Peacock Fletchings

[WillS]

Some new peacock fletched war arrows I finished up recently.  First try using peacock - horrible things to use, but they look ok.

Birch shafts, hand forged head.  About 116g or 1790 grains overall.  The fletchings are 8" x 5/8"

[Trapper Rob]

They look nice.

[osage outlaw]

Why are they horrible to use?  I've put them on arrows before and thought they were easier to cut and trim than turkey feathers.

[bowandarrow473]

Some fine arrows.

[WillS]

I'm used to goose.  Peacock are incredibly thin, so they refuse to stay in fletching jigs!  I'd imagine shorter ones would be fine, but at 8" long there's a lot of quill trying to curl away from the clamp, and no real thickness in the feather itself for the clamp to hold onto.

[meanewood]

Hi Will
Nice arrows, are they parallel shafts up to the Fletch and then taper to the nock?
I've found it a lot easier to cut the fletch to shape after it's glued on when using long , low fletches.

[WillS]

They're torpedo tapered, so they're parallel half inch for about 2/3 of the shaft, then they drop down to 3/8 at the nock.  They're all slightly different, because I was tapering them to match weight. 

I've had a go at cutting the fletchings once they're glued and just can't do it.  I find it completely impossible to keep the cut straight for 8"!  I do all of mine using the tried and trusted tape method - split the feather, grind the quill etc etc, then stick wide tape to a straight edge, stick the feather to the tape using the edge to keep it straight and pull the tape off the edge.  That way you've got a perfectly straight feather ready for marking out and cutting, and the tape holds everything in place.  Sharp knife gets it all done in a heartbeat, and each one is identical. 

[Pappy]

WOW, nice arrows, love the points. and the feathers look good also.
 Pappy