Spliced-fletching military arrows

[WillS]

These were my first attempt at splicing a small secondary feather into a main one.  Bloody fiddly, but quite a nice result. 

The customer asked for a way of identifying the cock feather and it certainly does that! 

1/2" ash shafts taken down to 10mm at the nock end. 

Inserted with 1mm thick dark ox horn inserts.

Fletched with 9" long 1/2" high white turkey (and some swan) with red turkey inserted into the cock fletch.

Bound with red pure silk at around 7 turns per inch.

Armed with Type 10 bodkins, and heavy lozenge-shaped plate cutters.

[Pat B]

Nicely done. I've done some splicing and think it looks very cool.
You could also put an index on the shaft to feel where the cock feather is. I've used small tacks or just a drop of TB glue.
 For the glue I put a drop on the shaft. When it skins over I turn the shaft so the glue is on the underside and let it dry. This will leave a small "nipple" that you can feel when you draw the arrow from the quiver. I never look at my shafts when shooting so an indicator I can feel works well for me.

[penderbender]

Those are some sweet arrows! Splices look great, and I bet they are bloody fiddly! Where do you get your Bodkins? Cheers- brendan

[Trapper Rob]

Good looking set of arrows.

[bowtarist]

Very NICE!!! dp

[Knoll]

Fantastic!

[Aaron H]

Excellent set

[Stixnstones]

Beautiful!

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Wow, nice work!

[DC]

Too pretty to shoot! Well, maybe one at a time

[WillS]

Cheers for all the comments folks, much appreciated!

Where do you get your Bodkins?

They're usually made for me to order by a very talented Eastern European smith called Miloslav. 

[neuse]

Really nice looking arrows.
I have no idea how you wrap the thread on the fletchings, but it looks good.

[WillS]

Patience and many hours!  These ones are OK because the feathers are glued down first, but the ones that are fletched as per true Medieval methods are a nightmare, as you need to hold the feathers in place with one hand and bind the thread on with the other.

[Aaron H]

Someone on here posted a wrapping jig about a year ago.

[WillS]

Yeah it was Fiddler.  It's a clever tool, but unfortunately wouldn't work for longer fletchings taken from wing feathers.  Turkey tail feathers have the barbs at a very consistent angle, whereas something like these ones change along the length, and you need to adjust as you go.

It's even worse when you're using feathers from different birds, as they're all different each time you turn the arrow!