Feather Burners...Any Tips?

[Guru]

Lets talk burners.....I've had one for a couple years now...used it some, but not a lot...

 Can you guys share how you go about it when it time to burn your feathers....anything special to your procedure?

 My biggest question is....How do you guys prevent the scorching of arrow wraps when burning?

a couple more...

 Is it best to rotate kinda fast or slow? I noticed sometimes the feathers seem to fold over before it burns all the way thru.....

 Best way to remove the brown edge after burning?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

the only thing I can add is.... Do it outside...

[Shawn Leonard]

Why does it have to be attached to a shaft. i am not familar with the process. I have a chopper, but never use it as I have a great line on feathers. Shawn

[bayoulongbowman]

Shawn , Im with you ???? Bananas are my fav....

[IB]

OH Charlie....PLEASE come hep.

That was all I usta do, Now it's ANCHEINT HISTORY. Just purchased a Young bout a month ago. Only to remember how much I had forgotten.

As I recall, you want to go pretty quickly when burning, this requires a VERY hot wire. After the burn I usually steam my fletching and just rub the burnt stuff away. As far as with wraps, can't tell ya yet, Back in the OLDEN days we didn't have them. Didn't seem to bother the cresting as I recall. Being an Ole Gay Guy I Love the way it usta be......  

[Stone Knife]

Did you try to go to 3rivers site and watch their video on feather burning

   Youngs feather burner

[Killdeer]

If your feathers are folding onto themselves, rotate the shaft the other way. Might work, might not. I have used mine for a lot of years, but I specialize in reinventing, not analyzing. I find that when I have a problem with that, I also seem to not have enough heat in the wire. I think a longer wire decreases the heat available. There is more surface area for the heat to bleed off.

I do it inside.    
But I am the wife, and I don't order me out of the kitchen. I will do a big batch outside, but wind will take the heat away from the wire.

I have never used wraps, but have 'browned' the shafts. For scorch marks, move the wire further from the shaft. The wire expands when heated, and you may end up with contact upon using it. A clean wire works best, you may need to take a small knife and scrape the edge of the wire before putting a feather to it. I am not sure, but I think a new wire works better than an old wire for getting good and hot.

Sometimes the 'browning' is smoke stains, and they rub off. The crust on the feathers can be whisked off with a knife blade or a tin can lid, you get the idea. I knock the big stuff off, but if there is just a fine edge, it will wear off quickly with use.

Best results for me are on a smaller, low-profile fletch with a good hot wire. One quick pass and it's done. I usually am doing a 4.5" shield.

Killdeer

[Flinttim]

Yep, Killy has it right. I turn the shaft into the wire, not up from the bottom.For wraps, you can adjust the wire far enough away to not melt the wrap and you will have a small piece of feather and quill left. I then take an Xacto knife and gently push it's edge straight down onto the quill till you here it "snap" thru. Pop it off with the knife. A lot of the brow you see it actually soot.First time you shoot it the crud left on the fletch will be gone.
 My burner was given to me by a man in his mid 70s and the burner was his fathers ! It had a wire on it in a shape I had not seen before. I use it a lot. Real old school. I have a wire bent for nanner and pope and young in addition. I use a lot of natural barred feathers and this tool is just the ticket.The one that was on the burner (old school) is a higher height than most but shorter. I can get 2 from each full length, even the smaller ones.

[Fletcher]

Killie and Flint have covered it pretty well.  The biggest thing is getting it adjusted well.  The wire will expand when hot so start about 1/8" from the quill and keep adjusting closer just a bit at a time until you get as close as you dare without burning the quill or shaft.  You will  want to unplug the unit and let it cool a bit before adjusting as the ribbon clamps can get hot.  I've never tried wraps so I don't know how sensitive to heat they are.

Unlike Flint, I prefer to rotate the feather from the bottom up as the waste falls away better for me this way.  Clean the waste away after every few arrows.  Go too slow and you'll burn the feather too much; too fast and it won't burn evenly.  After two arrows you'll have the speed figured pretty well.  A small piece of 100 grit works pretty well for cleaning off the crud and you can trim the ends of the fletch with an exacto knife or similar.  And put some tape on the "V" of the arrow guide so you don't scratch your shafts.

Here's a pic of some Yellow Jackets I burnt yesterday.
 

[pointy sticks]

ladies and gentlemen children of all ages. What I have learned about using a burner.

#1 Adjust the burner before you start (them red ribbons can hurt)

#2 Turn the feather into the ribbon in a steady motion. Sometimes I will only do one feather at a time and make sure everything (old burnt feather) has burned off the ribbon before burning the next.

#3 Get yourself some of that LOW TAC painters masking tape (green or blue stuff) and wrap it around your shaft in front of and behind the feathers where the ribbon will be coming close to he shaft. Tape my burn a little but I haven't had the shafts get damaged from the heat since I started doing this. I've never tried wraps but if the heats not hurting the finish on the wood shafts then it should still work for you.

#4 Smoke Em and enjoy the results. A little water will remove smoke residue on the shafts just rub it with your finger.

[Shaun]

In the 3R video they show a P&Y type feather that does not have the burn wire close to the shaft. I try to keep the wire far enough away to keep from burning the shaft and then trim the last bit by hand. Burners are great because the feathers are symetrical to the shaft - not some preset shape. Extra wires are cheap, get some and play around with different shapes.

[Charlie Lamb]

Lots of good advice here Curt. Fletcher's tips are as close to what I do as any, though.

Your ribbon should burn nice and red. That will solve a lot of problems alone. If the feathers "bend" on contact, it's probably not hot enough.

Does the burner have the little "L" shaped thing on the side... mine didn't and I made one from a piece of 1/8" square stock I got at the hardware store. Makes a lot of difference.

[Brian Krebs]

shoot your bow somewhere where it is totally quiet- and see if the shape you made produces a quiet flight of the arrow.
  Some designs sound like a rabid hummingbird.

[Flinttim]

Fletcher, the way I do it the excess feather falls on the wire and smokes even more. Gawd I love the smell of burnt feathers in the morning !  

[Missouri CK]

Two questions,

My problem with my burner is that when I look at the wire it isn't even close to having a uniform line.   I can't bend it to the shape I need without manipulating the wire around to the point it has a ton of up and down curves in it. My other problem is if I use an arrow with precut feathers as a guide, and then start to adjust the wire it seems like a never ending process as moving one end changes the other.

Is that just norm or is their something I can do to make it more systematic.

Call me sick but the smell of burnt feathers smells like fun because when I'm burning them I am always having a good time making arrows.

Chris

[JDinPA]

Curt,

I rotate my arrow fast.
I always make sure the ribbon is redhot - otherwise I have marked the wraps.

I just pinch the fletching between two fingers and run up the grain to get rid of the brown.

JD

[Killdeer]

Chris, do you draw the shape on a piece of paper and use that to get your bends where you want them? The fewer times you bend the wire, the smoother it will be. Mine roller-coaster some, but I even them out as best as I can and fine-tune it once I put it on the transformer. I still have the first wires I bent...what a mess! But they work.    

Either I don't notice the waves on the fletches or they are good enough. They look OK to me.

Killdeer

[Flinttim]

You can straighten the wire out using the flat face of a hammer and a hardwood board. Just light taps will do.
 I don't really use another fletch as a pattern (what's the fun in that ) but just figure out how long a fletch I want and how tall. The rest is mostly ornamental.Yeh, it takes some tweaking on the burner itself to get everything the way you want but not that hard really. I hang the wires on the wall on nails when not in use. Keeps them from getting bent.

[Rob DiStefano]

Pretty much everyone has covered what needs to be known and done with feather burning.  

Take the time to accurately tailor the the nichrome burner wire to perfectly fit the shaft diameter and length of fletch in question - which means adjusting the burner wire for distance from the shaft as well as centering the wire ends on the uncut section of feather you just stuck on the shaft.  To me, this is THE most important step.  Keep working at it 'til it's perfect.  If you change shaft diameters, you MUST start all over again.

With carbon shafts, don't let the hot wire touch the shaft!!!            

If the fore and end of the feather doesn't burn clean ('cause you wanna make SURE not to have the burner wire touch the shaft) clean that up with a sharp scissors tip.

Make sure to add a drop of glue at either feather end when done.

Rake over the burnt feather outline a few times from front to back with a knife blade edge to dislodge the burnt feather dust.

While waiting for the 4" Vario Hunter Clipper to show up I'm gonna attempt the burn a similar shape that's 4" x 1/2".  Setting up a nichrome wire to burn a short 'n' low shape ain't easy!

Really cool things about feather burning - the fletches are uniform in both shape and location, and you can concoct some very unique feather shapes.  The down side is it usually takes awhile to set it all up perfectly (but ya only do that once, typically) and that horrific stink - yeah, the wife hates it, but it's the aroma of the woods and hunting to me.     :D    

Here's my 4" high feather burnt shape in a 4x4 fletch on an AD shaft - more surface area there than a  3x5 fletched arra ...

   

[DRR324]

The quiet fletching thread had me thinking and tinkering Saturday night.  I am using 5" shield cut feathers and my practice arrows are pretty abused, so.....
I had a small space heater that has the hot wires running through it- the heater gave up the ghost so I tore it apart with visions of a feather burner in mind.  I threw a quick wood frame together to hold the wire and made a few cuts for the arrow to sit in and be able to rotate it.  This is the part where I say "don't try this at home"-but I'm not an expert- just a tinkerer...
I grabbed an old 6v/12v battery charger and hooked to the end of wires on 12v setting- wire was about 10" long.  It heated up very nicely- and burned through some junk feathers easily.  The one thing I did notice was the wire expanding and changing shape slightly.  I wanted to round the back of my shields and it worked for a few arrows- but the wire is too weak and flexes too much.  I'm still waiting on the quiets tests to complete, but really like the 4 fletch option like Rob's, but with a touch more rounding at the back.  
I'll have to work on finding a bit stiffer wire, and will eventually break down and buy a burner.  But the project is going to lead me to refletch my arrows, I can see it now......