[Yosemite Sam]

HI, I'm new the forum and have done some searching and cannot find an anything on using Bull Thistle down on the darts.

What I would like to know is an easy way to handle these flower pods with out gloves. When I watch a YouTube video on how to fletch the dart, using the down, they don't explain what is done to the seed pod from making it too pokie.

Ernie

 

[treefork]

Hey Ernie . I don't recall there being any discussion in the past on this method of primitive dart construction .

 

[neondog]

Sorry about the late response. The Youtube I posted of Danny at Talequah,s Cherokee National Holiday was not Bull Thistle but more likely Field Thistle. I bought a couple dozen heads the first time I attended and the last time I went I spotted a large patch beside the highway and harvested about ten percent of that. There is definitely a difference. I can't come close to rolling the most common local variety, Wavyleaf Thistle, with a glove on so I use a piece of salvaged boot leather, pot holder style, while extracting the fluff from the seed heads. Unless you are shooting a big bore, you'll probably need to trim the fluff back some.