Foxtrot Lima 14 - Archery From Another Perspective

A couple of hours of cutting feathers and fletching and I'm now done. For those that haven't cut feathers, you can buy cutters but they can be a little pricey if you want to change shapes. I used painters masking tape, make a cardboard template to trace out and cut with some decent scissors, each to their own on that one though.  I have a very basic fletching jig, AAE that can be seen top left of bottom pic above. Does the job.  I also use Bohnings Fletch tape, I have never found fletch glue for feathers that doesn't make a mess and look crap. The fine, double sided tape is a tad fiddly, but once you get into a groove it's fine, it can still take some time. Slightly Flu Flu-ish, I'll see how they fly. I can always trim them down. Out with the old and in with the new. This is the bow storage, the compound and recurve on the stand belong to two of my sons, the recurve on the left is a members bow that I said I'd sort a string for, which I will I haven't forgot...

  Progress, cresting done, field points and nocks in place. Now to dress them up a bit, carry on.

  I took stock of the feathers and paints I had and went for Red, Yellow and Orange. After I checked the spine on the 24 shafts, found 14 of them to be close enough to each other, hence 14. Arrow for demonstration purposes only When I ordered them, they were cut to my preferred length of 765mm.  I have crested before so had a crude cresting ‘machine’ which is powered by fingers, I scribbled out a very basic crest and got to work. I've done far more intricate cresting but wanted this to be simple and quick. Hopefully the colours will make the arrows easier to find in the bush. As I progressed I began to think that these reminded me of something, then it dawned on me Fruit Loops! which I haven't eaten since 1975. screen shot below courtesy of Wikipedia. My wife thought it looked like a Tequila Sunrise which is also true. FL14 = bit blando so I added some NATO Phonetic alphabet magic to it to pad it out. Foxtrot Lima. A bit rough and uneven, Note to self: Don't drink and crest...

   I have taken a few weeks off work at the end of yet another very busy year, this is the first time I have taken more than a week off in seven years.  After pottering around and going through the end of year motions of work parties, Christmas, and the new year, I have found myself at a bit of a loss for stuff to do, don't get me wrong though there is a to do list that is always there like everyone has except now I have time to do some of it. In the top five was to clean up the shed, we built a house on a couple of acres and had a 12m x 9m shed built as well. When we moved in a couple of years ago we had to vacate the granny flat at my in-law’s property where the wife and three boys were living, I had a flat in Geelong that I lived during the week to avoid the commute while we were building a business and said house and there was a storage unit where the stuff we had carted across the country for over a decade was sitting. It all got moved into the shed and some of i...