A question about 2-fletch and 3-fletch

[Buck67]

I have been messing about making arrows due to the cold temperatures outside.  A friend gifted me with a hundred Turkey feathers and I have been using the feathers to fletch arrows.  I hate to waste a feather and it really griped me to use part of one side of a feather for a 3 feather fletch and throw the rest away.  I was looking at a small pile of left over feather parts and noticed that they looked a lot like feathers prepared for use in a 2-fletch.  So I grabbed the culls and worked them up into some two fletch arrows.

Now here is the point of this post.  Is it possible that the first people used both the three fletch and the 2 fletch at the same time?  It would be a great savings in feathers.  Basically enabling the arrowsmith to get two arrows out of 3 feathers.  I found that my 3 fletch arrows using Red Osier shafts were weighing in around 600 grains (including a 125 grain field point) and the 2 fletch using a hollow River Ash stem (with a 122 grain homemade steel broadhead) weighed in at around 400 grains.

I would guess that the lighter 2-Fletch arrows would make good small game arrows that might tend to get lost.  While the heavier 3 fletch arrows would be for larger game.

Just a random thought on a cold snowy day.

[Pat B]

Native Americans did use both the 2 and 3 fletch styles along with other styles. They were not prone to waste so they probably used what they had availavle. You could get fletching or the 3 fletch and still use the remaining for two fletch.
 Try adding the 2 fletch to your red osier arrows and they will make heavy hunting arrows. If done properly 2 fletch will fly as well as a 3 fletch.

[stickbender]

     Yep like pat said they did not waste materials, as is evidenced in the used up arrow heads that have been found.  Also there were some spiral fletches also, using one feather.  The fletch is basically like a kite tail, to keep the back from going in a different direction, and helping it to recover from the fishtailing, due to the compression of the arrow upon release, and compressing the arrow in an arc.  I am sure there must have been some experimental research and development, among the various groups of the earlier people.  After all it was a means of survival.  If one group used two, or three, and another used one in a spiral, if it worked for a particular group, that is what they used.  No need to go further.  It shot straight, that was all they were after.  Maybe some experimenting with fletch height, for sound, and speed.  There is just so much of archeology that is pure conjecture, whether it is based on sound reasoning, or purely a wild guess.  How and why one group chose one style of fletch over another is purely guessing.  Till we can bend the lines of time (E=EMC2) and travel back and observe, it is anybody's guess.   Just my own opinion, and you know what they say about those......
                                                                                Wayne