I've actually been working on this for over a year now, so without any further faffing about:
Part 1: Ad'lans Guide to Fletching for the modern archer who can buy parts.
This is Part 2: Primitive Fletching. Everything I use you can find or make from the woods. It wouldn't be easy, and a lot of them, I bought with modern promissory notes so how authentic they are? That's up to you. I took a lot of inspiration from arrows from various "primitive cultures" I've seen in private and museum collections. I was also inspired by Shawn Wood's Otzi Arrows. I use modern tools, because cutting wood with stone tools is verging on ridiculously time consuming. If you've never tried, I suggest you knap your self an edge and try. A pointy stick is easy, anything more than that and you'll really grasp how wonderful modern manufacturing is.
Enough diversions.
Just like the first fletching guide, We'll have a kit list:
Shaft,
Points,
Knocks,
Flights,
Adhesive,
Binding,
Looks a bit bare? Within these components, bushcraft arrows can have a vast combination. Some collections I saw had the same fletcher turn out arrows of the same design from wildly different materials, but materials that were all local to them (even if in once case, it was American Brass from the Troops deployed in the 50's).
So, Shafts:
I won't list off woods you could use, there are too many. I will split them into true woods and pithed woods.
True woods, like ash, birch and hazel are what many modern "traditional" shafts are made from, turned out from the whole plank. Working with them in the round is different. For a start, we have to find them in the round.
Some tree's are often coppiced, this produces fantastic shafts off Hazel for example, dense straight growths. But without tree farming practices like coppicing or a practice I remember hearing about of stringing up young saplings to ensure they grow straight, you'll want to look for naturally straightish shafts.
This will be from plants that naturally grow quite straight, which are often pithed woods, or from densely packed areas, where little natural light penetrates.
And then right in the middle of the copse.
Nice Straight shafts.
Pithed woods, which is not a proper taxonomic term, as I'm including everything from bamboo to bullrush, tend to grow straighter. I saw a lot of footed reed arrows, which made sense as they tend to be less sturdy. I tried to look for local traditional materials, but I couldn't find any on any land I could harvest from. So I decided to try something a little different.
Buddleja, or the butterfly bush. It grows in large stands across wasteground in the UK, one of the hardiest of weeds and first to reclaim land.
This is a stand of it cluttering my friends back garden.
I cut a dozen shafts of varying thickness. I'll be able to spine them for my 45lb longbow and 60lb recurve bow, so the varying thickness will both be useful, and I haven't a clue before starting what the right thickness would be.
I cut them in late summer, so they were still full of moisture. I steamed them over a wood fire.
This
To this.
The set together. I set them away in a quiet corner of the out buildings, to let them dry. I could have started making an arrow with them straight away, and in a survival situation, that's what I'd do. I'd like to shoot this set for a while, so I set them away for a while.
