fletch ?

[oldgun]

Going to try my hand at re-doing my own feathers, I'm shooting a recuvre what would you suggest, if any, of degrees when I'm putting them on? IT will be my first try and am looking forward to it. Thanks. 3 fletch 5 in.

[smj]

What shaft are you using -

Hardwood, cane, reed, bamboo, or perhaps a footed shaft???

Or are we talking aluminum or carbon?

Just asking as there are a lot of ways to approach building arrows, most of which are being fast forgotten! The old ways to make arrows did not use fletching jigs. Fletching was placed and various methods were used to get it to stick to the arrow shaft!

Still, in general, a three fletch arrow will have the fletching placed around the shaft with equal distance, or angular rotation, between each fletch. Hence, for a three fletch arrow, the fletching would be 120 degrees of rotation around the shaft apart. Also, you want the front and rear of the fletching to line up. In other words, you want all fletchings to be the same distance from the end of the shaft, if you put one fletching farther down the shaft it could start to mess with rotation. I personally like my fletching to be as far to the rear of the arrow as I can get it with my jig. I have seen other folks put them an inch or two forward on the shaft, I figure further back equals better control.

Will you be using feathers, or plastic? I assume feathers, pre-cut to 5" length. Do you have a fletching jig? It makes the process much easier indeed!

Let me know specifically what you need to know! I've made up a lot of arrows...

[BT]

5" as smj suggests and feathers to be sure for the stick bows.
If your using aluminum, sand the shafts down before gluing them because aluminum finishes and feathers don't have a great working relationship IMO.
Just sand with a fine paper thoroughly to remove the gloss while retaining the paint and you'll be fine