Quote from: Undomesticated on Today at 04:50:47 PMYou won't get a 3-blade as sharp as a two blade ....

Maybe if there's a need to get sharper than razor sharp.

He's on Facebook, try sending a massage there.

You won't get a 3-blade as sharp as a two blade (more on that at the end!)

Think about it. Those Iron Wills are 19 degrees per side for 38 degrees total. When you sharpen a 3-blade flat on a stone, you end up with a 30 degree per side angle, 60 degrees for the entire cutting edge. More than a 20 degree difference between the two. That's substantial. 3-blades have a pretty blunt edge. They can still be gotten plenty sharp, of course.

But for those that are perfectionists, there is a solution. You need to sharpen the heads on a rounded surface. There are some commercial options out there, or you can just use something like a coffee can with sharpening film or sandpaper adhered to it. You can get a 3-blade really, really sharp this way.

There's static shaft spine and dynamic shaft spine.  The shaft material used for arrow making can have a vast real world shooting difference between those two types of arrow spine.  This is never more true than with carbon shafts that list a huge static spine range for a huge range of trad bow holding weights.  I've always had big problems tuning really stiff carbons for a 44-52 pound longbow holding weight and the answer for me is a 29" 500 carbon shaft, that's all I ever used for carbons and longbows.  Woodies are a whole diff'rent story and why I have to carefully static spine each wood shaft.

I've owned and shot many Black Hunter longbows and a few of their recurve models, with a barebow crawl (for a short distance) and have had no issues.  These bows were between 37 and 46 pounds holding weight at a 28-1/2" draw.  It can be done, but it's definitely not ideal with a 60" n-2-n bow.

For hunting a trad bow with a fixed crawl (meaning, the string nock point is below the 90* mark and not above it) it would need to be point on at all the distances you'd want to make a kill at and that can be a problematic setup that would typically require a fast arrow speed setup.  That's not a particularly good way to hunt, IMHO.  You'd probably be better off putting the time in to either shoot "pure instinctive" (not looking at the arrow or bow) or using some part of the arrow as an aiming tool coupled with a good arrow speed to your kill distance, all with a normal bow setup for 3FU, or get a longer bow in the 62" to 66" range. The longer bow will allow a fixed crawl much better and even barebow string walking if need be, though I would never advocate string walking for hunting.

My first time trying a tracker,,, im in cape cod scrub oak country using a 2 blade,,,,, im hoping this gives me a edge... its muzzle loader season here and up until nov 30 this area was stocked with pheasants but i know theres a 8 pointer in here with a few does... im not going to lie im curious about the string getting spun into the fletching during flight,,, if i get some action this weekend i will post here.

Thanks Phil!

The two bows I shoot are a Hill Jack and a Union Jack.  Earlier this year I bought a Northern Mist Classic and a St. Patrick Lake American Styk.  The Northern Mist and St. Patrick Lake have very similar grips.  Typical Hill style - a bit full or blocky.

Jim's bows have a more slender grip. Still the same overall dimensions in depth as most ASLs but a bit thinner and not blocky like the others.  My bows have a very slight dish in the grips. The Union Jack grip feels a bit different than the Hill Jack because the Union Jack has one lam on the belly side while the Hill Jack has all lams on the back of the bow. It is hard for me to choose a favorite between the Hill Jack and Union Jack grips.  Both feel great to me.

I sold my Northern Mist and American Styk because I prefer Jim's bows.

Unless you have a very short draw length, I think you'll be happier with a 62" bow if you want to use a fixed crawl.  You'll probably have to use a high nock point, maybe up to an inch, to get good arrow flight with a fixed crawl.  While an inch seems very high, it really just offsets the amount you are holding the string lower than normal with the fixed crawl, so your drawing fingers end up close to the normal place you would hold the string.

This is easy to see if you bare shaft tune: your bare shaft will fly nock low, and you will need to raise the nock point up to get the bare shaft to fly level if you use a fixed crawl.  If you don't bare shaft tune, then your arrow flight should be pretty good on a 62" bow if you set the nock height at 3/4".

While the Black Hunter does not come in 62", there are plenty of good entry level bows that do, like the Samick Sage and the PSE Nighthawk.  They cost a little more than the Black Hunter, but not enough to break the bank.

Most people who use a fixed crawl don't shoot the bow any other way, in order to avoid mistakes and grab the string in the wrong place when your adrenaline is high in a hunting situation.  The shorter the bow the more important this becomes, because the difference in tuning for a fixed crawl vs holding under the nock becomes magnified the shorter the bow is.

Thanks for the shared experience, Kirk.  That seems to be the way I'm heading; staying in the 10-12gpp range.  But life is too short to walk around with all matching arrows, lol.  I will keep my 700gr lawn darts for planned 5-7 yd ambushes.
Even with how awesome the 700gr 400 flies; if I'm short on my draw or by brace needs adjusted, I get a 'click'...probably stiff clanking off the shelf, whereas my 500's can do no wrong.
Shame there aren't much to choose from in the 450 spine, my Victorys 450's spine almost identical to Axis 400.
Maybe next year try some stiffer 500's. (or weak 400's)