Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: DC on April 20, 2015, 12:35:30 pm
-
I was just looking a OO's beautiful fletching and it brought up a problem I'm having. When I clamp and grind my feathers I wind up with a lot of shaft left on one side of the vane. In the first picture you can see the difference in the amount of vane showing between the black and white feathers. The second(blurry, sorry) picture shows the other side of the black feather. I'm grinding them at 90 degrees and if I was to grind any deeper I would wind up with no shaft at all on one side. I use farm turkey and Canada goose feathers and they both seem to do the same thing. Any suggestions?
-
You are probably clamping them unevenly. You can trim off the extra quill with a pair of scissors or sharp razor.
-
Here's my clamp. I don't see how I can clamp unevenly. The only simpler tool is an anvil :) :). I grind the sides off while it's in the clamp so width isn't a problem. It seems to be the angle that the vane comes off the quill but that just doesn't seem right.
-
Need a picture of clamp and how you grind
Or go ahead and use a razorblade to trim
-
You using a Great Northern feather grinder or a home made one? I use a Great Northern to grind and I still sand every feather while it is in the fletching jig clamp before I glue. I like a nice thin quill to lay on the arrow. I just sand that by hand using 120 grit. Looking at your feathers you could hand sand that fat quill right off them.
-
Sorry, I went brain dead and forgot the picture :P :P It's there now. And here.
-
When you put the feather in the camp, grind the thick side first them the bottom.
-
I use a wooden version of your clamp to grind feathers. I put the thick side of the quill up and grind it down flat. Sometimes I go to thin on the backside and mess the feather up.