Vanes
Vanes are a crucial part of arrow flight. But why does something so tiny have the ability to influence such a wide range of things? That will be the discussed in this article.
Preliminaries
Before explaining details of arrow flight concepts, here are some important topics that you should know to better evaluate why archers do certain things. But don’t let this technicallity to frighten you we will explain them in a simplistic and a usefull way.
Archer’s Paradox:
This might be the most important paradox that helps us understand behavior of arrows during flight.
The archer’s paradox is the phenomenon of an arrow propelling in the direction it was pointed at full draw. Arrow does not align with the center of the bow. But after being shot arrow aligns with the direction.
As you can see from the illustration arrow bends due to the forces acting on it. This bending is measured as spine. Spine helps arrow to overcome archer’s paradox. Wrong spine selection will cause incorrect alignment of the flight path. If too heavy spine is selected, arrows have a tendancy to go left of the center shot line. Other way arround if the spine is so weak arrows will have a tendency to go right.
This bending is horizontal on recurve archers due to their finger release.
Compound archers however will observe a vertical oscillation on their arrows. Because of the differance in release systems.
Physics:
Archery is governed by physics you might not be thinking about it while you are shooting arrows but it is there and it is important.
Momentum is the quantity of motion of a moving object. Calculated as a product of its mass and velocity. So it is harder to change the direction of a heavy and fast object comparedd to a lighter and slower one.
Torque is the force that tends to cause rotation.
Why we use vanes?
Why we use vanes? Is it because they look good? Of course not. They make arrows more stable.
Vanes help arrows to get on the desired path (center shot line) faster thus increase the stability of the flight pattern. The torque caused by the vanes turn the arrow from the back to the desired path.
Vanes make arrows turn and fly better by increasing their spinning and overall momentum, which makes them more stable. Note that, bigger the momentum of an object it is that harder to change the course of the object.
Affects of vanes
Different vanes have different affects on arrows. Some of them have a higher profile resulting in bigger crossection. Thus making the arrow more sensitive to wind.
Some vanes are softer then others. Which in return acts different on different conditions.
Even though most people fletch their arrows with 3 vanes, some prefer fletching with 4 or even 5 vanes per arrow. But the most accepted version is 3 vanes fletched, with 120 degrees apart.
How to fletch arrows?
First things first clean your shafts using alcohol. This first step is same for all archers. But the process will be different according to your catagory.
For recurve:
Second step will be measuring the angles and marking lines which vanes will be put on. There are several methods to mark these lines. Commonly it is done using tri liners.
After marking the lines, take your double sided tape and place it on the lines. The very next step will be placing your vanes on to the tape. This step used to be done one by one. However now you can use Jet6 Triple Tapes to skip these two steps at once. It is super easy to use and very efficient. You can fletch your arrows this way even if you are a compound archer because Jet6 vanes are compatible with compound arrows as well.
This video instruction that shows how easy it is to use Triple Tape and Jig.
Last step will be to secure the vanes using a tape over them.
For compound:
You will need to use some fletching tools and special glues.
Bitzenburger produce some jigs for arrow fletching. After you place the arrow to the jig using some glue you will have to wait arroun 10-20 minutes per vane. After all 3 or more vanes fletched to the arrow shaft you are good to go.
Which vanes you should use?
There are many different types of vanes available on the market. You can try using different types of vanes but the key point is that the vanes helps your arrows to fly better. If you think your arrows fly more consistent with that particular vane you should use that one.
However my personal recommendation would be Jet6 Vanes. Because I use these vanes for months now and they fly much more consistent. I tried many different vanes in the past I used many different vanes and so far this is the best vanes that I used. The profile of the vanes are so special it is not very high nor very low. It is just inbetween. Some vanes have very high profiles which is being effected by the wind so easily. On the other hand low profile vanes can not create enough torque to direct the arrow on the desired path.
With the special curves of Jet6 Vanes, turbulent air flow arround the arrow that is caused by the bending of the arrow is being reduced thanks to the special design of Jet6 Vanes. Just like that arrows will overcome archer’s paradox quicker which impacts the shot tremendously.
