sourwood shoot and hill cane arrows

[Pat B]

Got the fletching added. I use fletch tape to hold the feathers to the shaft and add a sinew wrap fore and aft. On the feathers I leave about 1/4" stripped feather at each end of each feather and after using fletch tape to hold the feather to the shaft I wrap over these bare tabs with sinew and also a sinew wrap just below the nock. Next I will seal these wraps with pitch varnish.

[Roy from Pa]

Very nice job, Pat.

[flyonline]

Very nice!

Just curious, how or do you tune your arrows? Experience? Or do you make a few with inserts/field points to get a feel for what's needed first?

[Pat B]

Steve, with these hardwood shoots and cane arrows experience comes in play but I do test spine to find the stiff side of the arrow which goes against the bow. The length and natural taper are also considered too. That puts me pretty close and a shot or 2 will allow me to tune finer with tip weight. It's a little more complicated than store bought shafting but that's where the experience comes in.

[flyonline]

Righto, thanks Pat 

<Adds something else to the 'one day' list  >

[silent sniper]

Awesome job Pat, that was a great tutorial. I've always believed that building a well tuned group of primitive arrows is more challenging than making the bow itself. Nice work 👍🏻