The following is a portion of a letter I got from Larry Griffith, President of Bohning.
"We changed the Fletch-Tite formula based on a number of factors but mostly because of customer calls. We do our best to investigate, recreate and understand what that customer had occur, using both field and scientific methods. Once we know what has occurred, we determine a method to improve our product. The possible solution is tested in a lab, outside at our facility and with the use of shooting staff scattered throughout the world. This is all done before a final change is made.
Over the 50 years that you have been an archer you have no doubt seen or heard of many changes. However, some of the changes are not easily seen or noticed by the archer. They deal with materials, coatings, unique chemistry of the end product, and methods of manufacturing designed to improve durability and reliability.
One major change most archers are not aware of concern the laws and regulations governing the use of chemicals. They are far more stringent. The war on drugs has very quietly impacted our archery community. In addition we investigate (and sometimes use) new chemicals and or design new solutions applicable to materials used in arrows and other archery products. The result are the changes as seen in products like Fletch-Tite Platinum.
I will tell you the number of changes occurring in arrow shafts, especially over the last few years, have been tremendous and are largely unrecognized by the archer. Even wooden shafts have changed. We have seen a tremendous variety of new woods appear. Rarely are shafts made from the same wood as decades ago because those trees are sold for more lucrative and profitable products, when they are available.
Aluminum shafts have undergone multiple changes in their processing, coatings, and anodizing methods. Colors and patterns rarely fade anymore. Carbon graphite shafts, too have undergone huge production and processing changes. No longer do you have to stand on a target (which is now made from any number of plastics) to remove an arrow. The ease of pulling shafts out of targets and the color fastness of designs greatly impact adhesion and the glues bonding vanes to coatings on a shaft.
We did test the current formula (and there have been approximately 4 incremental formula changes over the last 12 years) with wooden shafts (to include a very “sappy” pine), aluminum (both Easton and Doosung), and every carbon graphite shaft we could obtain from suppliers throughout the world.
Platinum works best in low humidity and temperatures between 40 to 90 F because it needs low humidity for the solvents to evaporate. The actual pull strength when compared the Fletch-Tite is 2 ½ times as strong as the old Fletch-Tite. If fletching in a high humidity indoor environment (40% to 90%) an archer should use an instant (cyanoacrylate adhesive). In fact instant adhesives, ours or any other manufacturer’s, must have humidity to allow bonding with the water molecule."
Topic: Fletching cement...... (Read 929 times)
