5 Rules to Follow for Better Fletching Jobs!

August 1, 2024  Leigh Hauck

Fletching is to arrows as wings are to airplanes. Would you get on an airplane with bent wings, or wings that aren’t totally connected to the body of the plane? Me neither. Fletching is something that you have total control over in your setup, and you should take full accountability for your fletch jobs!

This year, I have built more arrows for customers than I have in all other years of being in business combined – it has been insane! Through all these hours of fletching, I’ve come up with my top 5 tips for you to do a better job fletching your arrows at home. 

*These tips are based on fletching with the popular Bitzenberger fletching jig, but these tips can be applied for any fletching system.

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1. Clean, clean, clean!

Cleanliness is everything in arrow building. A single fleck of dust that gets caught between your arrow shaft and your vane can break the suction that is created and required to keep the vane on the shaft through thick and thin.

There are a few guidelines that I follow for keeping everything clean. First of all, rubbing alcohol is your friend and you shouldn’t be building arrows without it! 

The first thing to do is clean the back of the arrow shaft where the fletching or arrow wrap will be applied with rubbing alcohol and a paper towel. Arrow shafts are covered in very fine carbon dust from the manufacturing process, and this stuff blocks adhesion like nothing else. If you’ve never done this, you will be shocked at how dirty that paper towel gets after just one or two shafts. This is an absolutely crucial step. 

Next, if you are applying arrow wraps, you need to clean the surface of the wrap with rubbing alcohol after it is on your arrow. The oil from your hands that will have gotten on the wrap while rolling it on can block proper adhesion as well. 

For your vanes, you must use rubbing alcohol on them too! Here is how I do it:

Place your vane in the clamp as you would just before adding glue but take a cotton swab (or Q-tip) with one end dipped in rubbing alcohol and lightly ‘scrub’ the base of the vane. Take the other dry end of the cotton swab and wipe away any visible liquid left over. Your shaft/arrow wrap surface are now spotless, and so is your vane. It is time to apply glue! 

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2. Less is more!

When adding glue to the base of your vane, less is more! I will usually make 3-4 dots of glue along the base of the vane, and then take a pointed object (I have been using stainless steel screws lately, because the pointed tip works perfectly) and spread out the glue from top to bottom, very evenly. It should look like a very thin layer of glue is across the entire base of the vane, and there should be no globs of glue anywhere. 

After your vane is glued, have a look at the left and right sides of the vane on the shaft. If there is glue coming out from the sides, you added too much. A perfectly fletched vane will have no excess glue coming out.

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3. Even pressure is crucial

When you are clamping your vane onto your shaft, it is essential that you have strong and evenly applied pressure to the entire length of the vane. Do not just rely on your fletching systems ability to hold the vane on the shaft while your glue sets, you need to apply pressure yourself. 

I like to apply pressure to the back of the arrow shaft, pushing the shaft into the vane, rather than pushing the vane into the shaft. Failure to do this can cause you to not get a proper seal and vacuum under the vane. Especially on older fletching clamps, glue buildup over time can cause the vane to not hold in place as tight in some areas along the clamp, and block that seal from forming.

You should apply this type of pressure for about 10 seconds per vane, more is not necessary but less may not be enough time for your glue to set – especially if you have used a little too much glue. If you think you may have added too much glue on a vane, no problem – just hold this pressure for twice as long and wipe off excess glue after you take the clamp off. 

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4. Test each vane with an aggressive pull

After your vanes have set for an hour or so, you should test each vane with the pull test. Grab a vane between your index finger and thumb and try to pull the vane off the shaft. I know, this sounds crazy. But, if you have followed the steps and fletched a vane properly, the vane will be impossible to pull off. 

The ‘suction cup’ type seal, locked in by glue in a sterile environment creates an incredibly strong bond. If you have fletched your arrows properly, you will not be able to pull the vane off the shaft even with excessive force.

If a vane does come off, you need to start again! If you fletched on an arrow wrap, you will have to take the wrap and all vanes off and restart. If you fletched directly on carbon, you will need to scrape that carbon clean so there is zero glue residue left over. This is a reason that I always use an arrow wrap. If I ever need to re-fletch a shaft, I can take the wrap off and be left with a brand-new surface to work with underneath rather than trying to scrape glue off and risking damage to the shaft.

If you are a fan of my podcast, The Let Off, be sure to check out Perth County Archery to pick up some of my ‘The Let Off Signature Arrow Wraps’, and rock the same arrow wraps that I trust on all my builds!

It can be extremely frustrating if you pull on a vane and it comes off, but it will happen sooner or later on the range or in the field if you don’t expose the issue in your shop. When you fletch a full dozen, pull test each vane, and none of them come off – that is a feeling to be proud of!

5. To prime or not to prime

Primer is part of the reason that this adhesion between the vane and the shaft is so strong. Most vanes don’t require priming, but these vanes actually have a primer pre-applied to them. Bohning is a popular vane company which pre-primes all their vanes.

Many other vanes will require priming, which must be done with a tool called a priming pen. Basically, this priming process replaces the cleaning of the base of the vane that I described in the first tip – you are just doing it with this special priming tool (easily found online or at a local pro shop). Primer allows for a chemical bond to form between the shaft, glue, and vane – literally bonding the vane to the shaft. If you ever have tried to glue a non-primed vane to a shaft without priming it, you will have found that it comes off extremely easily.

I prefer pre-primed vanes simply for the ease and for not having to buy a priming pen, but if you opt for a vane that requires priming, you will still get incredible results – you just NEED to use a priming pen first!

Rest assured, if your vanes require priming it will say so on the packaging. If there is no mention of priming on the packaging, just follow the rubbing alcohol cleaning method in tip 1, and your fletching job will be immaculate!

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If you have any questions or would like to discuss the topic further, please feel free to reach out to us at sales@toothofthearrowbroadheads.com

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