Holly Leaf Fletching

[Thesquirrelslinger]

I know you're young, so patience is hard, but there is no sense in making "cruddy" arrows to shoot.  You will never be accurate, you will never figure out how to properly aim because none of your arrows will fly properly.  You need a minimum baseline to really begin life as an archer.  Crooked, unseasoned shafts of wood out of the forest, fletched crudely with holly leaves is probably not that minimum baseline.

No Alina. I do not want to criticize you, your are an experianced archer, you know what you are talking about. But not with me... I have good arrows I shoot at targets, then I have crud arrows.
Crud arrows are for when I just want to "goof off"- they have blunt points. Just the wood.
They might last 2-3 shots. I usually do not try to find them. they are surprisingly accurate.
The shafts are actually reasonably straight.
They shoot straight, they just do not last long. I use them for plugging trash, stuff like that that will destroy normal arrows.
Its quite fun. I frequently split the shafts on impact.
-Squirrel
And YES, I did change my name slightly.

[Atlatlista]

So long as you have decent training arrows, that's fine.  I shoot random nonsense in the woods when I don't care if they break or not myself.  I'll also shoot some pretty terrible bows on occasion.  I just want to make sure you're not trying to learn on that kind of equipment is all.  But if you want some cheap (free essentially) goof-off fletching, knock yourself out with the holly leaves.  Just don't shoot off your hand without a glove as they are nasty sharp.  If you can find magnolias (we have a bunch in NC, though usually in people's yards) they might be a better bet.  Same big size and high gloss, none of the nasty spikes.  Though I think the spikes add character.

[Dan K]

Really cool to see you try something unique.  My wife is a dry flower artist and she uses silica sand to preserve organic matter for her art.  Turns leaves and flowers into kinda a rubbery material.  I know holly leaves are pretty tough so you may want to play around with silica.  Just adding to the cleverness, great idea!

[Atlatlista]

Does the silica make the leaves rubbery?  Aha!  Now I'm going to have to try that.  I wasn't sure what the silica did.  Thanks!

[Christian Soldier]

I know you're young, so patience is hard, but there is no sense in making "cruddy" arrows to shoot.  You will never be accurate, you will never figure out how to properly aim because none of your arrows will fly properly.  You need a minimum baseline to really begin life as an archer.  Crooked, unseasoned shafts of wood out of the forest, fletched crudely with holly leaves is probably not that minimum baseline.

No Alina. I do not want to criticize you, your are an experianced archer, you know what you are talking about. But not with me... I have good arrows I shoot at targets, then I have crud arrows.
Crud arrows are for when I just want to "goof off"- they have blunt points. Just the wood.
They might last 2-3 shots. I usually do not try to find them. they are surprisingly accurate.
The shafts are actually reasonably straight.
They shoot straight, they just do not last long. I use them for plugging trash, stuff like that that will destroy normal arrows.
Its quite fun. I frequently split the shafts on impact.
-Squirrel
And YES, I did change my name slightly.

Squirrel, I think Duct tapt fletching would be right up your alley. Chances are, your HS arrows aren't nearly as light as Atatlista's target shafts so your arrows would need more stability than the holly leaves could grant. I'd highly suggets using the Duct tape, that's what I use for my stumping arrows. Google it and you'll get a bunch of tutorials too.

I might try a few 'survival' arrows with some leaves this spring. I am seeing an eastern woodland 2 fletch with hickory leaves tied down at the front and back and a bit of pine pitch for security. We'll see. 

[bowtarist]

They look cool, that's for sure.  Good idea for survival arrows if I were stuck in a Gary Paulsen story.  Get back w/ us if you try the silica deal, I've never heard of that. dpg

[Atlatlista]

They look cool, that's for sure.  Good idea for survival arrows if I were stuck in a Gary Paulsen story.  Get back w/ us if you try the silica deal, I've never heard of that. dpg

I may try that, though I think ultimately what I'm going to do is cast all the Eastern Woodland leaves and make rubber vanes with all of the detail of the leaves.  That way, you can have the vanes all match.  With natural leaves, the variations are pretty significant.  Also, it will give me durability.  Plus, I won't have to denude the forest of leaves, I'll only have to collect one time.  It will also give me the option to play with colors, so I may be able to do fall colors with the same vane, but several different colors - flame orange, bright yellow, deep red, to give a sense of fall.  I'm kind of excited about this idea, though I'm moving a little further from the primitive direction.

And yes.  If I were stuck in the woods with nothing but titebond, I'd totally make these arrows.

[Dan K]

Ooops!  Sorry folks.

Really cool to see you try something unique.  My wife is a dry flower artist and she uses silica sand to preserve organic matter for her art.  Turns leaves and flowers into kinda a rubbery material.  I know holly leaves are pretty tough so you may want to play around with silica.  Just adding to the cleverness, great idea!

Told my wife about this thread and she corrected me.  The silica sand will make it brittle.  What she uses is glycerin.  I'm no expert on the process but it works freakishly well with some plants.  Check youtube!

Cheers!

[ncpat]

They look good, surprised they held up like that. I would trim the points off, as I would always be pricking myself. I am sure they would last longer with a smooth edge.

Magnolia leaves are somewhat large and stiff, thinking of the ones I have known of. They might be worth a try.