The BOHNING Helix Tower fletching system saves you time, makes preparing the arrows faster and offers the easiest and most precise way to fletch arrows. It is suitable for all arrow diameters and attaches three vanes at the perfect angle of 120 degrees next to another fletching.
Delivery contents:
- 5 replaceable nock holders for Standard-, Pin-, F-, A-, Moon- and Flat-nocks.
- 2 Rings for different shaft sizes. Red for thin carbon- and aluminium shafts, green for thick shafts.
- Tape (for protecting the bracket)
- 1 set of fletching arms for max 2.25 inches long vanes that are also right winged by three degrees
- 1 set of fletching arms red: for max. four inches long vanes that are also shifted by 1 degree
- 1 set of fletching arms grey: for max. four inches long, straight vanes
Specifications:
suitable for all arrow diameters
Length of the feathers: max. 4 inches (max. 2.25 inches if right wing)
- Item weight: 0,50 kg
Customers tested various feathering devices for us - here is a test report:
BOHNING Feather Tower
The first impression is rather negative: The device is reminiscent of a Lego building set (lots of bright colours, lots of plastic). Next comes the assembly: the instructions are only in English (they are illustrated and easy to understand, but the lack of instructions in German should be mentioned). The assembly turns out to be more complicated than expected - you won't find the necessary tools (small hexagon socket screws)!
Once the assembly was complete, two arrow shafts (carbon and 11/32 wooden shaft) were waiting for the new springs. The arrow shaft fits well in the anchorage - but somehow I'm not sure whether the guide feather is glued in the right place - this needs to be checked again. With my conventional fletching device, I'm used to the nock on the arrow shaft snapping into the device so that the guide feather goes exactly where it belongs.
Now it's time to fletch: The feathers are easy to insert into the guide rails, but the feathers can still be moved. The question is whether the feathers are really 100% in place. After the first attempt, one spring sticks to the device! My mistake, too much hard glue! But the other nibs also sit at different heights on the arrow shaft - annoying! The 2nd attempt went better, the feathers stuck to the arrow shaft, more or less where they should be. I'm not entirely satisfied with the result.
Well, the packaging advertises that fletching can be done three times faster with this fletching device. So, if I include the set-up time and the failed attempt, I would probably have already finished 3 arrows with my conventional fletching device!
Let's move on to the positives: The scope of delivery includes rails for right- and left-wound feathers. All 3 feathers are glued at the same time - i.e. no more waiting for the glue to dry. I think that if you have some practice with this system, you can actually fletch quite quickly.
Conclusion:
If I had wanted to fletch arrow shafts with this device without any previous experience, I would definitely have given up quickly. The "futuristic design" and the many plastic parts tend to put me off. The price of just under 90 euros is clearly too much. There are entry-level appliances that are easier to use and only cost about a third of that.
Recommendation to buy: NO.
You can find an overview of all the test results here:
