Tail feathers as fletching?

[ajbruggink]

Hey Guys,

I was wondering if turkey tail feathers make good fletching? My brother gave me a turkey tail feather and a turkey right wing feather that he found while mowing the lawn at work and it got me thinking. I read in "Eastern Woodland Bows" chapter by Al Herrin in TBB II about the "two fletch" arrows sometimes used by the Cherokees back in the day for emergency or kids' arrows and that they split a cane arrow at the end, put a whole tail feather in, tied it up and there was a 'quickie' arrow but I was wondering how they would perform with a standard three fletch? Any replies are greatly appreciated.

Aaron

[JW_Halverson]

Oh yeah, they will work. 

Once I made a fancy presentation set of arrows where the cock feather was the usual turkey wing, but then the two hen feathers were tail fletches.  I used the very end of the feather so that the iridescent terminal band at the tip of the feather remained on the arrow. 

Granted, tail feathers are not as stiff as secondaries, which are not as stiff as primaries.  If you shoot lots of bare shafting to get the spine matched to the bow and your draw weight, then crispness of fletching is not as critical.  It takes very little feather to impart rotation and stability to a carefully spine matched arrow.  With your eastern woodland style arrows, you worry even less because the are often trimmed very little anyway. 

Post pics, bows are pretty, but nice arrows are hot!

[nclonghunter]

Yes they will work and it got me to thinking also, maybe someone (me) needs to turkey hunt there..

[Pat B]

The Eastern Woodland (Cherokee) two fletch works well with turkey tail feathers. I have tried the method you described and it works OK but a basic Cherokee 2 fletch, with the feathers laying flat on the shaft works better and arrows fletched like that can fly as well as with any fletching.

[4dog]

looooove me some two fletch!!

[PrimitiveTim]

Yup, it's been done.  Split the cane slide the feather in and sinew on either side of the tail feather.  I used to do something similar to that.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZXXGffcEKo

One issue I noticed and was warned about was that after a while the part that is split will get bent after a while.  I think it's better that a node is further up the shaft from the feather and don't split it all the way down to the node.

[Hillbilly]

The Eastern Woodland (Cherokee) two fletch works well with turkey tail feathers. I have tried the method you described and it works OK but a basic Cherokee 2 fletch, with the feathers laying flat on the shaft works better and arrows fletched like that can fly as well as with any fletching.

This. The tail feathers are perfect for the Eastern Woodlands 2-feather fletch. Disregard about 99% of what Al Herrin writes about Cherokee tradition, he is from Oklahoma, after 175 years of dilution of Cherokee tradition. The Cherokee (as well as many other eastern tribes, ) in their homeland used a two-feather fletch, and not as an "emergency" or "kid's " arrow. It is an effective fletching system and works as well as three-feather fletchings. Historical Cherokee arrows are almost always of this design. It's not the "split shaft with a feather stuck in it" design that Herrin describes either, it's a system where two feathers are partially split and attached to the arrow with a helical twist. The Cherokee here in their western NC traditional homeland still make arrows with this fletching style. Most of the western Cherokee, such as Herrin, have forgotten about it.

[Danzn Bar]

Glad to see you back Hillbilly..................You and Pat add a lot to this Forum..........
DBar

[Salvador 06]

Hillbilly, interesting point about the split of the two Cherokee groups.  Do the eastern Cherokee continue to prefer black locust as their wood of choice?  Al Herrin is an osage guy and I think his explanation for shifting to osage was left incomplete in the book.   

[Hillbilly]

Yes, all the traditional-type bows I've seen built here by Cherokee bowyers in later years have been mostly locust. The Cherokee here in western NC are the descendants of the most traditional elements of the tribe, the ones who simply refused to leave their homeland and go to the Indian Territories. When the Army started rounding them up, they just took to the mountains and hid out, and had it really rough for a long time. Many of the tribe here in the late 1800s and some of the older folks in the early 1900s didn't even speak much English, they kept their language alive along with most of the traditional tribal customs. Unfortunately, there were many tribes clumped together out in Oklahoma, and they had to adapt and homogenize a lot of their culture to survive, I think, but probably lost some of their original individual tribal cultures along the way. The Indian Removal was a bad time for all concerned.

[Hillbilly]

Glad to see you back Hillbilly..................You and Pat add a lot to this Forum..........
DBar

Thanks. I'll try to get around more often, just get busy with life sometimes. Haven't had time to do much but work lately. I haven't even shot a bow in months.