Daughter Need Bow & Arrow

[JoshinMO]

MY First Arrow. :laugh:
Could use some help on fletching/feather area etc. We have these "weeds" or something, very straight and light (hollow)but seem sturdy enough to send on a ride of death lol.
Comic con/lord of rings character. :lol:

[chase]

That looks good josh! The shaft is a little long from what I can see. needs to be around 26" to 29" inches. The feather needs to be split down the quill, to separate both sides of the feather use two feathers and arrange them on opposite sides of the shaft, attach the quill with your string to the shaft, both at the bottom and top. Those are my thoughts.

[dirt kicker]

That's cool Josh thanks for posting what kind of haft material did you use?

[OnewiththewilD]

hope this helps a little!

yours looks good for a first attempt though,even if its only for decoration.

[JoshinMO]

dirt kicker wrote:

That's cool Josh thanks for posting what kind of haft material did you use?

  Its in toothpaste isle, goes by name of reach :laugh:

[JoshinMO]

Thanks, and very nice! hmy: 

[punisher]

Sweet one with wild.   Josh you did better than I ever could have  :evil:

[JoshinMO]

Paul right? :evil:  Show us or give it a try sometime. Its quite enjoyable!

[painshill]

I don’t know if you’ve read “Yahi Archery” – Saxton T Pope’s narrative on the practices used by the Californian Yahi-yana indian Ishi, published in 1918. As Chase suggests, his typical hunting arrows were 29 inches in total length, including a 6 to 8 inch “foreshaft” of heavier wood than the main section of the shaft. The total weight was around 330 grains. Here’s what Pope observed about the fletching of ishi’s arrows:
“The design employed in painting usually consisted of alternating rings of red and blue a quarter of an inch wide, with a wide space between two groups of the stripes, sometimes occupied by red or blue dots, or snaky lines running lengthwise. Only that space which was later to be spanned by the feathers was painted. The design was usually three rings near the nock, then ten rings at the smaller end of the feather….
… When the paint was dry, he ran a broad ring of glue above and below it, at the site of the subsequent binding which holds the feathers. This he let dry.
Many kinds of feathers were used by Ishi on his arrows: eagle, hawk, owl, buzzard, wild goose, heron, quail, pigeon, flicker, turkey, bluejay. He preferred eagle feathers but admitted that they were very hard to get. While with us he used either the tail or pinion feathers from the domestic turkey. Like the best archers he put three feathers from the same wing on each arrow.
The first process of preparing the feather was to separate its laminae at the tip and split the shaft down its length by pulling it apart. Only the strip forming the posterior part of the original quill was used. He placed one end of this strip on a rock, clamping his great toe firmly upon it, and pulled it taut with the left hand, while with a sharp knife he shaved the upper surface of the aftershaft or rib to the thinness of paper. By scraping with an obsidian chip he now reduced it to translucent thinness, leaving no pith on it. Feathers so scraped are very flexible but the laminae tend to stand at an angle of thirty degrees from the perpendicular when set on the arrow. Having finished many feathers this way he collected them in groups of three, according to their similarity of form and color, and bound each group with a short bit of thread. When ready to apply them to the arrow, these sets of three, each set from the same wing, were soaked in warm water. When soft, the feathers were shaken dry, separated, and each tested for its strength by pulling its two extremities. Then, gathering about half an inch of laminae with the tip of the aftershaft and holding this end securely, he ruffled the rest of the laminae backward, in order to have a clear space over which to apply sinew in the next stage. Each feather in turn was thus made ready.
Very delicate deer tendons, having been split and soaked in water, were now chewed to a stringy pulp and drawn from the mouth in thin ribbons about a foot long. One end he held by the teeth, the other was attached to the arrow by a couple of turns near the nock. He then placed each feather in succession in its position; one perpendicular to the nock, two at its opposite edges, making equidistant spaces between them. As he rotated the shaft, the tendon being held in his teeth, he bound the rib and a half inch of laminae together down to the shaft, smoothing all with his thumb nail at the last. The reversed position of the rest of the laminae at this point made his work easy. Having treated one arrow, he let it dry while he fixed each of the remaining four.
The next step was to draw the anterior extremity of the feathering down into position. Beginning at the last painted ring where the glue commenced, he stripped off the laminae in preparation for the application of tendons. Again he spun out a ribbon of tissue, and setting each feather in place, holding the top one with his left thumb, and the other two with the first and second fingers respectively, he began binding with the sinew. After proceeding a few turns, he released his hold and straightened each feather to its final position, which was about one-sixteenth of an inch off the direct line down the arrow, veering off slightly toward the concave side of the feather. Now, drawing the feathers tight and snug, he cut the rib about half an inch long and completed the binding by rotation, plus a final smoothing with his thumb nail. In applying the tendon, he was careful to make a close spiral, never overlapping his sinew except at the last few turns. Each arrow, being thus feathered, was put in the sunshine to dry.
After a number of hours he would pick up a shaft and by beating it gently against his palm, restore the laminae to their natural direction, fluffing out the feathering. After having stroked the thoroughly dry feathers to settle them, he trimmed them by laying them on a flat piece of wood, using a straight stick as a ruler and running a sharp chip of obsidian along this edge. Obsidian flakes are quite as sharp as a good razor, and cut feathers better. His feather usually had a straight edge, and had a height of 1/8 inch at the forward end and 3/8 or 1/2 inch at the nock end. Sometimes they were cut in a slightly concave line, and usually no trimming was done near the nock, but the natural curve of the feather tip was left here, making a graceful finish to his work.
Instead of standing perpendicularly to the shaft, as has been recommended by our ancient English archers, Ishi’s feathers were set at an angle to his arrow and tended to fall or lie closer to the shaft after much use or being carried in the quiver. This position does seem to have the advantage, however, of giving a better spin to the arrows in flight, which, of course, tends toward greater accuracy.
Some of Ishi’s feathers were not more than three inches long, and those on his exhibition or war arrows were the full length of a hawk’s pinions almost a foot. In none of his arrows which were made in the wilds was there any evidence of glue between the feather and arrow shaft; but while with us he occasionally ran a little glue beneath his feather after binding it on.
In his native state, he seems to have used no protective over the sinew to keep out moisture not even fat nor did he apply any finish or varnish to the surface of his shafts.”

[Hoss]

Do I see a knot? Josh make a  loop in  a second piece of string just a loop ay it across the wrap and wrap it six or more times so the loop is under the lashing but sticking out then slip your tag end through the loop. pull the loop out of the lashed bindings  and your tag end is nice and neatly tucked under that lashing. A spot of hide glue and you are in business. I also like using Turkey Feathers but not tail feather. The last six or seven on the wings. They are called flight feathers. Canada Goose feathers work real well too. God I have not done that in a bunch of years. I have a couple around here someplace gonna go a look see if they stood the test of 25 or so years.