Preparing a Full Feather

[gino]

ok folks I made this rough guide of preparing a full feather into a fletch for a warbow forum and I thought someone of you might like to try it.

First you start with your whole feather. Notice there are no spots of blood at the bottom of the quill, I've been told that this means that these feathers were dropped as opposed to being plucked.



Next cut off the bottom of the quill above the furry bits.



Ok, time to find the bit at the top of the feather where the quill begins to split into two sections, hopefully you can see it on this picture as a line down the middle of the quill



Cut the top of the quill off at the same angle as the vanes of the feather on one side.




Now, very carefully (you may want to get an adult to help ) cut down the quill from top to bottom and using a sharp blade try and keep the cut as central as possible. If you're lucky (and with some practise) you may be able to use both sides of the feather (but not on the same arrow) but dont worry if you cut through the feather by accident, it's going to happen a few times.



You should end up with two half feathers



Don't use opposite halves on the same arrow! only use the same side for all three fletches but i'm sure you all knew that already.
Ok, so now we have a half feather but the quill is too thick to start gluing to shafts.


Using your sharp knife carefully remove some of the excess quill but not all of it, if you try and do that you'll cut through the feather and ruin it.


Now I don't have any automatic sanders or anything so this is done by hand. I place my feather in the fletch holder from a Fletching jig with the quill sticking out.



Using some sandpaper and a suitable block (or pipe)


carefully remove the remaining quill.


should leave you with a nice thin quill to fletch with.


And you're finished. Well done

[robtattoo]

Excellent tutorial, Gino.

Just a thought though, to save you cutting yourself or ruining too many feathers you can simply grasp the feather either side of the quill and peel the two halves apart, rather than trying to cut down the center of the quill. You'll also get a lot less pith this way too & save yourself from having to shave the quill. You can go from splitting straight to sanding.

[clickerati]

This is right up there with Cecile's minibow tutorial! Thanks Gino!!

[gino]

cheers for the comments folks, I'll have a go at that rob and see how it goes next time I do some feathers.

G.

[English Bowman]

Thanks for that Gino, it made it clear to me what to do when cutting my goose feathers down for our new display arrows. (Used full length turkey feathers cut to shape before) I'll post some pics of them when I get time

Daniel

[jeduffey]

Nice photos. I have to do the same with some raven feathers I just picked up. Thanks for the help.

[Lord_Azrael]

I'm just starting to make some arrows myself, but can't find any feathers now!!
It's one of those things you always see all over the place....until you actually want some!
Luckily someone has offered to see if they've got any off their geese, but I'll have to wait and see.

Excellent tutorial, I look forward to trying it out soon.

[Dante]

Gino,

Thanks for that I will have to give it a try .

[gino]

thanks for the kind words folks, I hope it all goes well.