Recycling a Turkey to make it fly again

[Stay Sharp]

While I enjoy compound bows and modern bowhunting, my first love is primitive bowhunting. Im a DIY'r and would rather make all my own gear than purchase it. I think this way of going about bowhunting is seeing a resurgence and for that I am glad. Sadly there are not a lot of mentors and fear of failure in many cases keeps people from trying something new. I enjoy passing along what I have learned in nearly 40 years of bowhunting. There may be a guy out there that has the desire to go traditional or even primitive but fears the unknown or doesn't know where to start.

Lets start with the feathers.

I enjoy making my own arrows. Ive been making them for as long as I have been hunting. I started with cedar, then aluminums and now carbons. While I enjoy compounds and recurves,, I also make my own longbows and my own broadheads to hunt with. I took a few pictures of the last batch of feather I am working on. This not the ONLY way to make arrows. Its just one way. There is more than one way to skin a cat and while I love cats, I can’t eat a whole one by myself but I digress.

We save the wings from the birds we kill so we can make them fly again.

I like to use the primary feathers but I also use the secondary feathers if they seem fitting for the purpose.

I trim away both ends that are less than useful.

Turkeys are dirty, smelly, oily birds so the feathers need a bath in warm soapy water

 

[Stay Sharp]

Even though this turkey died once, Its gonna get dyed again. This time red but sometimes green or yellow, etc. I use RIT dye, really hot water and a little vinegar.

After a rinse and air drying.

Lots of folks use a razor knife to split their feathers and I have done it that way for years but I find a 14 tooth very thin bandsaw blade offers more control and is a bit easier/safer.

 

[Stay Sharp]

I fabricated a holder that allows me to grind/sand the base and sides of the feathers. Nothing fancy but it works.

 

[Stay Sharp]

Then a trip on the drill press against a sanding drum with a wood spacer slightly larger in Diameter than the drum to allow for consistent spacing.

 

[Stay Sharp]

I don’t chop my feather although that is a perfectly fine method to employ. I tend to burn my feathers either in advance of fletching using a simple clamp I made from office supplies and a red hot wire.

Or I burn them after fletching (also using a hot wire)

I like to dip and crest my cedars in colors that match the feathers.

 

[Stay Sharp]

I have a few fletching jigs that date back pretty far but for a bit more helical I use this newer Bohning jig.

Here is another batch.

Couple that with a homemade broadhead and it makes for one very satisfying way to pass the time and a way to increase the level of satisfaction and accomplishment when you take game with a homemade bow and homemade arrows that are tipped with homemade heads.

 

[buckbull]

Those arrows are a thing of beauty.

 

[Stay Sharp]

They do catch the eye in a way that Blazer fletched carbons can't. Having made plenty of both types, I would rather make cedars. Carbon just doesn't smell so sweet. The smell of burning feather beats that of opening a blister pack of Blazers.

 

[Hilltop]

Very cool to see this process- Thanks for posting.

 

[Stay Sharp]

Thread created. http://forum.eastmans.com/showthread.php/12062-Making-my-own-broadheads