Collecting & Identifying Pre-1970 Archery Fletching Tools

[Wade Phillips]

I know at least a few other collectors of vintage archery tackle who also collect vintage Fletching Tools. Thought we could start a thread to help each other identify some of the more obscure tools in our collections. I have seen over 75 different vintage fletching tools, many are not marked.

If we post photographs of Pre-1970 fletching tools we can identify and those we can not, perhaps we can all learn about the vintage Fletching Tools in our collections that we can not identify…

These two different length 3-fletch tools were made by John Schwenk originator of the ACE broadheads. Cast into the removable base of the large tool is PAT PEND, MFG BY JOHN SCHWENK, ST PAUL MINN. The base is missing from the small tool.  

 

[JavelinaHink]

Wade........I'm diggin around...can't seem to find mine...Box the one up without the stand and send it to me for my Ace display and we'll work out the details later....your the best man....Bill

[D.Sheppard]

The only vintage fletcher I have is an old bitz, but behind those fletching jigs and thru the spaces in those old Grumley and Bear bows I see row upon row of broadheads. PICS ?  

[Wade Phillips]

JavelinaHink - I am going to hang on to both of the Schwenk Fletchers and hope to locate another base for the small one.

D.Sheppard - Several different models of the Bitz have been made since its introduction in 1940. I'll try to get a good photograph of the different Bitz that I have and post them... You asked for "...Broadhead PICS ?" ... Actual size photographs of all of those heads in the background appear in the book "Traditional Broadheads 1972-2007", Identification Guide".

Back to vintage fletching tools...

The Triangular Base 3-Fletch Tool on the left is a patented 1956 “Arrow Fletcher” by Alfred R. Protinga.

I don’t know the identity of the similar but more simplistic tool on the right. It has brass triangular plates that are slotted to accept the aluminum plates to clamp the feathers.

Hopefully someone can help me out by identifying the fletching tool on the right…  

 

[D.Sheppard]

Here's a pic of the old bitz jig and another old no name one.
 
 

[R.V.T.B.]

My dad had a fletching tool similiar to the one on the right in your photo. You put the feathers in between the two pieces of aluminum and then slid them in little slots. It did all three feathers at the same time. He used pieces of bicycle tire inner tube like rubber bands to put around the ears of the pieces on the clamps that stuck out above and below the jig. This held pressure on the clamps and pressed them on the shaft. As practically everything we had that was archery related came from Herters I would have to say that his old jig did also.

[DLM]

I have a Fleetwood Fletching Tool NO.751 in the box that looks the same as 1 pictured below the old Bitzenburger but it has only 1 clamp for each fletch.

[Wade Phillips]

D.Sheppard - Your Bitzenburger is the one pictured on Bitzenburger's 1957 patent application. It would be the fourth generation, the first being 1940 (date of patent application, actual patent granted in 1943).

Your second tool is a Fleetwood that was made in several lengths 3" to 6", 3 and 4 fletch, straight, right and left, but not all combinations were made. An inexpensive tool that was sold during the 1950s and 1960s. Not sure of its earliest date.

DLM - Number and size of clamps varies on tools. After use, clamps could have been changed by owner to be any number or any type of clamp.

[Rick Enos]

Hay Wade,Just dug this old pappa up.Its a RE Rohde 3038 N.Newhall St. Milwaukee Wisconsin.This was a patented product.Boy I'm having a ball on this site.I'm afraid I'm going to lose my wihttp://i680.photobucket.com/albums/vv166/renos53/100_1050.jpgfe.Rick....

[Rick Enos]

Arrow fletching gighttp://i680.photobucket.com/albums/vv166/renos53/100_1050.jpg

[Rick Enos]

Try aga in

[Wade Phillips]

Rick - Fewer than a half dozen patented fletching tools are older that Walter E. Rohde's simple little jigs. Rohde applied for his Fletching Jig Patent on June 22, 1940 and was granted a Patent for it on June 16, 1942... which was a year and a half before Henry Bitzenburger was granted his first Fletching Jig patent on December 21, 1943.

Rohde's patent illustration shows the angled model in the photograph below. The larger horizontal model is made from the same materials and incorporates the same adjustment features. Rohde's jigs were available with straight, left or right clamps. They were one of the few fletching jigs that were available in the 1940s and into the 1950s. From the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s several other fletching jigs appeared on the market and created stiff competition.

I've found the horizontal model of the Rohde to be the most common and have found more clamps then jigs.

 

[Rick Enos]

Thanks Wade,I've got a lot of stuff but never really got into dateing anything.The KSD & KS page was awsome.I printed it off. Hopefully I will learn something there.See you at Compton....

[Rick Enos]

 
 

[Wade Phillips]

Rick - Looks like you have quite a selection of Fleetwood Fletching Tools and still in the orignial boxes. Actaully I have seen more Fleetwood tools still in the original box than any other tools. Apparently many of them were just not used much.

[D.Sheppard]

up

[raghorn]

Wade;
I have two of the small Rhodes. My daughters used them for making their own arrows when they were about6-7 years old. Mine have aluminum bases.

[sadiejane]

thanks for starting this thread. i have started collecting old broadheads and they're fun. but old tools, now thats the stuff i really love. have one old blitz jig(that i use). what other old archery tools ya'll have? really enjoy reading the history of these and other archery items too.
thanks!!