Oi! Left or Right wing?

Sometimes you'll hear one of our traditional brethren look at another trad archers kit and ask "left or right wing?" Don't panic. The club has not gone all political. Nor will Kier Starmer close the club down as a hotbed of "extremist" recurvers**. In archery, the terms 'left wing' and 'right wing' refers to the direction in which the feathers on an arrow orientate and curve. Getting all technical, the distinction between left and right wing feathers is based on "the natural curvature of the feather as they attache to the quill." So much for the book answer because we know archer questions are likely to be .. How do you tell which is which .. why is it important to know .. and whats the difference to my shooting?

First off, when fletching arrows with feathers, it's important to use feathers of the same wing. Reason, you want them all working to spin the arrow in the same direction. If you mixed them together on one arrow, left and right, each generates the opposite spin to the other. The differing spins generated would mostly cancel each other out reducing accuracy. So you need to know which is which. How do you tell? Well, stick with us as this one can get a little confusing.

lip to the right so this is a left wing fletch needing a left wing clamp.

The feather part of your fletch will always sit to one side or other on the quill (the spine the fluffy bit of the feather is attached to or the bit you apply glue to if you prefer). On a left wing feather, this lip will sit to the right of the fluffy part when viewed from the rear. Conversely, on a right wing feather, when viewed from the rear this lip will sit to the left. Clear as mud isn't it. Words be hard, picture easy - take a look at the badly drawn image above and hopefully this will make more sense. Viewing your fletched arrow from the nock end, you will see this quill lip on a left wing feather sits to the right making an L shape. Thus a Left wing fletch. If the lip is to the left - the mirror image of the left wing .. ⅃ .. its a right wing feather.

Assuming you now have all the feathers the same wing, there's another complication. Some fletching jigs use special helical clamps for feathers to get them glued properly onto the shaft. Here, it's crucial to match the feather wing with the helical clamp used during your fletching. A right wing feather should be used with a right wing clamp. left wing with a left wing clamp .. so when buying stuff be aware there's a difference.

And what difference does this make - left and right? As far as anyone is really aware its a matter of personal preference and fletching equipment compatibility. We haven't really found any articles giving proof of a real advantage although our editor remembers reading an article that you don't want to have the arrow rotating into the riser/stave .. but he cant remember why this was an issue or where he read it. It may be a seriously outdated view today. Why? Through slo-mo filming (see London Olympic archery on you tube for some awesome slo-mo), we know that arrows don't start rotating till well away from the bow. However, without details of the reasoning behind this assertion, we can't come to a conclusion as to wither its still a valid concern.

So there you go, left and right wing fletches - the differences .. another archery mystery you never knew existed till now.

TLDR: Don't mix and match ... homogeneous be good.

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** Extreme or radical recurve is actually a thing. It refers to a bow limb where the unstrung limb is extremely curved back. See Geo (limbs by Border) or Euan (limbs by Uukha) for examples. When strung, these radical recurves give a faster cast (more oooff) to the arrow for the same poundage as they act as bigger, more efficient levers than normal recurve limbs.