t tell you that in the jig instructions). At that point you can tear your hair and gnash your teeth all you want, but believe me, unless you make less than the minimum wage, you are better off buying a new fletching jig.
Do NOT be a quivering puddle of human excrement still dressed in your hunting togs (waterproof/breathable/silent/scent proof/camo) use waterproof glue.
BTW, if you let your wife read this she may need a clean diaper.
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Be careful!! Loctite has lots of products on the market. Some are waterproof, some are not, some are liquid, some are gels. READ THE LABEL!!!!
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Feathers are clean, right?
If your feathers are “direct from the bird” I suggest you cut the feathers with a Olfa, or Fiskares rotary cutter. Pizza cutter isn’t sharp enough, and I don’t know how to sharpen them. Utility knife, my favorite, doesn’t work – not enough control. Should have bought myself a rotary cutter years ago.
This may seem strange to you but remember we seem strange to everyone else. The part of the feather you just cut off, and are about to throw away is called a biot by fly tyers. They are used for bodies on tiny little flies. Since you are going to throw them away anyway, put them in a box, with a note telling them what they are, and mail them to your local fly tying club (google search, they probably have a PO box). No name, no return addr. Remember the best good deeds are the ones where you don’t get caught.
Cut to size, and shape: Some other thread has my copper/brass feather burners, Please do it outside, or use a GOOD exhaust fan. Dust masks are for dust, NOT fumes.
Next we have to sand the base, right? Wrong. Cut them to length first. No sense in sanding the parts you are not going to use anyway. OK. Its 2:00 AM, your wife comes out of the bedroom and says: “Who is that from?“
“Grumpy.“
“And what is grumpy wearing?“
A small white Tshirt, short kaki shorts, COMMANDO!! Does she want my photo, My email address? Down below is a pic of a feather half with a ruler. I would cut the 3” fletch I need out of the center. If I cut it from the left I would have a lot more quill to sand off. If I cut from the right, not enough quill.
Please keep in mind that I am doing this with one hand, and my photographer is 9 (going on 16). I’m hearing about some dude named Dakota, in her class.
Sanding:
I tried all sorts of things (not about to buy a belt sander, as I don’t think it would work anyway). Arwen liked the drum sander on the drill, grabbed the fletch and shot it to the ceiling. Also tried the vibrating sander, drum on the Dremel, various files, etc. As I was trying all this stuff I got to thinking… This is the same stuff god used to make bear claws, lobster shells, fingernails, etc. Soooooooo I tried emery boards. You know the ones that are made to file fingernails. As I recall we were using these to sharpen fish hooks back in the ‘60s, so they have had at least of half a century to make improvements. They worked!! They gave me just the right combination of material removal without loosing control. After splitting, the quill is a channel, with a pithy filling. You want to take off the two sides of the channel, so that what is left is the feather, and the quill it is attached to. No extra quill, minimum pith. The bottom of the quill has to be square to the feather fibers. If not, the feathers will not be square to the arrow shaft.
There are pics of fletches with the finger nail clippers. I cut the corner off the front fletch quill, so it would be minimized when it hit the arrow shelf on the bow.
There are pics of fletches on arrows… Notice that I didn’t sand the quill enough. That means that they bounce off the arrow shelf.
Glueing:
OK, if you read my last post, and you don’t want to be a quivering glob of human excrement, or have to buy a new fletching jig You have a GEL superglue that is WATERPROOF. It may seem like a good idea (or maybe just an old habit) to wipe your hands on the back side of your jeans. NOT GOOD!! First of all there is a reason why they call this super glue. Second, I dated an ER nurse (talk about drama), and you wouldn’t believe the number of stories she told me that included the phrase “We were laughing so hard we couldn’t help the guy.” (Always a guy, never a girl.) You don’t want to be that guy. Wear gloves, and don’t wipe them on your butt, or you may be permanently attached to your jeans, chair, sheets, or whoever you sleep with…
If you want to cheat, you can put a LIGHT coat of Vaseline on the fletching jig where it holds the feather. Helps prevent glueing the feather to the jig (sorry 3Rivers). Remember if you don’t put enough glue on the fletch it will fall off, if you put too much on there you will glue the feather to the fletching jig. (Not to put any pressure on you here.) Since either is possible, it is a good idea to do this ALONE. To avoid that daja vu feeling in the principles office.
If you put a fletch on backwards, you may have some trouble with vocabulary control.
Check each fletch for length, shape, and is it from the correct wing. I don’t care where you got those feathers, there could be a wrong one in there. We ALL make mistakes.
Give the glue 24 hrs to set. Now, inspect the fletches, if there are any gaps between the quill and the shaft fill them with the glue, kinda like caulking a gap in your house, just a LOT smaller. Put a little drop at the front of the fletch, to make sure it is held down real tight. If you put on too much you can sand it later.
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