Fletching jig?

[StickMark]

I want to second the spine tester. Easy to make...and you rather quickly, three years  , learn to kinda feel out the spine that works for arrow pass, your favorite draw weight, and your own personal release.

[Hawkdancer]

What is your draw length!  Generally, I think the arrow length should be long enough for the point to be clear of the back of your bow and your grip hand at full draw.  As for a spine tester, as TimBo said, a 2 lb weight, and set your rests 28" apart, you can fudge just a bit on that.  If you have a known spine arrow, put your weight dead center and mark the sag point for reference.  Most shafts you buy will be in a 5# range, such as 40-45#. 
Hawkdancer

[Fox]

my draw length varies with the bow,,, but with the 28" arrows it was a 27" draw

[elijahjmhutchinson]

I realize I'm a bit late to this party but still think I can help. I recently left my fletching jig at a family member's house and had to make a couple of arrows without it. Here's an old-school method that I use on occasion.

Wrap the front of the fletchings without glue and orient them evenly around the shaft. Then apply a small bit of glue to each feather one at a time as you normally would. Hold the glued edge of the quill to the shaft for a few minutes until it adheres enough to be let go. This technique relies entirely on your ability to eyeball and works best for short fletchings. A simple clamp can be made from a couple pieces of cardboard to hold the quill straight if a longer fletch is needed.

I hope this helps. Cheers

[Fox]

I realize I'm a bit late to this party but still think I can help. I recently left my fletching jig at a family member's house and had to make a couple of arrows without it. Here's an old-school method that I use on occasion.

Wrap the front of the fletchings without glue and orient them evenly around the shaft. Then apply a small bit of glue to each feather one at a time as you normally would. Hold the glued edge of the quill to the shaft for a few minutes until it adheres enough to be let go. This technique relies entirely on your ability to eyeball and works best for short fletchings. A simple clamp can be made from a couple pieces of cardboard to hold the quill straight if a longer fletch is needed.

I hope this helps. Cheers

Part of that is a method that I’ve heard of but never tried it..... I’m going to give your method a try! Do you split the feather with a knife or pull it off?

Thanks for the help!

[bjrogg]

Have you ever tried shooting one without any fletching?  A bareshaft test? It can tell you a lot about your arrows.

Fletching is always the last thing I do. And before I fletch them I always shoot them bareshaft. If they fly tail left or right I change either the weigh of point or the length of arrows.

If you have a properly tuned arrow. It shouldn’t require much fletching.

If you want to talk bare shaft testing though, that’s a another thread. It gets difficult to describe,  but it’s really pretty simple

Bjrogg

[Fox]

bj, yes I always bar shaft, and that's usually easy for me to get correct arrow flight.... but most of the time after I fletch them I can't get them to shoot straight or group, although they usually won't group before fletching either. Now when I pick up a quiver of store-bought arrows I can shoot them all into a teacup (as the guy from khans says)