How hard is it to use wild turkey feathers to make feathers for fletching an arrow? Which wing feathers do I use? Does anyone do this? Thanks

stykzz is your man, search the handle

It's easy to do yourself. Use the primary wing feathers. Split the feather down the groove in the quill with a utility knife. Put the feather in a straight fletching clamp or jig and sand away the excess quill. Takes about 60 seconds per feather with a belt or drum sander, but it can be done by hand with a sanding block.

There are a number of videos on you tube. It will be a lot easier to understand if you watch it being done. The primary feathers are best. I use the secondary's as well for my own practice arrows. The tail feathers work fine for primitive cane arrows. In any case if you don't decide to do it don't let the feathers go to waste. Lots of guys here can use them. >>>>------> Ken

All I use are wild turkey or Canadian goose feathers. Haven’t bought any feathers in over 20 years. As long as you use all left, or all right on the same arrow it doesn’t matter which you shoot.

Nothing to it really.

Quick tip to using full size feathers, don't use the feather burner in the house. Seriously it's easy to do, I've only used turkey feathers for years.

just takes a bit of time,, but I really enjoy it,, I shoot off my hand,, so I use the left wing,, either will work, even the tail feathers are good,,

I use stykzz. Costs me maybe $7.00 for the shipping and he keeps one side and sends me the side I want.

The big thing for me as I don't have to be a round that quill dust which is real nasty.

Been doing it this way for a for a years now. Must have 400 or so left wing feathers in the freezer .

Yep, stykzz is the one. Turkey hunting friends save me the wings

Been doing it for decades. Native americans ,even longer. It ain't rocket science!

Lots of good info already given, the only thing I would add into use a rotary cutter like an Olfa. It is much better that a utility knife. Also, watch out for the dust. I use dust collection, an n95 mask, and two 20x20 air filters. Have fun!

Rookie question… What is the chief concern with the dust from the quills??

I’ve seen people worn about it 1 million times, but I’ve never heard anybody say what the specific problem/concern actually is….

stykzz x's 2 !!!!! I just sent him 50 RW primaries and 50 LW primaries. He'll split & grind the LW's for me & keep the RW for himself and send me the finished LW's. Perfect...Thanks Todd,,,,Be safe...Des

By the way...for years I split & ground my own but with stykzz it is a win-win situation !!!! Des

Don’t mix right wing and left wing fletching. I grind them with belt sander and one of those spring clamps for bags of potato chips. Holds the feather fine and it’s cheaper than a fletcher clamp.

Corax: The dust contains Napthalene which is the same chemical found in moth balls. This can cause severe artery clogging problems. Fellow over on Primitive Archer dang near died because he wasn't wearing a mask while grinding. Took the Drs forever to determine the cause

You can skip the cutting and grinding if you strip the feathers off. I use a chopper for the fletch shape after they are stripped.

Once the feather is glued to the shaft it's just a strong as a grinded feather.

It's hard to explain, but starting at 3:20 is how I also do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhrtxz3IXJk&ab_channel=ClayHayes

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