how to fletch blowgun dart?

[yazoo]

could someone do a how to, build along, I really need some help thanks

[mullet]

 Mike, Hillbilly's friend, Barry McCaull made some realy nice ones. He wrapped Thistle down or Milkweed around the end of the shaft. It was tied on with sinew. They shot real good.

[Tom Leemans]

I made some out of piano wire once and dipped the end in glue and twisted a cotton ball on the end. They flew much faster and more accurate than those commercial jobs. I got that idea from watching some natives in the Amazon rain forrest on PBS. They were hitting monkeys 30-50 feet up in a tree!

[zeNBowyer]

Here's a  previous  thread by   Stickbender on how-to:

 Like Zach said, the Cherokees, would use milk thistle fluff.  They would gather them, and when dry, they would wind them on the dart shafts.  They would cut a notch in the back of the dart, to attach the string, when they reached it.  They would start a few inches down from the non pointed end of the dart, and make a few wraps around the dart.  They used a method of laying the thistle out in their hands, and rolling, applying the thistle fluff, and wrapping the string at the same time, and when they reached the end, they would tug the string into the notch, or slit, and cut the string off.  Takes a little practice, but the result is pretty neat.  Then they would put the dart in the blow gun and trim off the excess fluff.  The result was a very neat dart.  It  looked sort of like a Pussy Willow bulb on the end of a stick

[Hillbilly]

It's fairly easy to show, almost impossible to describe. I learned to fletch them from a Cherokee blowgun maker on the Qualla Boundary. I haven't done it in awhile, would take some practice to get back into the swing of it.

[uwe]

Wasn`t there something on "You Tube"?

[recurve shooter]

if your not determined to go primitive, just get a box of those paper cone cups like for those kentwood water despensers. cut a small hole in the bottom of the cup, pus the dart through, glue or tape it on, and trim the cone to fit your gun. easy and works well.

[stickbender]

     Yazoo, go to You tube, and look up Cherokee blow gun.  It has a video of a guy making a dart.  You basically just line up the fluff, in the palm of your hand, and the dart has a notch cut in the end.  You put the string in the notch, and while rolling the the notched end with the string in the fluff, and pushing the dart up towards the web of your hand, you will start winding the string and fluff around the dart shaft, till you are out of fluff, and then you can put a loop, and wind over it, and then stick the tag end of the string in it, and pull it back under the wrap, or just tie a knot, or glue it.  Then trim the end of the fluff even.  It is much easier to watch, than to try to explain it in writing.  The You Tube site has a much better explanation in video form.

                                                                         Wayne

[islandpiper]

I punch out cylinders of firm packing foam rubber and glue them on, then spin them on the belt sander to make them sort of thinner at the leading end   Easy, fast and accurate.  Punch out the foam with a sharpened pipe of the proper diameter.   Electrical conduit is about the best.   piper

[swamp monkey]

This is not a build a long but I described as best I could my process in this post:   http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,23209.0.html If a photo by photo documentation would be better perhaps that can be arranged. 

I would appreciate someone showing me more about the cotton wrap method.  That method does not yield the product that others can obtain and I want to push forward with quality. 

[jpayne]

doug meyer has a good youtube video blow gun dart making  his post is poisondartfrog100 I took his workshop at sycamore shoals state historic area in elizabethton tn

[swamp monkey]

many thanks

[SA]

i just made some not to long ago i used the down feathers from a turkey tail(could'nt find any thistle) and bamboo skewers they shoot really good.
just tied them on with artificial sinew.