I know nothing about fletching arrows. When I need something fletched, I have to make the half an hour drive to the archery shop which just seems like more pain than its worth. If you have a reputable source for learning to fletch, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared it. I have no idea how my current arrows are fletched. When I bought the arrows, the archery shop just asked if I was shooting fixed or expandables and fletched them based on me shooting a fixed blade. My arrows have 4" vanes with what I believe is an offset fletch. When I look down the arrow from the nock, the front of the fletching (the end away from the nock) is towards the left. For a beginner, which is easier to use and learn to fletch with, an ez fletch jig or the bitzenburger? After I posted this, I realized this maybe should of been posted in the tech forum. If it is better suited to be there...mods, please do move it.
I would suggest an Arizona EZ Fletch Mini with a Blazer style vane if you want to fletch your own. They lay a very nice helical down with the short vanes. I am currently using this setup. You also have the option of quickfletch style wraps and vanes where all you do is boil water and dip the back end of your arrow shaft in the water and you are done. It's a nice product that I used for a few seasons. If you damage a vane you just peel it all off and replace it. These are spendy though, around $5 per arrow. Here is a photo of blazer wraps and vanes fletched with an EZ Fletch mini.
my first fletch tool was an Arizona for aluminum arrows about 30 years ago. agree they are a great and most highly recommend, especially if just starting out. I later bought a bitzenburger because of the versatility so I could experiment with different degrees of offset or helical. both are great tools.
Maybe theres a vid here on fletching. Its a pretty simple operation if you can get some one to show you a couple times. I use a bitzenburger. You can refletch a dozen arrows in an hr. or so once you know what your doing.
Unless you just want to fletch I suggest using the shrink fletch. Just boil water and dip and you're done. They are more expensive but they come out just about perfect every time. Blessings............Pastorjim
I'm not no expert but I can fletch my arrows. Just bought a jig and some glue and vanes and practiced. Maybe the first 5 or 6 times I scraped the vanes off and re did it when I wasnt happy with the results. The jig came with directions and I just followed them. Would say its better to use fletchtite or similar when starting out as it seemed easier to clear everything off and start over than with the super glue type.
I'm with OzarkLuke. Just dive right in. But I do use cynoacrylic glue put on the vane with a toothpick to spread it along the vane groove. It don't take much.
I personally just like the look of individual vanes compared to quick fletch or shrink fletch. Plus I have 18 arrows already fletched, just want to keep the uniform look compared to one here and one there that is quick fletched when ever I need to replace a fletching. Think I will get an ez fletch and see how it goes. I noticed when looking at ez fletch jigs, they seem to come as a specific offset or helical. Is choosing an offset or helical more or less personal preference or is there something behind it?
Do not skip good prep. Lightly sand the area and wipe it down with acetone or a high proof rubbing alcohol.
Good advice, except I use steel wool and NO liquid cleaners at all. I strip, rub with the steel wool, and get the residue off with a clean cloth. I use AAE FASTSET GEL and never have a fletching come loose.
I knew nothing about fetching when I bought my fist bowhning jig, I had some free veins sitting around from the sportsman show so I decided to giver a shot. I used and old arrow to start and just slapped veins on it. It was pretty fun and you can customize your arrows to the way you like them! I now rock 4 veins on my arrows and I find my groupings have Improved from the extra vein Sent from my SM-N920W8 using Tapatalk
You will often get better fixed head flight with a helical opposed to an offset. At least in my experience. It's one reason I love the AZ mini if I am using 2" vanes. The helical it puts on is excellent. I currently own 3 jigs. Jo-Jan mono fletch, AZ EZ mini, Bohing Pro Class. I actually started on the Jo-Jan about 20 years ago or so. I use it the least these days. The Bohning is kind of a plastic Bitzenberger knock off. I had a Bitzenberger many years ago but sold it at the time because I just wasn't using it. They are great jigs and I wish I still had it. If you do decide to use Acetone to clean off any glue reside you need to follow that up with denatured alcohol or 90% rubbing alcohol to get any oils off that the Acetone or nail polish remover leaves behind. Prep is key. ALso if when applying the vane or feather and a bunch of glue is squeezing out, you are using too much glue. Less is more with glue when fletching.
Also check out the bohning complete tower jig....i was recently looking for a jig and chose this one over the AZ it has way more styles and types it can do.....ive heard both are good and do it the same way but i liked the versatility of the tower jig. Good luck
Fletching your own arrows is probably the easiest thing most people don't do. Just jump into it, trying it on a few old arrows until you work out all the kinks. A few devices I wouldn't recommend would be the bohning helix tower, bohning the big jig, and the goat tuff arrow fletcher. Haven't used the goat tuff but I've heard enough bad about the build up of glue, which is the worst when fletching arrows.
Some solid advice already given! Personally I like the blitz , getting ready to wrap and fletch a new batch now!
Great advice given here. If I can learn to do it, it'll be a walk in the park for you. Prep is key, the mini EZ fletch has worked great for me. There's a sense of satisfaction taking game with arrows given your personal touch.
Appreciate all the great advice so far! Yes, YouTube can be your friend but it's just like anything else....not everything you see there is all good. I will be checking out it out though.
Ironic, I just got done doing a couple of arrows, but I was using my "bitz". lol Just a heads up, after each season, it's a good idea to give your vanes a good tug to see if they're still snug. I had some older arrows that didn't past the test and they were refletched.
