Trad Gang

I've used it in the MS heat and humidity for years--works great.  Lots of friends use it with the same sucess.  A friend in TN who is as professional an arrow builder as I've ever known uses it, always had good results.

One of the great things with tape is not just that it's quick and easy to fletch an arrow;  it's also easy to remove and replace a damaged feather.

In the Michigan heat I have had them fail so I went to super glue on wraps and Scotch super strength on aluminums. No more feathers rolling over in the hot sun.

But as written there are lovers and haters with no-one in between.

I'm going to tinker with fletching my own feathers this year and I was considering using the tape myself. Thanks for all the info.

tarponut, I hope you contacted your supplier.  As a retailer I would want to know if somebody had a bad experience with a product I sold.

Tape works well for me in the hot humid SC coastal weather. Only time I had feathers loosen was when I was experimenting with waterproofing feathers with black magic tire wet, worked great on feathers but over time loosened bond with fletch tape.

Love the tape and it works even better since I started using wraps instead of dipping. The only problem I ever had was years ago on a batch that I sprayed with a silicon based spray to water proof them. A few weeks later they were curling up and dropping off. That was 17 years ago. Found lost arrows in the field behind the house that were buried in the weeds and dirt for years and you can't pull what's left of the feathers off.

if you find yer fletchings are flying and staying on well with tape, and yet it's pretty easy to remove them by pulling them off, they were probably not installed 100% correctly.  

after proper prepping, installation and curing, they will need to be scraped off with a knife and it won't be all that easy, just like fletchtite or duco glued on feathers.

It's good stuff and th endives you got here is good as well

Rob, thanks for posting YouTube link. I noticed you prep you feathers as well as the shaft. A good tip and one I sometimes forget about. I think it would still be easier to scrape the tape off than old glue. The tape is one thickness and width where as glue can be all over the feather area.
I will give the tape another try. I am now wiser because of everyone help. Another alternative is using plastic vanes but that does not go over to well with longbows and shooting off the shelf. It is also not me.

i've shot carbons fletched with kurly vanes and spin wings out of longbows.  they do work well if yer form is good.  

however, there is NOTHING as good as some big twisted feathers for steering a broadhead tipped hunting arrow, no matter what the shaft material.

If you used tape and had problems, It's do to a couple of things.

1) how you prep the Arrow.

2) Tape that is old and been on the shelf for a long time subjected to heat.

Ya want fresh tape, and as mentioned by others, keep it in the fridge.

Mike, I was using it for spliced feathers. It made sense to use tape and still does. I think my mistake may have been letting the tape sit around for sometime before using it. I get a lot of supplies as Christmas presents, beats the usually stuff. The tape may have sat for 6 months before I used it.

I'm a novice arrow builder, but I can miss the target with the best of em and that will put the fletching through its paces.  I watched the video on Braveheart Archery's site and bought the fletching tape and a jig. Fast, simple, and durable.

pay special heed to shaft and quill preparation cleaning!  afterwards, don't touch either with yer fingers!  at least in the beginning, you will be much better off laying down the tape as i do in my video, and not rolling it off the tape reel.

QuoteOriginally posted by Rob DiStefano:
pay special heed to shaft and quill preparation cleaning!  afterwards, don't touch either with yer fingers!  at least in the beginning, you will be much better off laying down the tape as i do in my video, and not rolling it off the tape reel.

Regarding the tape application, I figured that out pretty quick....works real nice the way you do it and that's how I've been doing it as well.

First, I used to be a big fan of Fletch tape.  

However, over time and a lot of use,I found Fletch tape to be a crap shoot, sometimes it works great, other times not so good.  

I always glue both the front and back of the feather, on numerous occasions the tape has released, both partially and completely, between the two drops of glue.  Often, on hot summer days, the tape will slip/slide into different positions.  Also, when the temperature gets around zero the tape has failed when bumped, completely releasing between the front and rear glue drops.  It seemed I was always fixing the feathers, adding extra glue (that looked like cr#$) to keep them in place. Life is to short to shoot ugly arrows, or an ugly bow.  

Glue works. I have four Bitz's. For myself, time is not that much of an issue. I have chosen to go with the reliability of glue.

Anyone steamed their feathers which are held on with tape?
I have some tatty ones but am reluctant to steam them in case they start falling off.

I have steamed mine without any problems. It would appear to me the feathers retake shape long before the tape and shaft get too hot.

I've used the tape for a very longtime, I have taped arrows that have been shot hundreds of times for several years, I have steamed a few arrows and haven't had any problems. If you do lay your fletching on a flat surface for a few days the feathers do take on that shape. so don't store them that way, however they did shoot fine,, one other problem I had I water proofed them and put it on pretty heavy and it affected the tape and the feathers did actually fall off, I have water proofed my feathers since and was a bit more cautious when applying and it worked very well. Over all I have had good luck with tape and will continue to use it, I do put a dab of glue at both ends.

Hey speaking of dabs of glue at the ends, how do you guys do it and what do you use?

I apply it straight from the bottle of Gold Tip glue (super glue) and I almost always get a bigger "dab" than I want and I get an ugly white powder at the edges once it's cured. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

QuoteOriginally posted by Paul_R:
Hey speaking of dabs of glue at the ends, how do you guys do it and what do you use?

I apply it straight from the bottle of Gold Tip glue (super glue) and I almost always get a bigger "dab" than I want and I get an ugly white powder at the edges once it's cured. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

I use Duco. A glob dries incredibly small. It shrinks quite a bit when fully dried. I had a tendency to use too little and it would all but disappear. Now I have gotten used to the needed drop size. I also smear mine down the shaft and away from the quill to give it a tapered finish. I do not smear the nock end of the drop, which is smaller in my application.

And yes, super glue leaves the white powdery edges that I do not like.

Another important advantage of fletch-tape: it glues on everything. I had some problems with my glue eating up or melting the paint on my shafts. Tried all different kind of glues with the same result. Then I tried fletch-tape and there it was: feathers were glued bomb- proof to the shaft; problem solved!

duco cement who now stocks it ??????

I happen to think that glue sticks better to porous feather quill than tape, but I know that tape will and does hold sufficiently. After 20 years of glue-fletching, I gave tape a serious try. Here's what I noticed:

Not all feathers are ground at 90 degrees right angle, base to feather. Whatever the angle, my fletch adhered to the shaft at that angle. Three perfect feathers = a normally spaced and fletched arrow. If a feather base was off-angled (when ground) it would adhere at the off-angle. I had a number of fletched arrows which displayed a flattened 'Y' look when viewed from the nock end. I know the issue was the feather base and not the tape, but the tape has no ability to dry and 'lock in' the feather angle (set by the jig)regardless of base grinding. When using good glue, the feather angle was locked in after 20 minutes and would not move or lean or flatten after the clamp came off. I tried a variety of methods to correct that issue with tape, but it was never as easy as using glue for me.

The other thing I noted was the thickness of the tape, while minimal, was noticeable to me. I could see the tape beneath the feather base, and the end result wasn't as aesthetically nice as the glue produced. I also noticed the elevation of the leading edge of the feather which I definitely didn't like and had to spend time addressing.

In the end, I stayed with glue and can't see an advantage in tape for me. I have a 6-Bitz setup and can fletch pretty fast. I have never lost a fletch from a hunting arrow in any weather or condition. My fletch remain perfectly spaced and angled for the life of the arrow, and I never pay attention to their integrity after the arrow is completed. This is simply me, and the guys who get acceptable results from tape have my admiration.

I've used nothing but Bohning tape for years & never had a single issue.
Last year I was in a rush for some tape & ended up buying 2 rolls of the 'Bearpaw' brand & I've lost a good 50% of all the feathers I used it with.
If you're going with tape, absolutely stick with Bohning.

then i have yer admiration, kevin.  :D

yes, tape isn't gap filling.  nor does it need to be as long as the quill base is reasonably ground and i haven't found that an issue after well over a decade of tape use on true flights and many other brands of ground base feathers as well as the goose and turk feathers i prep and grind.  

even with two full sets of fletching jigs and a tube of fletch-tite, one fletching jig and a roll of bohning will fletch at least four to six arrows before the glue dries on two.  

there will be no discernible flight difference 'tween any of those arrows, glued or taped.  

if both types were assembled correctly, both will be just as durable over the long haul.  

a correct fletching process and materials is always paramount no matter what kinda adhesive is used.  

it's all good, there is no right or wrong choice when all the choices have been proven to work well.  :cool:

QuoteNot all feathers are ground at 90 degrees right angle, base to feather.

You just solved a mystery for me.  I have seen this, never put 2 + 2 together.  It's rare for me though, and didn't cause a flight problem.  Just made me wonder "how did I manage that?".

I doubt that it would cause a flight problem the majority of the time. I recall being disgusted by the unbalanced look of the fletching on a few of my finished arrows. To this day I remain really picky (ok...FUSSY) about how my arrows look. The fletch must be accurate and evenly spaced. I want the ends of the feather to be tight/flush to the shaft. I just can't tolerate an odd arrow in the quiver. I had that with tape, but I readily admit it could have been due to some squirrely feathers and the base grind. I only use True Flight these days.

I also splice quite a bit and don't think I've ever seen it done with tape...but maybe it has. In any event, I had to use glue for the nocks and feather ends. It was just as simple for me to 'stick' with one product all the way through. I think all my friends and hunting partners are using glue. The main thing is tight and accurate fletch no matter how you do it. Try both and go with the one that suits your arrow building ideals best.

QuoteOriginally posted by sweet old bill:
duco cement who now stocks it ?????? [/QUOTE

Family Dollar stores

I stick them on with tape, then put a dab of glue in front and back of each, then run a bead along the side of each for maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the feather.

Why ?  cause I can still make a dozen arrows in the time it takes you to do two with glue, I only need one jig, and I have not had any issues at all since I started doing that.
CHuckC

I want to agian thank everyone who has offered their experiences with fletch tape, good or bad. I may have also solved another issue with helical fletch on Axis shafts not laying flat. A skinny shaft and mis ground quill and helical twist gave me fits yesterday. It was on only 2 shafts so. I wrote it off to me not being careful. Now I will check those quills.

I get Ducco at Ace Hardware or True Value Hardware. I have pretty much stopped using it in favor of NVP glue from Saunders.

QuoteOriginally posted by Rob DiStefano:
to each their own, it's all good.

for decades i used slow curing fletchtite and duco.  then the faster curing superglues.  the fletchtape back then pretty much, well, sucked.  completely inferior to the bohning tape of today.  

with good tape and a good fletch process, the arrows are completed and ready to shoot as they come off the jig, and it takes far less time to fletch up a dozen or three while i'd still be working on the first arrows if i was using glue exclusively.  

too many folks just dunno about shaft preparation and how to best lay down the tape, and/or they're using the wrong tape or tape that's too old.

i'm a video, click me ...
  (https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/6o8KKUxhIbQ/mqdefault.jpg) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HWpHXWpfTw&feature=youtu.be)  

Rob,
sorry to change the topic of the thread, but what fletching jig is used in this video?

Rob,
Several of the arrows I got in the St Jude's auction a couple of years back developed gaps (1/2"-1 1/2") in the middle of the fletchings.  A little glue while being held down, and they worked fine, just didn't look as nice.

Kevin,
Your observations are the same as mine.  I have been known to use an old straight JoJan jig to hold the feather while flattening the base on my edge sander.

QuoteOriginally posted by Walt Francis:
Kevin,
Your observations are the same as mine.  I have been known to use an old straight JoJan jig to hold the feather while flattening the base on my edge sander.

Now right there is a smart tip for fletch tape users, and one I haven't tried. I could use that idea even on some of the fletch I glue. I don't have a straight clamp, but I'm thinking I'll start looking.

I should add as far as tape being quicker...it definitely is that.

Given all the slow handwork I put into it, I easily spend a couple or more days making a dozen finished arrows for hunting. Saving the time between gluing and taping has never been a consideration for me. I rather like the slow and methodical process of creating fine arrows the way it was done many years ago.

Kevin.. no doubt your arrows are put together better and prettier.  I just have no real desire to put in the hard work and dedication for that to happen.  For me, the fletch tape is the cats meow.  

However,  I really like looking at arrows like yours and have to agree that the glue does certainly have its plusses.  I really didn't want to own 6 or more Bitz fletcher units ( I use Bitz) nor sit for 15 minutes between fletch sequences etc and the tape was a Godsend for me.

For those that use tape.  Try this.  When you get the tape, separate the sticky from the orange layer and cut some of the sticky off, then cut the orange leaving about an inch or so overlap (sticky being shorter.

You can see the cut mark thru the orange.  Apply the tape to the feather ( I hold the fletcher between my knees) and apply as Rob describes.

The next part takes a tiny bit of practice, but I do it right quick and you can too.  When the tape is pressed into place on the feather, all the way to the end of the feather, I hold the roll in my right hand, lift up that 1" tab with my left hand and peel it back until I can cut THE STICKY at the end of the feather.  Then cut the orange as you did to start, leaving about an inch of overlap.  Now you are set up for the next feather.

Once you get the gyrations down, it is easy and quick.

ChuckC

I use a single fletcher so tape is the answer for me too. I did a doz in less than an hour last night while watching TV and doing other things. With gluing, I'd still be at it.

I've been using tape for about four years now with no problems. Down here in Louisiana it can get to the high 90's and even hit 100 or more in the summer. I strongly recommend shaft and feather prep like Rob has posted in his video though. It literally makes all the difference.