Am going to try splicing feathers again. Have read the tutorials and try to cut the splces from the same appoximate section of feather as the main feather, but still have issues getting things to mesh together nicely. Any tips or tricks you use to accomplish this?
Picture shows the main problem I have, just seems to twist out of shape.
(http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/bucksnort101/ArrowSplice2.jpg)
If your having alot of issues with the precut feathers, try using full size/uncut ones then chop them yourself. Tim
Gee, that almost looks like right wing vs. left wing. May I ask, are you butt splicing sections end to end, or are you stripping the splice from it's quill? Not all quills are ground exactly the same and may sit differently on the shaft. Either way, any time I've spliced feathers, the section that matches best isn't necessarily from the same area of the feather. You have to see what lays right. I always splice, then chop though.
Am using full size feathers, all left wing. Have tried both butt splicing and stripping the quill and adding the missing section, then chop. I seem to have a little better luck butt splicing them together, but want to get more consistant meshing of the splices.
Before you glue them down, put the pieces together in a straight clamp and lightly sand the bottom of the quill until everything matches up. This will keep them from separting later on.
YO can also try the other method of splicing, where you fit a piece of the odd color onto the quill of the main feather. Jim Shanks shows it over at the Stickbow site.
I have the same issues as bucksnort...even with the sanding. I can't seem to keep two from rotating different directions after a few days/weeks.
Dunno if I can explain it, but I'll try. The best looking splice I've seen was done by stripping the feather and using fletch tape. Cut a full length feather a little longer than you want in the finished product. Make your measurements on the chopper and on the feather. Score with an x-acto knife, strip the portion you want to splice in. Measure the section you want to splice in, use fletch tape to attach it to the main feather.
That make any sense? Got to give credit to Tom Kiessling for showing me.
Chad
well i do it the cheap and easy way, gotta get it in the clamp and sand till the quills are flush, then a drop of CA glue, then fletch tite platinum
Chad, I have never tried that method but just spliced them butt to butt as two seperate quills. I'll give that a shot the next time I find the time to splice.
I assume you are sanding the spliced in section down very, very thin to get it to meet up right with the main section?
No sanding required--just strip the section that coming out, and the section that's going in. Measure and mark, the score so you don't strip more than you intended. The part you peel out for the splice will be limber, but you can get fletch tape on it. The tape will hold great, and won't show. Once spliced, chop--that way everything is uniform.
Chad
Any tricks on getting it to "peel"?
Score (just through the membrane, not the entire quill) and carefully pull--similar to the way Ferret does turkey feathers. Pull against the "grain".
Chad
Sorry, don't mean to be dense: I assume you are working from a whole feather. What about from full length, already processed? Score all along the feather base at the thickness of the membrane then at barbels at the desired length of the spliced section? Pull the membrane section from the rear of the feather?
You're not dense, I just stink at trying to explain it. It's pretty easy really.
Yes, I'm talking about a feather that hasn't been chopped yet--that's easiest. You can do it with cut feathers, just have to be careful with the measureing.
Just have to score the membrane at the ends of the splice, and pull from the rear. If you cut through the membrane, it should come out pretty easily.
You can swap the splices out if you keep them the same--pull a piece out of a red feather to splice into a yellow, use the yellow you pull out to splice back into the red.
Chad
Thanks Chad. I think some of the problem is I've been trying to sand down the feather low enough, and not able to...rather than strip off the barbels by peelin up just the membrane.
The beauty of the splicing Tom showed me is it won't matter nearly as much if the quills aren't just alike. Finished product looks like it just grew that way.
Chad