...Motor City Machete shop that is.
Well, Steve O. started a thread the other day about different crown stains that people like. That thread morphed into alot of other things to include membrain splices on feathers by Chad Graham (thanks for the instruction Chad).
I told myself I'm going to learn to do that for my New Year's resolution, and give something else The Motor City Machete shop can do.
Well, I couldn't wait till today, so I started the process last night, and then I got ahold of Steve this morning, and he dropped off a feather chopper for me to play around with, along with a couple other things as well.
Following is the pictures of my progress. Not bad for my first time, and I made enough for 6 arrows in 1 1/2 hrs. I'm sure time will get quicker in the future, but arrow building isn't about speed.
Here is my supplies:
Membrain stripped from the orange and white feathers (I used the cutoffs of some white feathers I made not to long ago), and the white is duco glued on to where the orange was peeled from.
Here is the feather chopped:
Here is enough for 1/2 dozen of my Motor City Macheties:
Originally posted by Dirtybird:
Okay, lets hear the step by step on that splicing technique Mike. I love the spliced look.
Once you do, it, you honestly won't believe how simple it is.
First thing I do is gather my supplies. 1 full length feather of your choosing (this will be the front part of the splice. Hopefully you have saved your cut offs from other fletching jobs you've done, because a small (2"-4") tail section of feather is needed. Duco cement, I'm sure others will work, but I KNOW duco works. A sharp thin bladed knife (think exacto) either a chopper or burner if you choose.
Start by having an idea of what you want the feather to look like when done (like the length of splice and also lenth of feather).
I will instruct as if I'm teaching a right handed person, I'm assuming that left handed people will do the opposite. Use what works for you.
Holding the full length feather in your left hand with the quill pointing down. make a small score line across the membrain of the quill where you want the feather to start pulling, and then do the same where you want to stop at. Be patient, you will get the hang of it after cutting thru a few feathers and thus making them to small to use, atleast I did. practice on some scrap pieces first (wish I would have thought of that first). now here is the tricky part.
When pulling the feather and membrain off, DO NOT pull on a 90* angle, you will ruin your project. Pinch the feather at the base (with your right hand) right at the first cut you made at the top and pull straight down (as close as you can get to 180* from starting point). Be careful when you get to where you made your last incision. If you get there and you didn't cut all the way thru the membrain, cut just a little deeper this time. You will get the hang of it after a couple.
Now take the cut off piece you had earlier, and do the ecact same. You now have a full length feather missing it's tail section, and a cutoff piece ready to fill the void.
Now for glue up. Hold your tail (short piece) upside down, and run a small (a little goes along way) bead of duco along the bottom of the membrain. Now take your full length feather and position the tail section in place. Get the front of the tail section lined up, then press the rest of the membrain of the tail section down to the full length feather quill. Once you are satisfied with the results, marry the front feather splice together, hold a few seconds to make sure duco has set the way you want, then set aside on a piece of newspaper on the dining room table so as not to upset your wife (something else I should of thought of first).
That's it guys. the only thing easier than this is dipping the shaft in your clear finish.
Now for the chopping. To make sure everthing is exactly the same, make a small pencil mark on the chopper where you want the splice to be located, and line up the pencil mark with the splice then WHAMO with the mallet, and out pops a functional piece of art.
Here is a link Steve sent me to help with getting everything perfect when using the chopper. I'm sure you will find it as interesting as I did.
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=090620 Have fun with it guys, and be sure to post pics of your finished product.
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