California Indian Style Archery Set Build-a-long

[JackCrafty]

My fletching technique:







Both sinew and feathers into the water.










Pulling the fletches tight (not too tight!).




Smoothing back the feathers with a little water and a little heat from the heat gun.




OOPS...too much heat....I burned the cock feather.
I yanked this feather out and installed a new one.
White goose wing.....I thought the contrast might look cool.










The sinew blob at the nock looks too big (to me).
I might remove the sinew and re-do it.
I may also trim back the rear points of the feathers.  Don't know yet.



Total weight of the arrow:




That's all for today.

[billy]

absolutely beautiful arrow dude....stunning!!!

[Pat B]

Beautiful work Patrick. Great build along.

[JackCrafty]

Thanks guys.

I've been thinking.....I'm going to change the foreshaft a bit for the arrows that will not have bone arrowheads.  The 3 bone-tipped arrows are wall-hangers (I'm not matching them closely or making the shaft/foreshaft joint very strong).  The other three will be target arrows, with sharpened wood forshafts, and I will pay closer attention to matching the weights (as well as spines) and I'll make a stronger shaft/forshaft connection.

[david w.]

Great buildalong!! Really nice work

[D. Tiller]

Wow! Nice job.

[donnieonetrack]

Patrick, you always amaze me with your talent.  You do the most authentic repoductions I have ever seen, including the bow and arrow you made for me.

If you ever decide to sell your works, add me to the list of clients.

take care,

Donnie

[hawkbow]

Great job brother, your craftsmenship is awesome.. I look forward to seeing more...Hawk

[JackCrafty]

Donnie, thank you.....and you're now on my list of potential clients.

Thanks Hawk.  There's quite a bit more to do on this set, so more pics are coming.  That is, if my wife will let go of the camera.... 

[John K]

Lookin great Patrick ! Thanks for sharring !

[JackCrafty]

Thanks John.    And sharing is the least I can do after learning so much from this site.

[Barrage]

Another great buildalong.  Those arrows look great.

[JackCrafty]

Thanks Barrage.
Well, I managed to get a few hours of time this weekend to work on the set.  I'm not going to add much narration to the following pics....time is short.



Fletched a couple more arrows.





Added the foreshafts.
In my haste, I forgot to weigh the foreshafts and then glue the heavy one onto the lighter arrow.
So, in order to try to equalize the weights, I reduced the diameter first and then trimmed off a bit from the heaviest one.
I also left the lighter one a bit longer in order to keep it as heavy as possible.
This makes the arrows unequal in length, but this was common among NA arrows.


There is a 40 grain difference in weight between lightest and heaviest but I might be able to close the gap by adding more sinew to the lighter one.  I realize these arrows are going to be for display only and I could have made them exactly the same length (and not cared about the weight) but in trying to equalize the weights they LOOK authentic and LOOK like they have been made equal in weight. 























Adding arrowheads.








I'll glue the heads and wrap with sinew later.

[JackCrafty]

I took some wood off the bow's tips and belly.











Bow weight @ 12" draw.





Bow weight @ 18" draw.





Bow weight @ 18" draw.



The bow has taken another 1/4" of set.




The tips are significantly narrower now.




Since the arrows are a bit stiff for 25# of draw weight, I may stop here.
I'll crunch the numbers this week and see exactly where I stand.
Right now I'm just estimating.....I'll have to get more exact when I build the target arrows.

That's it for now.

[Pappy]

I had missed this,thanks for sharing,that was cool.
   Pappy