 Welcome all back to the great outdoors today. I'm going to be showing you how to take a Beautiful turkey wing feather like this that you got off your turkey this turkey season. Maybe a bun of yours turn them in to beautiful Primitive arrow fletchings like this So first step is getting your feathers off your wings you can make fletchings out of tail feathers or wing feathers I've done both, but the wing feathers They're stiffer. I Like them a little bit better Both are really cool though Just make sure you're consistent with using either wing feathers or tail feathers and then Actually using right or left wing feathers, which we'll get into in just a minute. Okay, so I'm gonna get some big shears You'd use Wire snips something like that and then you're just gonna need a sharp knife, you know a pocket knife We'll do just make sure it's sharp. By the way, let's get a roost update You may hear some cheaps in the background That's because we got new baby chicks y'all the only two that I'm not sure our bullets are these Frizzle chickens, which are just ornamental chickens, basically obviously not the quickest way to get eggs It's gonna take about six months for those to start laying But there's some pretty cool breeds and we'll probably get some more babies with having roosters Okay, I've got our all tools here. We're ready to make some fletchings I'm gonna dig into My freezer over here Right wing left wing really doesn't matter It's whatever preference you want to use most people use right wing But it just matters that you are consistent stick with right wings Stick with left wings when you're making your fletchings And you could also use tail feathers So I know a lot of guys like to use them on their trophy mounts. You use the fans on decoys everything like that But you can also use them to make Fletching also will say you can go buy these if you just want to look of it you can go buy them They're just expensive. I guess because there's less of the resource Maybe you guys can let me know in the comments I think it's probably because they take the turkey feathers off of like meat farms Those turkeys like the white ones and they dye them and those are the cheaper ones and these these are the ones that are You know a precious beautiful resource more expensive come out in front here Before these long big wing feathers You could use these if you wanted to to make some small fletchings like maybe some four inches But they're really not that long So I'm going to snip these off first my daughter likes to Collect feathers, so I'm just going to save these for her. It's like I could probably use that one right there But we're going to need 10 inches of feather in order to make two Fletchings which I'll show you guys here in just a second and now we've exposed these big beautiful wing feathers I'm going to snip those down as far as I can until There's not any feather Material growing on it. Just like that. It's a broken feather. It must have taken a shotgun pellet That's one down. We don't get all right. We'll get one out of that So somewhere in the mid-20s It's how many feathers you're going to get off a wing This get to your dog or whatever you want to do Both the woods so once you get those cut off It's a good idea. Good idea to go ahead and store them in a labeled bag but for today's video we just need Three of these fletchings. So we got our three feathers. We're going to make six fletchings out of Step one. I'm going to measure these. I need ten inches out of them because I'm making five five inch fletchings The very very end of this is going to be difficult to mount To your to your arrow and most people just take the middle that premium section But if if you can if you get one that's like 12 inches 11 12 inches you can easily get to This one is 11 to take the very end and I'm going to snip it about a half inch I'm going to put that right in the middle So take that five-inch mark there we got two Five-inch fletchings. I'm going to split these in half now You'll see a little groove running through the coil here. It's like a little trough Take a take a knife take a pocket knife and you can just Kind of roll your blade into that so I'll put like the tip of the blade into the cutting board For the table that I'm using and I'll just kind of roll it down until you hear it crack and just keep scooting it You don't want to pull it just yet because if you're using a real sharp knife It will it'll want to pull into those feathers It's gonna want to go one way and you don't want it to go into the feathers So I'll just kind of work that down Definitely favor that shallow side because you don't want to mess up your your good side And once you get close to the end You can start to pull it Pull it through the only thing I need to need to do to this one is sand it down Just to make it kind of flush Because if you're choosing like me primitive style off the knuckle That is going to hit your knuckle. It's not gonna be pleasant. I like to do an arrow I like to do some thread wraps On the front of the fletching as well having that big raised Quill is not do well So that one's ready to stick on to an arrow. Here's how you get more out of your turkey feathers So I've got this fatter side which would normally be discarded We're going to split it You can see that Fat trough and that quill Even though you've got more room to work with Still favor that shallow side. You don't want to get caught cutting into your your feathers a nice split on that So we'll kind of zoom in here so you guys can see this So this is really thick now this part this this quill that's sticking out That's not going to mount well on the arrow So what we're going to do is we're going to profile that down and you could do it with sandpaper You could even do it with a knife, but since we are here at the house, and we have power tools I'm going to take a belt sander I'm going to stick it in my straight Little clamp here, and I'm going to profile this down really quick. That's been all taken off But it's still kind of wide So what I'm going to do is take a pair of scissors, and I'm going to trim this down and Taper it with a pair of scissors As you get to the end you just want to kind of make it as skinny Not as skinny as you can Skinnier than the rest of the Fletching and the goal is to try to make it look like this one You're not going to use these together and you could but I'm going to keep this consistent So I mark these with a little pencil or a Sharpie This is the fat side so this is the fat side I use I'll take three fat ones I'll put that on an arrow. I'll take three skinny ones, but that on an arrow that way. I'm keeping everything consistent I'm going to make a couple more and then I'm going to put them on a stick Otherwise known as an arrow Okay, now it is time to mount these Fletchings Onto our arrow not using the primitive waves, but we're going to be using a Fletching jig You can use these put on your veins on your carbon arrows and everything. I'm probably going to do some of that myself This season because making your own arrows. It's fun. Yeah, I'm telling you like It this is not a cheaper way of doing things But it when you put work into something like you just have more pride in it Why you're hunting fishing with them, whatever I'm using a right helical clamp helical just means that there's a curvature in it and it is going to Basically follow the natural ways of the Feather itself so the feather itself naturally wants to turn and cup and that is going to put more wind behind the feather and Get it spinning faster And if you mounted them straight the distance. I'm mounting this back I've got it marked here on my clamp, but it's just enough where My I can get my fingers in there and the Fletchings won't be touching the bow Your if your fingers are touching those Fletchings Why you're you know getting ready to draw back to make a noise might spook off a deer don't want that so So I've put it a little farther forward The farther back you go usually the more stability you get so this is all about getting a whitetail or pig or whatever within 20 yards and Hopefully it like 10 yards and getting a shot on it. I'm not going for distance You know I'm trying to practice to make sure I can make a 20-yard shot, but I'm trying to get close and go for stability. So I'm using some some Fletch fuse It's like a super glue And I'm gonna put that just right on the Quill what was the quill? Just a little bit and I put a little dab on the very end In the top and we're gonna squeeze that on there for about 30 seconds When I take this out of here, I like to take my fingers on Anywhere that's not flush And I'll just press that down Between fishing and doing this my fingers get crusty All right, I'll stick it back in the jig I'll go ahead and turn it and turn the feather with it Turn the arrow with it Almost done. So we got two on there. We'll turn it one more time So it's got just a little bit of high spot in it press that front Sure, it's all good Now that is full Thickness flu flu style right there that arrow will slow down after about 25 30 yards and really start to die Let's take it over to the feather burner now, and I'm gonna show you guys how that thing works. It's pretty fun This is the young feather burner Just makes life easier and I've formed This wire right here. This wire gets real hot heats up and then it burns through the feathers and this is a five inch shield cut design, so You got to be very careful not to touch that thing when it gets hot it gets hot in seconds But all I do is put the arrow in like this And then twist it And then all those fletchings will come out the same so it's very consistent We'll let that glue dry for just a second longer and then put it in there by the way Osage Got a pretty healthy supply of it right here. Got some staves for for some buddies some of these I'm gonna split down even more The ones that aren't you know totally crooked this one. I made out of a branch and Turned out to have some issues So I had to it broke I didn't didn't tiller it properly And I had to work it back down So it's now another 55 inch bow, but it is It was 28 pounds at full draw I'm thinking now after I've had a little reflex and flip the tips So flip the tips upside down We'll probably up be up to 30 pounds. I would imagine shout out to my buddy Toby for letting me Cut down a couple of his trees on his land This wood's gonna sit here and dry for about six to eight months, and then I'll start working on it So it's a long process Watching that just doesn't get old. It's so satisfying. There's one that was a little weaker Little weaker feather that has a little it's got a little more flex to it But otherwise Pretty good. It's definitely gonna work one little step that I'll do with a dremel Because I'm just gonna Shave down the very end of these these quills of the Fletchings So that it just accepts Accepts the thread that I'm gonna wrap on here a little easier Next we're gonna wrap So I've got some 40 pound braid And I'm just gonna wrap it around The front of these Fletchings, I'm not sure what you call this wrap. I've used it on tying flies and croppy jigs before But you basically start with a loop And you go over that Wrap up around it, and then you'll bring that tag in through that loop that you've wrapped around and then it pulls into The wrap that you made I'm gonna take this little Tag in here I've already Pulled this thread through this loop. I'm gonna pull that down into Into the whole wrap till it's almost out of there now that wraps all tight Now we'll cut our tag ends Now we're just gonna add a little glue. I Go ahead and just kind of give it a little goob on there a little gooby Goob this one up. I like the Fletchings. Just take this little stick here smooth it out That needs to dry But the next step is going to be adding our fat in our wax So we've got some It's a little beeswax here Gonna cut me off a chunk of the beeswax and I've got some bacon grease in here So throw that in there And then we'll mix those together Put her over a little open flame You could just use the the bacon grease or any kind of animal fat, but that wax will give it a little water resistance So I'm gonna mix these together. Okay, that kind of looks like a nice glass of bourbon right there Let that cool for just a second And we're just gonna rub it down. Well, that's cool, and I forgot to do an important step here She really do this before you do the Fletchings add a little Thread here to my knock. All right now. It's done so we got thread on the knock got our thread on the Fletchings and Let's see how hot this stuff is I'll put my finger in there and get scalded pretty hot Semi-warm to the touch. Hmm. It's still pretty warm, but It's kind of got a nice Niceness to it Feel the wax around my fingers. It's like I'm in the spa right now I'm in the archery spa. Oh, yeah, there's something therapeutic about that if you were doing this around like a campfire in the woods That would be ultimate I've got some other arrows that I'm going to be using some different like traditional wood Finisher's on but for these primitive ones that I want This is what I want to take my first deer with a self bow with I'm just using using what the what the what the knave is used basically Then I'm gonna set that out in the sun for just a minute let the The wood warm up and kind of soak that in brought this arrow in from outside and drying for about an hour or two and That wax and that fat is soaked in it's looking great and Now it's time to put a point on it so we can either put a broad head or a fill point or a primitive point, which I don't have and I wanted to talk to you guys about that because some of you commented about this making some some primitive points Some arrowheads basically to put on these to finish these arrows. I would love nothing more So I have these right here. I Got some I have some hundreds and I have some 125s Worst case scenario, you know if I don't have anything fully primitive I can put these on here I would love love love love for you guys to finish off these arrows with me if you know how to do that P.o. Box is linked down below again. Try to keep it around that 125 if you've got a scale and good way Just try to get it close to that. But if not, we will make it work. So I'm just gonna grab one of these 125s here Stick it on a little bit of air glue here. You just like to go Six to eight seconds and press it on. I'm gonna slip through my hand with a baking grease completed arrow This glue I have on the back here usually takes a few hours to dry I usually like to let it go overnight The front glue is fine. So I think we might be able to shoot this We'll stick it with the other arrows. Let's go take some shots. It's the most fun part enjoy Nice cold fruit or vegetable for a chicken on a hot summer day in Texas That might as well be a frosty cooers for myself Just the equivalent So I've made myself a little rule on shooting these arrows because I've learned a lesson So I'd never shoot more than three at a time because when you start hitting your target You start feeling good and then you know you're putting them on top of each other These are self knocks You can't just replace these knocks. He had to replace the whole arrow or dramatically reduce the arrow It's it's a big mess so only shoot three at a time that way you reduce your chances of robbing hooding one Okay, so this is my Osage 40 pound bow this little short bow here Probably what I'm gonna be hunting with unless I build something better Probably will it's my first one. So I didn't do that great of a job, but it's it's cool. It's special because it's the first one It's got a lot of different repairs on it There's a lot going on with this bow, but it's unique So I've got two of the arrows that I've previously built and then I've got the arrow. We just built so Let's shoot a couple shoot a couple the old ones and see how the new one compares got a little target just Ten yards right here. Just ride a bull Just low a bull and the one we just made and just left a bull So didn't hit the bull hit all around it. Let's back it up. Let's shoot a few more Those are all fun targets, this is where it counts right here The old white deal 12 yards scenario. Oh, yeah, buddy. That's what we want right there if I can do that In October It's all I've got to do guys just gonna keep practicing trying to get consistent You know it all goes out the window when when the deer walks out in front of you But that's where the muscle memory kicks in send me your primitive points If you know how to do it love nothing more than take your point and send it through a beautiful white tail this fall thing of beauty man wild bird feathers topped with Bee wax and some animal fat just gets the wild animal juices flowing with that I thank you guys for tuning in to another episode in the great outdoors If you want to do this It's not too terribly difficult. It is so satisfying though It is just as satisfying as Lipping that big fish and bringing it up to your face and sniffing it made the good Lord bless you. God speed And I'll see you