You can find ready-made feathers in archery shops. But you have to make sure to buy complete barbs as feathers cut for european archery are too small.

Where to find good quality feathers

Your best bet is to contact animal preparators. Often you can buy complete wings there. If you plan to build a set of arrows, you need at least a right and a left wing. The right wing consists only of feathers for Otoya, the left one only of feathers for Haya.

Quality of feathers on a wing

Counting from the outside, the first 5-6 feathers are of high quality. The next 7-8 are still very usuable. The rest cannot be used for arrows.

Splitting the feathers

If you look at the backside of the feathers you see a fine rill along the quill.

With a scalpel you cut along this rill.

With scissors cut off the rest of the smaller side.

		Feathers for makiwara arrows
	Makiwara ya with (rude) feathers

Further treatment

The next step is to make the quill as thin as possible. It is recommandable to fix the feather between two pieces of wood.

It is also possible to start by cutting down the quill with the scalpel. However, it is a lot saver to work with a file only.

The last step is to cut the feather into appropriate size. But only do the lenght. The width (1.5cm on the picture) should not be done bevor the feather is glued to the shaft.

Measurements for the feathers on the shaft
	These are high quality buzzard feathers (top: Otoya, bottom: Haya) ready to be put on a shaft.

For further instructions check: How to build arrows.

You can find the pdf version of this guide in the download section.