I’m still researching recurves, recurves accessories, and proper recurve shooting sequences before I buy anything.
I’m currently looking at making arrows for recurves and it appears that a lot of recurve vanes use stick on adhesives vs the cement fletching glue I’m used to seeing on compound arrows.
Many people seem to swear on them but I can’t help but think that stick on fletchings have to come off randomly through out the year.
I think that the idea is, that they may be easier to reapply. I don’t have actual experience with stick ons, but fletching cement seem to leave quite a bit of residue.
It seem that fletchings come loose randomly anyway on recurves. Maybe the arrow rest is hard on the fletchings, maybe the arrow is shot through the clicker, I don’t really know. But I have a stash of my kids semi-defletched arrows waiting to get reflet chef, and I’m considering switching from cement, because it just seems easier.
Properly fletched “stick-on” vanes, Spinwing style, do not randomly come off if they are shot from a bow that is properly set up and tuned. They can be damaged by shooting tight groups, shooting through the clicker, or shooting into brush, but not just randomly.
The advantage over glue-on vanes is that Spinwing style vanes tend to be:
- Lighter
- More flexible
- Curved and with a built-in offset angle (depending on the exact kind of vane)
- And yes, easier to repair in the field
Points 1-3 mean better clearance for a proper tune and better performance for the slower speeds that recurves shoot compared to compounds.