Made some new arrows, messed up. Now what?

[highpoint forge]

After Xmas the weather turned nasty down near Houston, so in record time (to avoid sitting out in the shop too much with a stiff Norther blowing in my face), I put together a dozen Traditional Only 340s, flo yellow wrap, Tru Flight white 5" shields and a barred white/flo yellow shield cock feather. Finished them with 100 gr brass inserts and German Kinetics SF 180 gr broadheads. The cock feathers were cut using a Lil' Chopper 5" shield style. I was so happy to get these done I barely noticed the damn cock feather shield shape is wrong. They don't match the Tru Flights. Should I trim them? Start over? I shot one a few times and part of the wrap and 1/4" of a feather on it broke off...so annoying. I'm probably going to redo that one arrow so I can see another color combo......

Any hints? I'm a perfectionist so this kinda stuff drives me nuts.

[Bjorn]

Sounds to me like you are doing pretty good. Ease up on the 'perfectionist' stuff-this is your first batch? You can trim them; start over if you want to. Put a drop of glue on the front and back of each fletch if you have not done so.  What happened to the wrap?
I have a hint for you too.................go back to being a perfectionist when you have successfully made 50 arrows-for now have some fun!    

[$bowhunter$]

if the one odd feather of the 3 is larger than the rest id try to tim it or vice versa with the other feathers

[The Whittler]

Feathers are very forgiving so I would think the feather shape should  NOT make a diff.

As for the color, that is personal. For my self with flo yellow wraps, I would go with 3 bright yellow or 3 white. I like my fletching all the same color.

[L. E. Carroll]

Well you just made me feel better...    ...To correct all of this, I just continued until the whole dozen were complete.  I and then carefully changed the "shields" as closely as I could with sizzors into "Parabolics".... I don't think the kids will ever notice    

Heck, they loose them about as fast as I can put them together   :rolleyes:  

Gene

[Kip l Hoffman]

Buy your feathers full length and then buy a feather burner.  you will pay for the burner in short order with full length feathers and there is no way you will make this mistake again.

[acolobowhunter]

If you had a burner,you could run them thru and make all the feathers the same.

[Walt Francis]

2x What Gene said.....get a Feather Burner

[Possum Head]

What Bjorn said!I love you color choices.Hang in there.

[Mudd]

I wish I could offer some help but... sorry!

I did find the solution to my arrow building problems years ago.....

I am careful not to recommend my solution to anyone else.

Good luck figuring it out!

I hope that you find building them is as much fun as shooting them

I applaud you for trying!!    

God bless,Mudd

[lpcjon2]

If you don't have to have them to hunt redo them if you need them ASAP trim them.And a feather burner is a great tool to help make really cool shapes and clean up mistakes as well.

[Bill Carlsen]

Know anyone with a feather burner...would be and easy fix.

[highpoint forge]

Let me clarify by saying I've made dozens of arrows and I usually make certain all the feathers are single source. I was pretty tired during Xmas from hunting my brains out all season with no luck plus work, etc...

We do have three burners at my in laws, 3 hours away, but a TG'er here offered to adjust/burn the cock feather back into correct size for me and copy the Tru Flight shield shape.

Gotta love TG. Looks like I'm sending these out to VA. asap....gotta find an arrow box. D'oh!

[ckanous]

Man that totally rocks right there-TradGang Brotherhood!!!