Fletching

Fletching

Also known as	Fletch

Fletching is a skill which allows the player to create various types of bows and arrows. The products of this skill are primarily used in the combat skill, Ranged. It also provides the primary material for High Alchemy, which is one of the main methods for training the Magic skill. At a higher fletching level, the skill can be trained without losing any coins, although a decent amount of working capital is very useful. Some little money can be generated at higher fletching levels.

Materials Used

Fletchers use the following materials:

General

Picture	Item	Notes
	Knife	Knives are used to whittle wood into unstrung bows or arrow shafts. You can find one in the Lumbridge castle basement.
	Chisel	Used to cut gems the second time into bolt tips.
	Logs	Logs may be obtained from trees via the woodcutting skill.

Making Weapons

Bows

Picture	Item	Notes
	Bow strings	Bowstrings are one of the materials used to make bows. They can be spun from flax.
	Flax	Flax can be picked in Seer's Village and in the Taverley court yard right next to the fountain. It can be spun into a bowstring on a spinning wheel. There is a spinning wheel on the 2nd floor of the house north of the churchyard. Spinning flax gains 15 Crafting experience, and requires level 10 crafting.

Making Projectiles

Arrows

Picture	Item	Notes
	Arrowtips	Arrow heads can be bought in a ranging shop or smithed. 15 arrowheads can be made from each bar.
	Arrow shafts	Arrow shafts can be made by using a knife on a some logs. 15 shafts can be made from each pile of logs.
	Feathers	Feathers can be acquired by killing chickens. Chickens drop an average of about five feathers each. Feathers can also be bought in the general store.

Bolts

Picture	Item	Notes
	Feathers	Feathers can be acquired by killing chickens. Chickens drop an average of about five feathers each. Feathers can also be bought in the general store.
	Gem bolt tips	Gem bolt tips are attached to unfinished bolts (with feathers already attached) to make gem tiped bolts. They can be made by using the gem with a chisel. Every gem in Divine-reality can be used to make gem tipped bolts.
	Unfinished Bolts	Unfinished bolts can be smithed from metal bars. Each bar can smith 10 of these.

Darts

Picture	Item	Notes
	Dart tips	Dart tips can be smithed from metal bars.
	Feathers	Feathers can be acquired by killing chickens. Chickens drop an average of about five feathers each. Feathers can also be bought at home in the general store.

Making the items

Weapons

Bows

To fletch bows, a player must use a knife on a log to whittle a short bow or long bow of that wood. Then, bow string must be attached to the unstrung bow. Bows, especially Yew longbows and Magic longbows, are frequently high alched as a means of income.

Bow	Level
Shortbow	5
Longbow	10
Oak shortbow	20
Oak longbow	25
Willow shortbow	35
Willow longbow	40
Maple shortbow	50
Maple longbow	55
Yew shortbow	65
Yew longbow	70
Magic shortbow	80
Magic longbow	85

Projectiles

Arrows

To fletch arrows, use a knife on logs to create arrow shafts. Each log yields 15 arrow shafts. Add feathers and arrow heads.

The following table shows experience per item made, although 15 items are made at a time.

Arrow	Level Needed
Arrow shafts	1
Headless arrows	1
Bronze arrows	1
Iron arrows	15
Steel arrows	30
Mithril arrows	45
Adamant arrows	60
Rune arrows	75
Dragon arrows	90

Bolts

Bolts are made by using a metal bar at an Anvil. The bolts created are unfinished and still require feathers to be attached.

The following table shows experience per item made, although 10 items are made at a time.

Bolt	Level Needed
Bronze bolts	9
Iron bolts	39
Steel bolts	46
Mithril bolts	54
Sapphire bolts	56
Emerald bolts	58
Adamantite bolts	61
Ruby bolts	63
Diamond bolts
Runite bolts	69
Dragonstone bolts	71
Onyx bolts	73

Darts

You can fletch darts by adding feathers to a smithed dart.

Dart	Level Needed
Bronze dart	1
Iron dart	22
Steel dart	37
Mithril dart	52
Adamant dart	67
Rune dart	81
Dragon dart	95

Training

Level advancement

Levels	Items to make	Notes
1 - 35	Arrow shafts	The best way to pick up fletching is to grab a knife, and an axe and enter any woods. Since a large portion of the map is normal trees, the training area is wide. Arrow shafts stack, so proximity to a bank is no issue.
35 - 40	Half willow shortbows	Willow logs can be acquired easily for a reasonable price. Money loss can be minimised by selling the unstrung bows to shops. (Roughly about 450 willow logs will be needed.)
40 - 70	Half willow longbows	The medium level fletcher will make thousands of willow longbows. As with shortbows, they should not be strung, as cutting and stringing give the same exp but stringing can cost 6 times as much. Instead unfinished bows should be sold to shops. (Around 17k willow logs will be needed.)
70 - 85	Yew longbows	Fletching yew longbows is the most popular method to gain fletching experience at this stage. Finally, it becomes cost effective to string the bows. Completed bows can be high alched for 768 coins or sold for less. Above level 70, you can train Fletching for free, as alchemizers who either do not have the levels or do not have the time trade raw materials for finished bows. Occasionally an alchemizer will also offer money as well, making it profitable. (Please note that if you want money, you are better to sell the bows and rebuy the supplies. This is often not cost effective however, as yew logs are difficult to obtain while hundreds of people make 'supps for longs' trades.
85 - 99	Yew or magic longbows	Magic logs are more difficult to obtain, but provide greater experience. The margin between items required to both fletch and high alch is better in comparison to yew long bows. Since both yew and magic longbows turn a profit when alched or sold, fletchers may choose to do either or both depending on availability of logs.

Tips

The Fletching Cycle

If you do not like the hassle of buying materials and sell the finished bows everytime, you may want to try trading your finished bows for the materials (logs and bowstrings) in community forums, especially the official Fletching marketplace forum. This means that you only need to purchase materials only for the first batch of bows you make.

Sometimes, you might even receive some money for every bow you trade. Do note that this method works only for higher level bows, especially yew longbows.

This trading method usually gives less profit than if you were to buy and sell separately. Therefore, if you're looking to earn a little cash and do not mind the trouble, sell your bows off at the market price first, then buy fresh materials.

The stringing of the bows is very intensive work and allows little room for other interaction. Any merchanting for materials would need to overlap with the cutting phase of fletching bows. An option is to keep both coins and a noted log in your inventory while fletching unstrung bows, to be able to engage in trades easily. Another good time to merchant for materials is during the high alching of the fletched bows.

Trivia

• There was once an error with the chat filter that lead to the word 'Fletching' being blocked when typed in chat for an entire day.