Fletching

A fletcher cutting a log into an unstrung bow.

Fletching involves the making of bows and arrows. The products of this skill are primarily used in the combat skill, ranging. At a higher fletching level, the skill provides a good way of making money.

Materials Used

Fletchers use the following materials:

General

Picture	Item	Notes
File:Knife.PNG	Knife	Knives are used to whittle wood into unstrung bows or arrow shafts. You can find one in the Lumbridge castle basement.
File:Normal Logs.PNG	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 spinned from flax.
	Flax	Flax can be picked in Seer's Village. 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 experience.

Crossbows

Picture	Item	Notes
	Crossbow strings	Crossbow strings are one of materials used to make crossbows. They can be spun from sinew and tree roots below magic trees.
File:Rune Limbs.gif	Metal Limbs	Smithed from metal bars, metal limbs are used in the production of crossbows.
	Sinew	Sinew can be made by using a piece of raw beef with a range and choosing to make sinew.

Making Projectiles

Arrows

Picture	Item	Notes
File:Rune Arrowheads.gif	Arrow heads	Arrow heads can be bought in a ranging shop or smithed.
File:Feather.gif	Feathers	Feathers can be acquired by killing chickens. Chickens drop an average of about five feathers each. Feathers can also be bought in Shantay Pass. Shantay holds up to 500 feathers at a time, and feathers can be bought for as low as one gold each.
File:Rune Nails.gif	Nails	Smithed from metal bars, nails are used in the production of Brutal arrows.
File:Wolf Tips.gif	Wolfbone Tips	These can be made by using wolf bones with a chisel.

Bolts

Picture	Item	Notes
File:Barbed Tips.gif	Barbed tips	Barbed tips are rewards from the Ranging Gulld minigame.
File:Feather.gif	Feathers	Feathers can be acquired by killing chickens. Chickens drop an average of about five feathers each. Feathers can also be bought in Shantay Pass. Shantay holds up to 500 feathers at a time, and feathers can be bought for as low as one gold each.
File:Dragon Tips.gif	Gem tips	Gem 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 RuneScape, including the Shilo Gems, can be made into gem tips.
File:Pearl Tips.gif	Pearl tips	Pearl tips can be made by using a oyster pearl with a chisel.
File:Rune Unfinished Bolts.gif	Unfinished Bolts	Unfinished bolts can be smithed from metal bars. Each bar can smith 10 of these.

Darts

Picture	Item	Notes
File:Rune Dart Tips.gif	Dart tips	Dart tips can be smithed from metal bars.
File:Feather.gif	Feathers	Feathers can be acquired by killing chickens. Chickens drop an average of about five feathers each. Feathers can also be bought in Shantay Pass. Shantay holds up to 500 feathers at a time, and feathers can be bought for as low as one gold each.

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	Half Exp Cut/String	Total Exp
Shortbow	5	5	10
Longbow	10	10	20
Oak shortbow	20	16.5	33
Oak longbow	25	25	50
Willow shortbow	35	33.3	66.6
Willow longbow	40	41.5	83
Maple shortbow	50	50	100
Maple longbow	55	58.3	116.6
Yew shortbow	65	68.5	137
Yew longbow	70	75	150
Magic shortbow	80	83.3	166.6
Magic longbow	85	91.5	183

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.

Achey logs can be whittled into Ogre arrow shafts. Each achey log yields between 2 and 6 arrow shafts. Four feathers are needed for each shaft. The shafts may be tipped with wolf bone arrow heads or with nails. Ogre shafts tipped with nails are called "brutals" and are especially useful for killing Zogres. Any type of metal may be used for the nails.

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

Arrow	Level Needed	Experience Given
Arrow shafts	1	0.33
Headless arrows	1	1
Bronze arrows	1	1.3
Iron arrows	15	2.5
Steel arrows	30	5
Mithril arrows	45	7.5
Adamant arrows	60	10
Rune arrows	75	12.5

Darts

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

Dart	Level Needed	Experience Given
Bronze dart	1	1.8
Iron dart	22	3.8
Steel dart	37	7.5
Mithril dart	52	11.2
Adamant dart	67	15
Rune dart	81	18.8

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. It is best to continue with arrow shafts instead of switching to oak bows. Since the introduction of Construction, oak logs have been too expensive for simple training. Additionally, fletching several thousand arrow shafts at this point means that they will not have to be fletched later.
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.
40-70	Half willow longbows	The medium level fletcher will make thousands of willow longbows. As with shortbows, they should not be strung, but instead sold unstrung to shops.
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 slightly less.
85 - 99	Yew or magic longbows	Magic logs are more difficult to obtain, but provide greater experience. 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

Stringing bows

Many fletchers do not like stringing bows: while cutting is done automatically, stringing must be done bow-by-bow, and the experience granted is the same. However, the bows must be strung if a player wishes to alch them. A good technique to use is to place an unstrung bow in the sixth row, third column, as indicated by the image. If a player simply combines the penultimate bowstring with the specially placed unstrung, he or she simply has to click rapidly a few times and all bows will become strung. This also leaves the unstrung in place so it will not have to be moved each time an inventory is complete. Once all the bows are strung, the fastest method to bank is to withdraw all strings, store all fletched bows, then withdraw all unstrung bows. This cuts clicking down to six times, and requires no typing as required by Withdraw X.

File:Stringinginventory.PNG

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 offical 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.

Fletch in the correct environment

Fletching might get boring at some point, due to its monotonous nature. If you fancy some light entertainment, try fletching at the bank at Castle Wars in World 2. It is one of the worlds that has players in Castle Wars all day long, and you can expect some funny conversations to be made there. Also, the bank there also doubles as a marketplace, you can stock up on items such as Rune Kites and Rune Axes. Sometimes, there might be questers buying items such as Chocolate Cakes and Relicym's Balms!

Quests

The following quests provide fletching experience:

Quest	Experience Given	Additional Information
Animal Magnetism	2500	Provides free arrows via Ava's attractor and accumulator.
Big Chompy Bird Hunting	262	Upon completion, players are able to fletch Ogre arrows.
Devious Minds	5,000
The Fremennik Trials	2,812.4
Temple of Ikov	8,000
Zogre Flesh Eaters	2,000	Upon completion, players are able to fletch brutals and composite Ogre bows

Random Events

Players will encounter many random events while fletching; however, there are no random events that pertain to fletching.

Temporary Boosts

Currently, the only known method to give a boost to the fletching level is by drinking spicy stews. However, the amount of boost is random.

As with all skills, Fletching levels wil temporarily rise by one when a Fletching skillcape is worn.