Hey all,
When the Wife asked what I wanted for Christmas I replied... A Blitz Fletching Jig.
Ok, So I order the jig at 3R1vers and get the fletching tape and some locktite plat glue for the ends.
I order feathers in some colors that I find fetching. They arrive and low and behold, I ordered something I didnt understand.
I get these HUGE feathers. What do I do with Full Sized Fletching feathers? These things are like HUGE 8-9 inches long?
Help me out guys. I have stumbled into yet another aspect of this Archery thing.
Thanks in advance,
Brian Gillispie
You cut the feathers into the length you want. Clamp them in the clamp and glue or tape them to the arrow. Then use a feather burner or scissors to cut them to shape.
Or, you can buy a feather chopper, which will cut the feather to shape before you fletch the arrow.
I'm a gal, so the wife doesn't yell at me for burning feathers in the house. ;)
Killdeer
Look in 3 Rivers again the sell feather choppers, burners etc. Personally I use the feather chopper to cut my feathers down.
You understand that you can also buy them precut different shapes and size but I prefer to do as killdeer said cut to length 5.5" and burn to shape. Good Luck
Also the feathers come in left and right wing, you MUST match them to the Bitz clamp AND to the feather chopper.
If you don't want to chop them, exchange them for precut ones. 3Rivers is good about returns they will make it right for you. I like to chop my own but not everyone does.
either chop them down or exchange them like stone knife said they are good about returns. I had a similar situation one time. I had a brain fart and bought left wings instead of right. luckily I live about 12 minutes away from Three Rivers archery and turned my truck around and they made it right. They even apologized for letting me leave with the wrong ones. lol witch obviously was my fault! what a good group of people.
You can do a search on this site for a wealth of info on building arrows. You can also go to the manufacturers sites and get lots of great stuff. Trueflight and Gateway have good sites. Trueflight.com has a great section explaining wing differences, helical, and fletching styles. Then when you figure out what you need, the sponsors of this site will have anything you need.
Welcome to the wonderful world of arrow fletching! It's great fun and will add a whole new dimension to your archery experience. That Bitz is a great jig. I've had my Dial-O-Fletch for about 15 years and love it. Next on my list of fletching skills is to start learning to splice feathers.
:goldtooth:
full length feathers
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a144/shelhebeen/IMGP8703.jpg)
cut and splice
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a144/shelhebeen/IMGP8707.jpg)
burn to shape desired
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a144/shelhebeen/IMGP8719.jpg)
magic.......
Wowsers,
Those are Pretty. I did a little reading. The splice thing seems pretty cool. Is it ok to use fletch tape when you are splicing differnt colors into a fletch? Or should you use the glue?
On the trueflight website the only fletch shape info that I could find spoke that the fletch shape didnt make any difference in flight charateristic. Is this True? Do I get a Chopper that simply takes my fancy?
Thanks all for the great info,
Brian Gillispie