Being natural material, your shafts will require protection against the ingress of moisture if they are to remain acceptably straight and of a more consistent spine. Before fletching your dowels, carefully sight along them to check their degree of straightness. Thereafter, check them at regular intervals since even the finest wooden shafts are affected by changes in temperature and humidity. Remember, in the longbow world, ‘straightness’ is relative and will never approach the accuracy of Eastons or carbon arrows!

Warped areas can usually be corrected in a few moments by the application of local heat. Various methods are favored by experienced archers - some warm the area with a hair drier or (briefly!) a blast from a hot air glue gun. Others revolve the shaft slowly above a low gas ring, whilst another method is to rotate the affected area in the steam from a boiling kettle, exactly as with the time honored way of reviving weary fletchings.

Whichever method you favor, gently flex the warm shaft until it appears straight and hold it in this position for a moment or two until the shaft cools. Wipe off any excess moisture if you have used steam.

To protect their shafts, many archers favor sealing the bare dowels with yacht varnish, or any good quality equivalent. Very satisfactory results can be obtained by merely wiping on a thin coating of the un-thinned varnish using a scrap of "foam rubber" - as it used to be called! - as this is faster than brushing and gives a more uniform covering. If your shafts have been already fletched, treat the shaft by wiping as above and carefully paint a thin coat of varnish between the fletchings with a kiddies paint brush.

After fletching your shafts, always apply a spot of glue to both the leading and trailing edges of each fletch. Many archers make their arrows an inch or so longer than their true draw length, allowing at least one pile to be snapped off before the arrow is too short to continue safely shooting it.

Remember, if you are having problems reaching the longest shots, you can obtain better performance from your arrows by diminishing the size of their fletchings.

Though long feathers look fabulous and may appear to help the arrow recover from the paradox quicker, their far higher drag factor greatly reduces arrow speed beyond about 50 yards. In re-writing every national longbow target record over 100 years ago, the legendary Horace Ford used a 51lbs yew bow with 2" fletchings on his arrows. On the other hand, if most of your shooting is in field archery, the greater stability offered by larger fletchings and the few shots beyond 50 yards may make them more appropriate in your case.

Piles can be easily and quickly secured using any hot melt-type glue stick. This is both simple and economical, a full size stick containing sufficient adhesive for dozens of arrows. This method also offers the advantage of being instantly reversible should you later wish to salvage the pile from a broken shaft. Try doing this if you have Araldited them!!

Finally, regularly clean your shafts by wiping them with a damp cloth and carefully inspect for damage to the stele or lifting feathers. Many a crack or fissure can lurk unsuspected behind a smear of dried mud on the stele, only revealing itself when the progressively weakened arrow finally explodes - usually just as you are loosing it.

Good shooting, and thank you for your custom.  

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