# Feathers attached only at the ends (Pikuni Blackfoot arrows)



## Stash (Jun 1, 2002)

One possibility is that when these were made the feathers were flat against the shafts, but over the years the wood shrank and the shafts became shorter.


----------



## mathewgold (Mar 12, 2021)

Most of the traditional arrows I have seen are fletched with the sinew at each end similar to that, but with much shorter feathers. Also the stone heads were wrapped behind with sinew covered in hide glue or pitch glue. Those arrows appear to have metal heads, so it is interesting.


----------



## cerelestecerele (Aug 5, 2019)

By 1870


mathewgold said:


> Most of the traditional arrows I have seen are fletched with the sinew at each end similar to that, but with much shorter feathers. Also the stone heads were wrapped behind with sinew covered in hide glue or pitch glue. Those arrows appear to have metal heads, so it is interesting.


The iron points are because they were made post European contact. The Blackfoot previously used flint points that broke much more easily and were very labour intensive to make. Iron arrow points were an important item for trading during the 18th and 19th centuries. For more information about every aspect of these arrows except their fletching, see this paper.


----------



## cerelestecerele (Aug 5, 2019)

Stash said:


> One possibility is that when these were made the feathers were flat against the shafts, but over the years the wood shrank and the shafts became shorter.


Most woods shrink less than 1% lengthwise, and the binding at the ends looks pretty tight. Though the feather itself could have slid against the sinew or maybe stretched with time. Looking at all the arrows in "Traditional Archery from Six Continents", it looks like the rest of the world either used glue as well, or wrapped thread/sinew along the length as well to keep the feather down. Glue made from bison hooves was used by the Blackfoot for non-archery purposes so they could've had access to it. 
I'll try some experimental archaeology next time I go outdoors - if the loose feathers make flight very erratic in comparison then it's almost certain they were tight when they were first made.


----------



## Stash (Jun 1, 2002)

1% shrinkage is enough to cause that.

I can’t tell the length of the arrows or feathers, but let’s assume about a 30” shaft (750mm) and the feathers seem to be about 1/3 of that, so let’s call them 250mm.

I cut a piece of thin wood to 250mm and put it between two stops exactly 250mm apart.










Then I moved one of the stops over by 1% (2.5mm)


















You can see that 1% shrinkage of the shaft would have quite a bit of effect on the curvature of the feather.


One other consideration - anthropologists often seem to make the assumption that artifacts they are examining are the creation of artisans, the state-of-the-art of the society. It’s more than likely that such artifacts are actually the work of a novice, or even a completely incompetent individual. Could be these arrows were made by a child or a klutz.


----------



## cerelestecerele (Aug 5, 2019)

Stash said:


> You can see that 1% shrinkage of the shaft would have quite a bit of effect on the curvature of the feather.
> 
> 
> One other consideration - anthropologists often seem to make the assumption that artifacts they are examining are the creation of artisans, the state-of-the-art of the society. It’s more than likely that such artifacts are actually the work of a novice, or even a completely incompetent individual. Could be these arrows were made by a child or a klutz.


Wow, I did not expect that much of a visible difference. And after replicating what you did with a sheet of paper instead and going down to 0.5% shrinkage it could still easily give a large enough gap up account for the gap seen in the museum arrows. 

I've now got another reason to feel self conscious about my sloppy spinwing application - what if they're the ones that end up in a museum hundreds of years from now? We'll have people trying to figure out the purpose of uneven offset angles and tears/creases.


----------



## cerelestecerele (Aug 5, 2019)

I finally got some full length feathers and made up an arrow with a large space between the middle of the feather and the shaft. It was pretty anticlimactic - it flew silently, no spiraling or unusual flight, and landed right with my other arrows with 3" feathers at 18m. So it doesn't look like the air gap between the shaft and feather had any effect on flight at that sort of distance.

I also found a copy of Jim Hamm's "Bows and arrows of the native Americans" which agreed with Stash's suggesting above and also added additional reasons for the different fletching methods for different Native American arrows. I've included the relevant passages below in case some future person has the same question but not the book:

"As a very general rule, the Indians who hunted on foot made longer and more accurate arrows than those who hunted and fought from horseback. The Indians who hunted and stalked their game on foot, in the Eastern part of the country and on the West Coast, usually got just one shot, so their arrows had to be very carefully made to be as accurate as possible." (p. 89)

"The Plains Indians were not burdened with having to make a single, long range, pinpoint accurate shot. They could ride up within ten feet of a buffalo and loose as many arrows as necessary to bring him down. Their arrows reflected this by being short, 22" - 26", and usually expediently made, more than adequate to do the job at hand but without the painstaking work of the Western Indians. This is not too say that the Plains arrowmakers did not understand how to make excellent arrows, as there are many examples, from many Plains tribes, showing well-balanced, beautifully made and decorated arrows. Fine, original Plains arrows are not unusual, but they were not necessary to sustain life and so were in the minority." p90.

"Good arrows can be made without glue, but the problem encountered is that the feathers tend to pull away from the shaft between the sinew lashings on either end. The feathers raise up as a result of expansion and contraction that accompanies changes in temperature and relative humidity. The ends of the feathers move slightly under the sinew wrapping, and eventually the feathers no longer lie snugly against the shaft." (p.120)

So the feathers on the arrows in the museum started out flat and it doesn't matter when they raised up because it doesn't affect flight at least at hunting distances, but even if it did, a bison at 3m is pretty impossible to miss.


----------

