Spiral Flu-Flu, made easy......w/Pix

[BowHuntingFool]

I just made my first! I read the post, went to the garage, got some found turkey feathers, split them, trimmed them up, a bit of sanding and fletched my first spiral flu flu. All in all took about a half hour from feather to fletch! I'm on my second one tonight! Pretty cool and they look even cooler! Thanks again Curt, hoping to put these to use on Saturday!!!!!!!!  

[Toecutter]

Thanks Curt, gonna have to give that a try when I get home in the morning.
 Anyone experiment with using both sides of the feather facing forward(not a good description). Meaning the brighter side of the feather forward (or the other way with the dull, stiffer side forward) Also, can I use up my RW feathers for this?  Probably over thinking this, but it's 12:34 and I'm at work, so what else do I have to do  :D  
I like the heatshrink idea as well Batman!

[Jerry Wald]

great stuff

jer Bear

[Gehrke145]

I use Turkey feathers, you dont need to split them (to much work for what they are for) just grab the back of the feather and peel it forward.  Also fletching tape is the cats meow for this.  

[Jerry Jeffer]

Nice pictorial. Good job on those, I like the red.

[Guru]

Thanx guys, glad to help    

Stagetek- Spiral fletch stop much quicker! But can be trimmed to make them go as far as you like. You can literally make them go 30yds and drop straight down with too much feather.

Pig sticker- You can get them thru any of our sponsors that sell supplies.

Hatchchaser- Any kind of "super glue" is fine. I like this kind because it comes in a bigger bottle and is easy to find anywhere. Gel would be a little easier to work with, but doesn't go as far for the $$.

Toecutter- one way the feathers lay back more than the other. So that one will go further than the other. I like them standin perpendicular to the shaft. Then trim if need be. LW-RW it doesn't matter.

Fletch tape seems to work fine if you just "skin them" like Adam's talking about. But even so, I still use super glue for that method, for me it's quicker.

But with a regular, full length feather, I find super glue to be superior for bonding.

As far as length, 9-10" of feather will be fine for most. Believe me they'll stop quick!
WT says he uses 2 full length feathers, they'd only be good for me for super close shooting. You still need to have some "thump" to take squirrels out of trees with a flu-flu...so again adj. according to what you need......

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[Chris Surtees]

Thanks for pictorial Guru    This one is going into my iPhoto projects folder.

[Bob Walker]

Great "How-To" Curt! Thank you for sharing with us.          

[Guru]

[john fletch]

I make mine by gluing from the nock down using 2-handle paper clips.  Trim the upper end of the feather down to a useable width and strip about 5/16" of feather off each end of the quill.

I use DUCO on wood and fletch tite on other shafts.

Finish both ends with a piece of narrow electrical tape and you won't get as much feather wear.

I have alway felt that the spiral shoot better than 6 fletch and are cheaper to make.

I do not wrap as loose as you did - about 5/16" spread down the spiral.

Ask Ian Johnson how they shoot!

If I can figgure out how to do it I will post some pics of mine.

[Long Bow]

Great stuff!...Thanks Curt!    

[NightHawk]

when making them on nutters I use a thumb tack instead of a clamp. Works well on a wood shaft. I also start at the nock end and wrap down the shaft.Can make a fluflu shaft for little money cost of feather and dowle

[Marvin M.]

Good Tutorial Curt!  You mentioned that one way the feathers lay down more.  I'm with you I always want them standing up.  All you have to do is wrap the opposite direction to stand them up.

I use two seven inch pieces.  By the time they are wrapped I have about five inches of spiral.  I can get a max of about 40 yards out of an arrow that way.

Marvin

[Guru]

On wood arrows I used to use pins also to hold the feather while the glue dried....but sometimes it was painful on the fingers getting the pins into some of those harder woods....

I find the clamp A LOT easier and faster.....

[bowless]

Thanks Guru, I'm going to give this a try today.
Excellent pictorial.

[Smallwood]

Does it matter which way you wind the feather? (ie. if it's a right wing feather wind clockwise going up the shaft, etc...)
curt, were using a lw or rw feather, i couldn't tell from the pic?

[Guru]

SW, I was using RW. It doesn't matter LW/RW, but with either one, wrap one way and the feathers will lay back more(arrow goes further), the other way they stand up more perpendicular(arrows stop quicker). Just try a dry wrap and see which way you prefer.


**********Another thing I did forget to mention...before wrapping I like to stroke the feather backward to separate the "velcro effect" of the feathers(against the grain). Make them look "ratty". Just the opposite of what you'd do to make your regular arrows look neat. It'll make wrapping them a little easier. I also separate as I wrap*********

[ozarkcherrybow1]

Nice pictorial, thanks for sharing. I like the spiral flu flu arrows myself......Terry

[Walt Francis]

Curt,
I use the same method as you and it works well.  The only thing different I do is use the ends of feathers that are to short to use on my regular arrows.  When cutting a five inch feather from the best part of a full length feather I usually have a 3 1/2" - 4 3/4' piece left, which is put on the flu-flu arrows using the same process as you.  It just takes a little more time to complete the process, but uses up the scraps that would normally be thrown in the trash.  As stated above, flu-flu's fletched like this will stop faster then the six fletched arrows so I use my feather burner with a straight ribbon to trim them to the desired height.  Before I got extra ribbons for my feather burner I used my normal shield profile ribbon and it worked great, it just looked a little different from other I have seen.  If you don't have a feather burner scissors work fine for trimming, they just take longer.

[Guru]

Those are both great tips Walt          .....I do have a burner, but never thought to use it, I just used scissors.  From now on it'll be with the burner. Maybe even a nice rounded ball like shape...I have a lot of extra ribbon, so anythings possible....