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in reply to: A first harvest… #56368
WOW!!!!
Took Arwen out back for target practice today. She has a Girl Scout Archery thing coming up. Perhaps someday….
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.
in reply to: two good finds #55164Thank you, thats the kind of thing I’m looking for, but want to think about making my own first.
in reply to: two good finds #54790Didn’t really look that close at the umbrella, think it was ment to go on its side, I’ll have to go back and look.
I was actually looking for the smalest chair I could find, considered a kids chair, WITHOUT ARMS, remember I’m a tad smaller than you guys. Figured the arma would get in the way. Since I have some scrap alum tubing around, I’m thinking of making my own. Used to have a “Maine Lounger” that was great, but its been missing for years.
in reply to: Bow quivers #53055I still like the one I made out of the (closed cell foam)knee pad. It’s in another thread, do a search for it.
in reply to: Bow quivers #53053Keep at it Archer!!!
Remember there are no bad ideas. Some of my best ideas took a year to work. Keep tweaking, eventually you will get it right and it will look obvious. 🙂
in reply to: COULDN'T HELP MYSELF #52669Physical Therapist is twice me size (no fat), and smiles when I am in pain. SHE reminds me of R2 in the pic holding the chain saw.
Asked when I can use the bow, and she said 2 months (with a smile). Since it is still August, does thet mean Oct 1? Deer/turkey season starts 10/21, thru Dec. Scarey thought, but I just might actually KILL something a year after I started the bow…
Arwen is back in school. The silence is opressive…
in reply to: Hunting canoe #51880Get the instructions and read them before you commit, are you sure you have the room? Not the kind of thing to do in the bathroom.
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!!!!
in reply to: What ya got goin? #49793Stiches out today. Itching less, down to dull pain (tylenal)
, PT starts Wednesday, same day Arwen starts school. OK, I’m going to start scouting Thursday. Know where there are deer and Turkeys from seeing tracks while fishing. I can walk with my arm in a sling can’t I??
in reply to: Memorable Wildlife #49788On a slate roof (hanging from a rope) the house is on a ridge just east of the CT river, between the Financial district and the park. About 40 feet off the ground, and the ridge is about 60 feet above the river, beautiful view.
I’m working and happen to look up, to see 2 pidgens flying over from Financial to the park. Didn’t think much of it till the rear pidgen exploded. Feathers everywhere. Then a Falcon casually flies off with a dead pidgen in his grasp. The other pidgen continued off to the park, and when he got there probably sais “Wonder where charlie went?” The falcon fed the pidgen to his young and dropped the carcass on some accountant in a suit that is worth more than my car.
in reply to: COULDN'T HELP MYSELF #45885MUCH BETTER!!!!!
Working on the arrow build, lots to say, varnish is drying.
First week, I slept, walkied around the house for s few mins, then went back to bed. EVERYTHING was an ordeal (never try to brush your teeth with your left hand while on pain killers, esp if there is a nine year old around to laugh at you). BTW you CAN wash your left arm pit with your left hand!!!
I guess this is the dangerous time when I could really do some damage without much effort. Wish we had done this in the winter, been sunny, and hot here and lots I would like to do.
Stiches come off Monday, and that is when physical therapy starts.
BTW: Audry has the same draw as I do, and she has never had a bow in her hands till yesterday. Might be interesting to tell youse guys (Y’all in Dixie, mate in Aussie) how it goes as I teach her and Arwen. Any bets on who shoots who??
Thanks so much for the advice. Wish you had told me that in 2004 when I shattered my heel. This surgery was the same in that the first week, I slept 2 to 4 hours, got up, got dressed…and sfter that ordeal, I was ready for a nap. Lasted about a week, then the itching started and the pain went away. Thought the first week ov isolation I felt was some urge to hide in the cave while injured. Was hard to be polite to the friends/neighbors that came by to check on me. It has been a week, and I have stopped the pain meds (Tylenol is all I need), and I’m wanting to actually DO something. Know that it will be in short bursts, which is why I am doing the arrow build. Not a lot of sustained effort.
OK, here goes…
Had a really good idea that didn’t work. The thery is flawless, so it must be in how I did it.
Since you can use steam to bend wood, and have it stay bent, we should be able to use steam to straighten the same wood. Actually I’ve stemed/bent enough wood to be an expert. To keep the shafts straight I held the arrow shafts to a plastic drain pipe (think 2″ ID) with nylon wire ties, steamed in (you guessed it) the turky roaster. Then let them dry while I was suffering in Hospital. When I took off the wire ties, the shafts had all of these small wiggles. I suspect that it may be becouse: (1) not enough wire ties (2) the pipe was distorted by the heat, perhaps I should have used a metal pipe, thinking aluminum (3) the turkey roaster isn’t really big enough, had to do the steaming half and half. (4) wrong kind of wood oak vs popular. Wondering where Mom’s turkey roaster is, that was big enough to bath a 5 year old. This is one of those ideas that seems so simple, and obvious (now that I have thought of it) that I should have thought of it decades ago. Has anybody else tried it? Any ideas why it didn’t work? If you try it it could become a BAD idea, steam is hot, hotter than boiling water. I don’t want to hear any screams, and don’t call me to take you to the ER. I have pics, just have to get them to the puter and resized, later…
in reply to: Wild Voices #42367full moon last night, we HAD to go out and howl at it
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