two or three feather fletchings.???

[Green]

Nicely done Pat!

I love two fletch, with one area of exception.  The positives.....lower cost, quicker completion time, shoot without regard to nock orientation, perform just as well in flight, and they'll nest together.  Now....that last quality, nesting together can be a negative if you shoot with a glove and a back quiver.....I prefer 3 fletch for this as it puts some distance between the nocks, making nocks easier to grab with gloved fingers.

[mullet]

I think for simplicity, knocking an arrow, using an abundance of Primary and being able to use Secondary and tail feathers I'd go with Two Fletch. Like Pat said,; they are only used to slow your arrow down so they can catch up on the Paradox. If you Bare shaft your arrows you can use any feather, two, three or four fletch.

[Pat B]

...are shaft. 

[loon]

Doesn't two fletch tend to "wind plane"? How about 2-fletch with tons of helical for shorter range, vs. 3 fletch? Or that Eastern Woodland style (which is almost like 4 fletch), maybe with turkey tail feathers, long and not tall fletchings?
I don't remember if those fletchings tended to have 45 degrees offset/helical.
The arrows here look very nice http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php?topic=13931.0
I love the triangular self nocks. I made some like that, they are very easy to nock without looking!
Since I'm using pre-cut shield feathers, I'd go with 3 fletch, though I could experiment with super helical 2 fletch. also have several turkey primaries cut in half.. Same thing, since they're cut in half.. But if I got some full feathers, I'd probably just do Cherokee style.
3 fletch can also be made to be nocked either way, if they look like a Y with the nock vertical such that the fletchings are symmetrical w/ respect to the nock. Fletching that was was common in Asia. Wouldn't arrows fly better nocked one way than the other either way (even if 2 fletch), especially bamboo? Darned stiff side.

[loon]

another OLD thread (might not wanna bump it?) about a similar thing http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,12451.msg175165.html#msg175165

[crooketarrow]

  If your shooting a wide wind catching broad head. Or if your shooting 20 yards or father. 3 Feather will stableize your arrows quicked.  Do dout about it.

  For me I grew up learning all I could about the old selfbow hunters. Howard hill was at the top.
 
  The all shot 3 feathers. Plus I just love watching the arrow spin going to the target.

  But if your keeping your shots close 2 feathers are good . I've made and then shot a lot of 2 feathers through the years.

   But I'm a 3 feather fan. I like to see that tight spiral of a 3 feather all white disapear in the brown.

[mullet]

I've fletched two fletch with a slight helical. I've found with a lot of helical the make a lot of noise and slow down quick.

[Danzn Bar]

I've fletched two fletch with a slight helical. I've found with a lot of helical the make a lot of noise and slow down quick.

I was just about to say that Eddie....I've used two fletch and they seem to be a little louder than three.  but parabolic three fletch is the best and the quietest. IMHO 
But, I think I'm going to work on some two fletch viburum shoot shafts at Marshall this year.
DBar

[mullet]

I was hunting with 'into anything", Wade, last year and he had the best looking set of Tonkins, two fletched with a slight helical twist that flew like a set of carbons and were real quiet. The feathers were cut short.

[Pat B]

I think trimming 2 fletch will show the "sweet spot" with the fletching where you will get minimal noise. Stiffer feathers should make less noise too however I think turkey tail feathers were used quite a bit with the Eastern Woodland community.

[Green]

Two fletch works great on lighter shafts such as POC, Sitka, and Doug Fir that are on the lighter side....this is because of arrow speed.  Do a two fletch on Ash, Maple, Mahogany, etc. and you can easily see the instability in flight from 15+ yards. 

I love two fletch/ as it's simply a matter of setting up your fletching jig to do the first fletch at 1:00, then when the glue is dry, just pull the arrow out, rotate it and fletch #2 at 7:00.  Ezy Peezy.   

There is only one other draw back to two fletch, while fletching this way allows arrows to nest together in quivers, it can actually put them too close together in a back quiver to easily grab by the nock if you shoot with a glove.  Not a problem for tab shooters, though.

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

In the historical society I shoot in our main ranked shoots include a timed round, as many arrows as you can shoot (and hopefully score well) in 30 seconds. I know several folks who have a special pair of two-fletched arrows specifically for nesting together on the string at the same time in order to get two arrows off on the first shot since you can nock and draw before the timer starts.