Hi. I'm looking to get into fletching but I'm trying to do it as inexpensively as possible. I was wondering if craft feathers could be used as fletching. Specifically I was wondering if anyone had any experience with any of these.

  Turkey Quills by Pound

  Goose wings complete

  Duck Pointer Feathers

  SmileyMe Turkey Feather

  SmileyMe Black Duck feathers

Buy 100 ct AMG feathers. You cant get anything much cheaper, unless they are free.

I live near Lake Ontario - no shortage of free goose feathers for me.
Mid June - mid July the are flightless having shed their wing feathers.
I just ride my bike along the lakeside trails and pick them up.
I do use Trueflight as well.
Sometimes I'm just not up for all that quill grinding!

Check the big auction site, I seen them for $25.00 for 100.

I've used a lot of gateway feathers. People tend to bash gateway, but I found them to be pretty decent with a price to match. IMO all you get with tri flit is a thinner ground quill. Which I'm not convinced is better.

I would take the gateways and grab both ends of the quill and twist them each immediately before fletching them to ensure good contact and maximum helical.

Collecting goose feathers is a good way to do it but is actually illegal. Migratory Bird treaties make it illegal to collect or posses any part of a migratory Bird without the right tags or permits. Shoot the buggers in the fall and do everyone a favour

No one is answering my question though. Can I turn craft feathers into viable fletching

Yes you can. Any primary or secondary wing feather of sufficient size can be turned into fletchings.

I think the point we were all getting at is that you are not likely to save a ton of money. But certainly it's possible.

I bet chicken feather would work too ... Someone near you raises chickens almost undoubtedly. Although in CA it might be nothing but almonds so who knows.

You will get a whole load of rubbish in those bulk buys. Sure you are likely to get some primaries but I doubt it will be many. Forget it and get quality from the start. After all the quality of your feathers is of paramount importance.
i collect Canada geese feather from a local reservoir and they absolutely rock! Very stiff, superb waterproofing etc....the feathers you are looking at will come from domestic birds that have poor feather quality compared to wild birds.

Craft store feathers.

This was a lucky one off, never seen the likes since.

http://s25.postimg.org/t59m6uevj/P5134370.jpg

cool-
heres some input- if you would like- otherwise just skip the post   :D  
1. the leading edge of the fletches needs to be ground a  bit thinner so that they dont rip up your fingers or your rests-
2. and being thinner they will be more flexible , and will conform to the correct helical- right now the rest of the fletch is bending correctly- but the leading edges are bending the wrong way.
just some input- but i do think your arrows are great- and a stellar attempt- make those small changes, and they will fly a lot better-
cheers
goodonya mate

youre obviously not using a fletching jig- and thats fine- one is not always needed after all primitive man never had one- and look at some of the awesome arrows that PatB  makes!
i hope pat chimes in here with some input- hesdaman!

The next ones I ground really thin and wrapped the leading part and last bit of the quill, up to the nocks, with cotton thread. Coated it with varnish. (Self nocks)
A big improvement - I just couldn't find any photos of them.
The feathers were from a dollar store - I should have emptied the shelves!

saturating the thread with CA glue- will make it last way longer- then varnish over that!