The pointy end
Iwas struck by a comment from Archerygb's Jon Nott in the last issue, during an illuminating discussion on sustainability and consumables. He said: “The amount of times I've seen someone with an old set of arrows with a brand new bow. You'd have been better off with that older bow and a brand new set of arrows.” Looking around at various quivers at my club of a Saturday morning, he wasn't wrong. I've been lucky enough to watch the elite many times, and it's noticeable how much they preen and check the contents of their quivers. (I've been told that Takaharu Furukawa, the silver medallist at London 2012, likes to refletch all his arrows every night, and I'm still waiting for an opportunity to ask him if that's the case.) At club level though, many archers use the same battered set year after year, even when upgrading limbs or entire bows. Given the high cost of carbon arrows, it's not unreasonable that you would expect years of service from a set, just as you would expect years of service from a new riser. Many club archers – not unreasonably – merely want a set that works and needs as little maintenance as possible.
I decided not to do any basic level howto's in this issue in terms of fletching or tuning in this issue, although we are planning some more in-depth tuning work for the future, and working out how to get it on the page. In most situations, the esoteric skills needed to get arrows and tuning perfect are rarely taught directly as part of beginner's courses and many learn via the usual adhoc apprenticeships that novice archers go through to acquire the complete set of skills. For me, the general lack of technical training in one of the more glaring omissions in beginner's archery. Novices may learn the why, but not the trickier how. Part of the problem is that there are usually several ways to do anything, and manufacturers don't always help. I personally bought a set of vanes from a well-known USA manufacturer last year. Inside the pack were two instruction sheets: one said 'clean the vanes with acetone', the other said 'Do not clean the vanes with acetone in any way'.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this interesting collection of diversions on modern arrows and how they are used, and I hope you might be inspired to clean up your quiver ASAP.
See you on the shooting line
John Stanley, Editor john.stanley@futurenet.com