Two feather fledged white ash arrow with obsidian point

[Philipp A]

Thanks Wayne and thanks for all your advice on how to split the logs all the way to how to use my Veritas dowel maker, it is much appreciated!

I have today finished my second white ash arrow with the twin fledge design, but this time instead of the obsidian point I have added a 125 grain 5/16" field point. As soon as I had it finished, I took it out to the barn and shot the twin fledge arrow and compared its flight and noise to my 3 fledge standard arrow. The result was very encouraging!

The twin fledged arrow was noticeably quieter than the 3 fledge arrow and I am suspecting that having the tip of the turkey tail feather intact and allowing it to move for the last 1.5 inches might have the effect of shedding vortices and dampening the noise. I had to turn my hay round bale to the side since I had to dig out my 2 fledge arrow out of the bale because it buried itself all the way to the nock. My 3 fledge design did not penetrate as far. Shooting at the round bale from the side with the netting the twin fledge white ash arrow still penetrated the bale approximately 4" deeper than the 3 fledged arrow. This could be partially also due to the smaller diameter of the arrow but it definitely was hitting harder than my other arrow.

My 3 fledge arrow I compared the twin fledge to is ~ 1.25 inch longer (29.25" throat of nock to tip), is 11/32 Douglas Fir with a spine of 52# and weighing 509 grain with a 125 grain field point

The new twin fledge arrow is 28" throat of nock to tip, 5/16" with a spine of 51# and weighing in at 571 grain (125 grain field point)

I am definitely happy with this white ash two fledge turkey tail feather design. Everything on it except for the paint, the sinew and field tip is "homegrown" out of my bush. In addition I am now able to get substantially more fledging out of the turkeys my son and his friends shoot in my bush, I call that a win win 

[TSA]

you are most welcome Phillip
i have been inspired by your style of two fletch. i think i will be trying that the next time i get a minute to fletch up some new shafts.
up until now i have only done the "south eastern two fletch"

please keep me posted as you work your way through your " book of projects"

[DC]

Those are beautiful arrows! Great job!

[Hawkdancer]

Pat,
Do you hydrate the feathers by just wetting the quill to soften it, or is it more of a soaking?

Phillip,
Can't wait to see the whole set!  I plan to use the 2 fletch on the set I am making for my land owner who lets me cut/gather from her place.  I like the loose tip idea!  Hope I saved the tail feathers from our fall birds!
Hawkdancer

[DC]

You can straighten feathers with an iron if that would help. Just use the tip of the iron on the "cotton" setting. Don't know what would happen if they got wet after straightening them though. Just do a Google search on "straightening feathers".

[Brotherhood Bows]

Your knowledge of fletching and arrows is awesome! I have yet to really get stuck into fletching, FOC and grain. I shoot with an albeit wonky 120lbs @32",  78" yew warbow. It was my first try at making one so getting used to heavier arrows has been a good learning curve.

Seeing your magnificent 2 fletch and obsidian head made me dream of shooting beaut arrows to match the frankly frightful power of this new bow.

Keep up the amazing work!

[Philipp A]

Thanks Ben for your feedback! I certainly would not want to call myself an expert, I just like studying things once I get involved in something and love tinkering. I like for the resulting work to be both functional and nice to look at. Making the arrows has proven to be as much or even more fun than making bows for myself, especially once I was able to make the arrows from trees harvested in my own bush.

The one thing I should mention is that I still plan to sinew wrap below the nock in order to prevent splitting of the arrow. I think this will be especially important when shooting a powerful bow like the one you have made. I have seen a lot of native hardwood arrows depicted in literature that are not sinew wrapped at the nock, but they were mostly made from split hickory and I was informed by Carson Brown that hickory is much less susceptible to splitting, so I definitely want to take him up on his advice to still sinew wrap them at the nock.

Quite frankly, while I realize it is as much technique as pure strength, all I can handle is about a 75# bow, so I admire you for being able to handle a 120# bow!

Have you measured the speed of your arrows shot with your war bow? What thickness arrow do you shoot with it now and how long are your arrows you are using? It looks like you have long arms at a draw length of 32", so you would need an exceptionally high spine weight for your arrows. What spine are you using?

Thanks for your interest,

Phil