Hey, sorry if the pics are a bit shoddy but I think you should be able to get the just of it.

  The shafts I am using in this tutorial are cattail with short birch and serviceberry foreshafts with fire hardened points.

   Materials: Any suitable feathers for fletching, (turkey, goose etc.)   fine crochet thread or other thread, scissors, (optional) beeswax, (optional) water resistant glue.

  I start by cutting my fletchings, leave them a little extra long as you will have to shave the bristles off for about a cm. on either end where you will be wrapping them.   Trim them down a little, not perfect but close to the width you will want them to ultimately be, this makes it easier to part the bristles when tying them on.

    Cut the upper end of each fletching about 1-2mm. shorter than the next:





    Wax your thread with some beeswax, I used a little less than 1 1/2 arm lengths to tie these on, longer fletchings will require more so be generous,




   
      Start your binding by wrapping over the loose end of your string,






      Now continue your wrapping, going around the end of your longest fletch twice to hold it on, then introduce your next fletching and go around it twice and finally your third and last fletch, continue wrapping until the de-bristled quill is nearly completely wrapped, wrapping now around  all 3.

     

      
      
             You can't see all 3 fletchings, the 3rd. is on the other side.
      


        Now make a loop and tuck your thread under it, then pull tight...

      




         Now continue with the same thread down between the bristles of your fletchings in a spiral pattern with about a cm. spacing or a little less.

        




           When you have wrapped all the way down between the bristles of the fletchings make another loop around the bare quills at the end and tuck the thread through the loop and pull tight.  Now decide whether you want a helix on them or not, if you do gently push the bottom of each fletching along under where you tied it, push toward the dull side of the fletchings to do it properly, push all of them over the same amount at the base until you have enough of a helix, if you don't want a helix then just straighten them up and continue to the next step!
        
            



            Wrap the rest of your quills and about a cm. past the quill along the shaft, make another loop and tuck the thread through it and pull tight!

              
        
              



            YOUR DONE!  I coat the wrapping on either end with some water resistant glue to secure it better, but if you tie a double knot rather than a single you wouldn't have to, or you could simply put glue on only the knot. 
                                            
              





     The finished product, (sorry, I had to take the photos indoors, bad lighting,)
 
     I made 5 of the fletching type on the right, 3 of the the long narrow fletching type in the center and 8 of the angled type on the left.

        
        
        
        
     

     
         OBVIOUSLY I NEED A LITTLE WORK ON MY AIM...COULDN'T HIT THAT DARN PIECE OF BIRCH BARK....

        
        
        

   Thanks, it's my first tutorial.       I set out to learn how to tie on my fletchings and found quite a few guides, but people were all using fletching jigs made from things like cardboard/birchbark/leather and so I came up with my own method of doing by having different lengths to the ends of the fletch you will be wrapping.  I find it is much faster than the other methods and only requires one continuous wrap, the guides I saw used two separate wrappings, one for top or bottom and one for top or bottom and between the bristles.


  I will be making up more arrows soon, I have some maple, willow, spruce, poplar and a lot of wild rose shoots made up into shafts...I don't know what I will do with all the arrows to be honest, I think I have gone a bit too far, I have at least 20 more shafts of the above types together.

Are the main shafts cattail?  Did you gather them green and dry them or did you cut them after they had dried?

Hey thanks Luke!
You know what?
Me and my archery teacher are discussing about the correctness of such ties - I mean, we do Medieval archery using tied fletches, but NO painting at all in the whole Europe (well, none that we know of at least  ) depicts tied fletches 
What do you think?
We're studying recipes for strong Medieval glue, but are far from results....
Greetings,
Mauro.

I came at the same conclusion, I believe that almost any archer made its own arrows, with the most congenial method according to his habits.
But just for talking, here're a couple of pictures of San Sebastiano, a saint killed with arrows.
These are the most ancient paintings I've been able to find, and dated to the mid-1400: it's hard to say so only by judging a couple of image on the net, but I can assure you that none of these arrows are tied (I'll continue to tie my arrows nonetheless  ).





Greetings,
Mauro.

The arrows from the Mary Rose, a Tudor era ship, had tied on fletching.  There are at least thre arrows dating from around 1350 to 1450 in England that have tied on fletches.  And there is a whole lot of literature from that time frame that tells how to make arrows.  There are several books from Asia and the Middle East that talk about making arrows, most use some type of wrap on the fletches.  One reason the ends were wrapped was to prevent the tip of the feather from cutting the top of the archers hand when he shoots. 

Now, that being said, just because the English made their arrows that way, is no reason that anybody else made their arrows that way.  And, I would suspect that arrows were made in many different patterns and styles over the years, the hunting arrows and the semi massed produced war arrows of the Romans would have been made very differently.

  Did you see the bows in that first painting?  Those things are crazy!
 
  A distinction I might make is that crossbow bolts may not have had tied on fletchings, you HAVE to have the ends of your fletches wrapped for shooting over your hand rather than a rest, I speak from painful experience and only with a 30lb. bow, not 100+!!  Crossbow bolts often had even wooden fletchings and this may be one reason they might have glued on the feather fletches as well, and perhaps in these pictures it is mainly the crossbow bolts depicted, I notice none of them are very long.

    That is some great info there bill, I have read about the mary rose and even seen a few specials on t.v. showing the bows.

  Arthur, I think your problem would be that you did not wrap below the knock, get some thread no heavier than a fine crochet thread and no lighter than sewing thread and wrap around under the knock, the wrapping should be about a cm. long, finish it like I did my wrapping by making a loop and tucking the end through and pulling tight, then for sure apply glue.  You can also apply glue to the area being wrapped before you wrap it.  If the knock wants to split then it will have to burst the cordage.  If the sides of the knock are breaking you are probably leaving them to thin and making to wide a knock.

The three arrows I cited are in the book by Hugh Soar, I think the name is "The English Warbow", I let some one borrow the book and I haven't got it back.  I don't believe there were pictures of those arrows.  There were a lot of pictures of the arrows from the Mary Rose.  Jaap and Kay Koppendreyer of Yumi Archery, practice Japenese and Asiatic archery, Kay writes the articles, Jaap makes the bows and the arrows.

If you want to avoid the cuts on the top of your hand, peel the feather off the quill, tie one end on, glue the feather all the way to the tip and then tie on the other end.  I use sinew, but I have used sewing thread, feed sack string, fibers of palmetto and dental floss.  For glue, I have used rubber cement, hide glue, unflavored gelatine, fletching glue and super glue.  They all worked, some better than others but they all made an arrow that shot well. 

The secret to making a great arrow is the tip and the nock must be on line, I use river cane, a species of bamboo, you can never get it perfectly straight, but it flies straight if your nock and tip are in line.