Strictly Arrows

My original, Empire-period Mongol arrows were triple fletched. But the actual fletches have gone, so I can't judge how they were cut.

I have some modern traditional arrows I would call 'Tibeto-Mongol' from Qinghai which are cut parallel to the shaft and very shallow (7mm).

Bede Dryer showed me a cutter that you can order with blades made to the customer's spec. Looked nifty.

It is not so hard to cut fletchings by hand with scissors. Glue the feathers to the shaft first. When the glue is cured, cut from the nock forward. Start by trimming them down to the same height, then go for the shape.

Don't forget to pare down the quill to a bare minimum first. Commercial fletches have twice the thickness of quill that is desirable to make a slick arrow. A belt sander is the best tool for reducing quills, but a judicious use of a razor blade can also bring a good result. Straight pins hold the fletches while drying. -j-

The common Western style of three feather fletching is affected more by which way round you nock it, but oriental three fletch is not if the feather height is less than about 20 mm.

Also with the styles of oriental fletching that take the feathers close to the nock, you can feel the position of the feathers easily and it becomes second nature to set the arrow one way or the other.

Stephen was describing my feather chopper from Gateway Feathers. I wrote off to them and had one custom made to a shape I needed for a certain fletching pattern. The result was better than I expected. It can cut a large number of feathers quickly and accurately and it appears very robust. The company was easy to deal with and there were know problems with the design I sent them. I chose a chopper rather than a burner because in Australia we use 240 Volts and I didn't want to be exposed to that kind of voltage. The chopper is powered by a small mallet. You just have to watch your fingers.

Have a look at my Chinese arrows I brought back:

link: http://198.170.108.27/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... c&start=15


Chinese c. 1890
shaft length (from nock to back of arrowhead): 94.5cm
type of wood used: poplar
fletching height: 1.7cm - 2 cm
fletching length: 24.8cm


BTW: The feather burner is availble for 120 and 240 voltage! I ordered it a longt time ago from 3-rivers archery, but you need to call them first and explain. They are glad to help you.

Reto

I forgot another advantage of the chopper: no smell of burning feathers.

... correct the smell is terrible, my wife threatens my with the rollling pin (Swiss saying)



check:
http://eternal-archery.de/us/index.html

this supplier has a wide range of "shapes" - I am also using this tool, fast easy and very precise

Reto

I was looking at the Grayson collection online (wow) and I noticed that the Mongolian bow and arrow set he has has 4 feathers. I imagine they are either the archers preference or they are for diffent uses.

Bede
After this I promise to wash my mouth out with soap!!!
Could you use the French style fletch chopper from Eternal archery then modify ie cut the height down by about a 1/3
JonR

The chopper from France is almost identical to the one I have. They also seem to have the facility for custom made cutters (the extra cost was small when I ordered from America).

Once I had mine, I realised the potential. I made a simple template to alter the base line of the feather. With this I could make smaller, lower fletching without having to order an new chopper. The blade was attached to a shaped aluminium block to keep it rigid so there was no room for adjustment there. However, I can already get to shapes from the chopper and I have several more planned. The only problem is that the feathers get shorter.

Dear all,

a few years ago, at the "International Kyudo Taikai" in Miyakonojo / Japan, there were both masters (male / female) of Mongolia invited and they practiced their archery. I had the possibility to inspect their equipment: the arrows had a 4 feather-fletching, the feathers were not longer than 150mm and not higher than 10mm. The form was nearly (with a light curve) conic.

For cutting my feathers I do a wooden templade, glue sandpaper on the lower side, press it on the feather and cut along from tip- to nockside with a razor blade or Stanley-knife. This I do, when the feathers still are glued on the shaft. Works good.

Peter

Peter,

Where you have find bamboo for your Kyudo arrows?

I start to shoot in korean manner, but i cannot find bamboo shafts in Europe. Chirtine Stueber from bambus.de has told to me that she cannot ship from Romania (here I live).

Hi ginni,

I bought my bamboo-arrows directly in Japan.

You can try it in a market garden or "Bauhaus" (do-it-yourself-market). Or you can order seeds from "pseudosasa japonica". Its difficult to get the right one!

All I can tell you is, there are used 2 year old bamboo-sticks and it has 4 knots along the whole length (distance from knot to knot ~25cm). It should be well-dried, because it shrinks when it is fresh cutted. Then the outer layer is peeled, the knots are smoothed and the shaft is straightend by heating and it is polished. Diameter is then 8mm.

I don?t shoot them in practice anymore, because most of them get longitudinal drafts after a couple of years. I think its to dry here.

Peter

Hi ginni

I took some bamboo from our shed a week ago and decided I
would try to make some arrows out of them. The bamboo are from some
garden market (DIY). One of the staves however was different than the others in that it
was lighter in weight, straighter and the nodes where more "modest".
In the picture that's the "green one".

Basically I used a little candle and some sunflower oil when straightening them.

After sanding they ended up like this:
[external image]

One ended up very straight:
[external image]

Two of them are now fletched and three awaiting flething. Hopefully
they will work (a little, pleeease..). I haven't had a change to test them yet.

Stig

What is the purpose of the sun flower oil?

The oil keeps me from burning the bamboo to easily
and I guess it probably distributes the heat more eavenly around
the area I'm heating. I don't put oil all over, only where I'm
straightening.

I read about it on "Ferret's Archery Web Page":
http://groups.msn.com/ferretsarcheryweb ... rrows.msnw

Sunflower oil is just what we had in the kitchen the day I did this.
Any other oil would probably do the job.

stig


Thanks, I have not seen that done before, I will give that a try.

Matt

When it comes to fletching, I fix masking tape to both sides of a full feather and then use a template to outline the shape of the desired fletching. The final shape can then be cut out using a sharp scissors.