Bamboo Arrows first try

[DC]

You can't just try it once.

[loon]

Same. I broke at least 3 shafts when I started, spending hours trying to get them straight. May sort of be starting to get the hang of it...

Oh, now I want to try wooden dowels. Red oak is pretty cheap at Lowe's, but tends to have lots of grain violations. So much straighter than the bamboo I have, and softer bends..Forrester's shafts would be way better and still a good value.
Those Korean and Japanese fletchers somehow get the bamboo dead straight, but I'll probably just make crooked arrows that hopefully spin true.

[Pat B]

Here is a pic of a crooked sourwood arrow I recently made. Not much wiggle in it but you can see some. I placed the arrows on the paper towel so it can be seen better. This is a pic of a hill cane and sourwood(crooked) arrows. Crooked sourwood arrow is on top.

[cantshoot]

You can't just try it once.

You're right about that. I got another one ready for fletching.i understand why all these jobs were delegated to different craftspeople in the past!

The arrow even got gruff approval from Merlin, the rangemaster at my club. The wooden arrow head probably has about 30 shots... It holds up okay but it actually pulled out of the shaft after that many impacts. Will have to fire up the glue gun and stick it back in before the weekend.

[gutpile]

if you peel your feathers and lay a thin layer of hide glue on shaft , then spiral wrap feather with sinew they will never come off....gut

[cantshoot]

I've heard to "peel" the feather before. What exactly does that mean?

[loon]

Removing the quill spine thing? Is it really necessary..
I think I may end up cutting feathers in half and then just grinding on a stone or sanding away some of the spine but not all. For now I just use pre-cut fletchings as is. They have some of the spine left. I know Bamboo Archery removes it for supposedly good reasons, reducing weight or something.

Wait, not spine. Stem.

I would love it if someone would explain how they peel the feathers. Do you remove all or most of the stem, leaving just the vane?

[Pat B]

Grab the feather at the tip end. With the other hand grab the barbels(little feather thingys) on the side you want to use. In a quick motion pull down and away from the quill. It takes a few tries to get the hang of it but if the feather is hydrated it will strip off easily. If it doesn't, place your feathers in a plastic bag with a damp(not wet) paper towel for a day or two. This should hydrate them enough for them to strip easily.

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Basically the stripping will give you a very very thin base with minimal effort, splitting and sanding will give you a thicker/stiffer base which is a little easier to work with (though that's probably personal preference) but takes more work.

[gutpile]

I start mine with razor blade but have peeled before by grasping end...you can apply a helical when you wrap with sinew..easily adjust helical before glue sets up... something I haven't done yet but assume would work on peeled feathers is right and left wing would probably work together ..sine helical is removed when peeling...like IO said I haven't tried it cause I got tons of each...gut