Home > Arrows and Arrow Making > Young Feather Burner

When making your own arrows you have a choice of ready cut feathers or full length leathers you can cut yourself, I like to make my own fletches and I have several methods of shaping them, in the past I used to make a template and try to cut them with scissors, they looked different all right, different from each other !

One of the pleasures in making your own arrows is the actual making itself and ending up with a beautiful arrow, which not only looks good but is to your own exact specification.

The young feather burner offers you the opportunity to make any shape fletch you want. Firstly I cut the length from a full feather and fletch all my arrows, what I then have is a great big flu flu looking arrow.

The feather burner passes an electric current through a ribbon of steel which glows red hot, it is set up so that you put the arrow in the nock receiver and slowly spin it, the ribbon will cut whatever shape you have bent it in to. It takes a few goes of trial and error to work out how far to bend it, but once you have played with it a while you can create wonderful shaped fletches up to 6 1/4" by 1 1/4" .

It is an American product so is set up for 120AC so you will need a transformer for the UK which are readily available on Ebay.

It smells so do it in a workshop otherwise you will be in trouble ! The instructions are rudimentary and in fact you don't need instructions as much as practice, bending the ribbons takes a while to master and if you keep getting it wrong the ribbon will only accept so much bending back and forth before it all starts to look ugly. Turning or spining the arrow at the right speed also requires practice and patience.

My only niggle is the nock receiver is not a positive as I would like, if you do buy one buy a spare along with a bunch of extra ribbons as you will get through them playing about and making the odd mistake.

Once the fletches are burnt you will see a black ash residue on the edge of the feathers, I quite like this effect and on some arrows leave it on, if it offends you just take the back of a knife and scrape it down the fletches and it all comes off. I have fletched 3, 4 and even up to 6 fletches on an arrow and used the burner to cut them. Once you have mastered this great tool you will probably never buy ready cut fletches again.

Rating
Features & Design
A quite simple design but the nock receiver is not positive enough whilst spining the arrow
Performance
There is no doubt that this tool does exactly what is advertises - it offers hairline accuracy from a solid and durable peice of kit
Value for Money
At $110 it offers excellent value, the only thing to watch for is that coming in from the States there will be some customs charges, that's not the products fault and if you live in the US and like to make your own fletchings, you won't find a better or cheaper method
Overall
Super tool an excellent addition to any archers workshop

 

 

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Steve Nicholson and Andy Gilfrin, are real archers interested in the best archery suppliers have to offer. In our search for the very best bow, arrows and equipment we have shot, used and worn pretty much everything on offer.

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Essential Details
What : Young Feather Burner Price : £110.99

Don't Forget to buy a converter as this is designed to operate at 120V AC

Turns the flu flu in to a striking arrow

Magazine

July 2010 The Mary Rose story comes to life this month, when Steve and Andy went to visit archaeologist Alex Hildred and got our hands on 500 year old long bows (literally). We look at the battle of Vernuiel, Andy visits France on a peace mission and we talk to Sid at Border.


June 2010 Bumper edition this month, a pig in armour, Geoff towers direct from Homildon Hill and a look at the Mary Rose. There is also news of the UK Atlatl championships and all the usual regular items.


May 2010 This month sees the release of yet another Robin Hood film, to celebrate this months magazine is a Robin Hood special. We look at the man behind the legend with a couple of articles about the man and the period that gave rise to him. We also have an article on Little John, not Robin Hoods side kick but John Cately of Little John Arrow, he talks to us about his life in archery and the way he likes to make his arrows. 

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