Fletching

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Fletching involves the making of bows and arrows. The products of this skill are primarily used in the Ranged skill. It also provides material with relatively high alchemy prices, so its products are often used to train Magic as well.

At a higher level, the skill can be trained without losing any coins, although a decent amount of working capital is very useful. A small profit can be generated at higher Fletching levels. The current minimum to be ranked on the highscores in Fletching is 30 Fletching and 13,363 experience as of 9 July 2008. Many players go for 99 fletching as it is one of the easiest skills to get to 99, along with cooking.

Contents 1 Materials Used 1.1 General 1.2 Making Weapons 1.2.1 Bows 1.2.2 Crossbows 1.3 Making Projectiles 1.3.1 Arrows 1.3.2 Bolts 1.3.3 Darts 2 Making the items 2.1 Weapons 2.1.1 Bows 2.2 Projectiles 2.2.1 Arrows 2.2.2 Bolts 2.2.3 Darts 3 Training 3.1 Level Advancement 3.2 Tips 3.2.1 The Fletching Hole 3.2.2 Fletch in the correct environment 4 Temporary boosts 5 Trivia 6 See also

[edit] Materials Used

Fletchers use the following materials:

[edit] 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 are obtained from trees via the woodcutting skill or bought from fellow players or the Grand Exchange.

[edit] Making Weapons

[edit] 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, in the Taverley courtyard right next to the fountain, directly southeast of The Grand Tree, and in Lletya. 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. There is also one on Neitiznot, which is the closest one to a bank.

[edit] 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.
	Crossbow stocks	Fletched from logs and are used in the production of crossbows. Most can also be purchased at the crossbow stall in Keldagrim.
	Metal Limbs	Smithed from metal bars, metal limbs are used in the production of crossbows. Most can also be purchased at the crossbow stall in Keldagrim.
	Sinew	Sinew can be made by using a piece of raw beef with a range and choosing to make sinew.

[edit] Making Projectiles

[edit] Arrows

Picture	Item	Notes
	Arrow heads	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.
	Grenwall spikes	Grenwall Spikes can be used as an alternative for arrow shafts. These can be obtained by hunting Grenwalls
	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.
	Nails	Smithed from metal bars, nails are used in the production of Brutal arrows.
	Wolfbone Tips	These can be made by using wolf bones with a chisel.

[edit] Bolts

Picture	Item	Notes
	Barbed bolt tips	Barbed tips are rewards from the Ranging Guild minigame.
	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 has unlimited stock, and feathers can be bought for as low as one gold each.
	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 RuneScape, including the Shilo Gems, can be made into gem tips.
	Pearl bolt tips	Pearl bolt tips can be made by using a oyster pearl with a chisel.
	Unfinished Bolts	Unfinished bolts can be smithed from metal bars. Each bar can smith 10 of these.

[edit] 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 in Shantay Pass and Port Sarim. Both have an unlimited stock of feathers for about 4 each.

[edit] Making the items

[edit] Weapons

[edit] 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	Experience (unstrung)	Total Experience
Shortbow	5	5	10
Longbow	10	10	20
Oak shortbow	20	16.5	33
Oak longbow	25	25	50
Comp ogre bow	30
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	66	136
Yew longbow	70	75	150
Magic shortbow	80	83.3	166.6
Magic longbow	85	91.5	183

[edit] Projectiles

[edit] 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	Experience for 15
Arrow shafts	1	1/3	5
Headless arrows	1	1	15
Bronze arrows	1	1⅓	20
Ogre arrows	5
Iron arrows	15	2.5	37.5
Steel arrows	30	5	75
Mithril arrows	45	7.5	112.5
Broad arrows1	52
Adamant arrows	60	10	150
Rune arrows	75	12.5	187.5
Dragon arrows	90	15	225

¹Broad arrows can be made after buying the knowledge with Slayer reward points.

[edit] Bolts

Bolts are made by "using" a metal bar at an anvil while you have a hammer in your inventory. This grants smithing experience. The bolts created in this process are unfinished and still require fletching (they need feathers). This part provides the fletching experience.

The following table shows experience per item made and per 10 items made (the amount made per metal bar).

Bolt Type	Required Fletching Level	Experience (per bolt)	Experience (per 10 bolts (Long kebbit bolts per 6))
Bronze bolts	9	0.5	5
Opal bolts	11	1.6	16
Blurite bolts	24	1	10
Kebbit bolts	26	4.77	47.7
Iron bolts	39	1.5	15
Pearl bolts	41	3.2	32
Long kebbit bolts	42	7.95	47.7
Silver bolts	43	2.5	25
Steel bolts	46	3.5	35
Red topaz bolts	48	3.9	39
Barbed bolts	51	9.5	95
Mithril bolts	54	5	50
Broad-tipped bolts2	55	3	30
Sapphire bolts	56	4.7	47
Emerald bolts	58	5.5	55
Mithril grapple	59	59	590
Adamantite bolts	61	7	70
Ruby bolts	63	6.3	63
Diamond bolts	65	7	70
Runite bolts	69	10	100
Dragonstone bolts	71	8.2	82
Onyx bolts	73	9.4	94

²Broad bolts may be made after buying the knowledge with Slayer reward points.

[edit] Darts

You can fletch darts by adding feathers to a smithed dart, noted that finishing Tourist Trap Quest is needed for making these.

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
Dragon dart	95	25

[edit] Training

This article or section requires a cleanup in order to meet the RuneScape Wiki's quality standards. Reason: With the new updates the old ways of "supplies for longs" and the fletching guild are no longer effective, needs better methods for leveling You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to improve it.

[edit] Level Advancement

Levels	Items to make	Notes
1 - 35	Arrowshafts / Oak longbows	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 switch to oak bows when player can, around level 25 or so, as cutting normal logs can be very time consuming and have only one log per hit. Rather than cutting 67230 arrow shafts, nearly 4,500 normal logs, one at a time, it would be much more sensible to cut around 580 oak logs for the same effect. (Note: Since the introduction of Construction, oak logs have seen an increase in value, but only if player is looking to sell them raw.)
35 - 40	Willow shortbow (u)s	Willow logs can be acquired easily for a reasonably low price at the GE, or by cutting the logs by yourself. These unstrung bows can then be sold back to a general store for a small amount of coins, as it is very unprofitable to string the bows, but will still result in an overall loss.
40 - 50	Willow longbow (u)s	The medium level fletcher will make thousands of willow longbows. As with shortbows, (but do not make shorts, they are one of the hardest runescape items to sell after lvl 40) 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 general stores or any specialty store that will buy them. Fletchers / Alchemizers rarely buy bows, strung or not, anymore, and thus should not be relied on for exchanges. Players looking to go further should be prepared for loss.
50-55	Maple shortbow (u)s	Players can now make maple shortbows. They give more experience than willow longbows, but the trees are in fewer locations. Player should keep making Maple Short bow until level 55 because then players can make Maple Longbows.
55-70	Maple longbow (u)s	Player can now make maple longbows. They give more experience than maple shortbows, but the trees are in fewer locations than willows. Seers' Village is one place where Maple trees can be found close to a bank. The player should keep making Maple longbows until level 70 because then the player can make yew longbows.
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, player can train Fletching cheaper, though with the GE update, there are always available resources for alchemizers. Due to recent updates, the amount of persons buying bows of all kinds have dropped, along with prices. This way is nearly cost effective, although due to rising Nature rune costs, the value of such resources are dropping.
85 - 99	Yew longbows, magic longbows, or Adamant Arrows	Magic logs are more difficult to obtain, but provide greater experience. As completed magic longbows high alch for 1536 coins, the margin between items required to both fletch and high alch is better in comparison to yew long bows. Despite this, any gains made will be scraps, depending on log and bowstring prices due to Nature rune costs. As previously stated, users looking to go much higher than willow longs should be very prepared to sacrifice money for experience. Another way to train to level 99 is attaching the tip of Adamant arrows. This way costs virtually twice as much, but goes much faster, considering Adamant Arrow Tips and Headless arrows are stackable.
Note: Profit is hard to come by for fletching unless bolts are made, but bolts give little experience and if supplies are bought, the price exceeds the gain. Players looking to fletch need to be prepared to either gather their own supplies, or pay excessive amounts to level with little to no returns. Members can gather flax for bowstrings south of Seers' Village, then spin them into bowstrings on the 2nd floor of the house just west of the Maple Trees south of the bank in Seers' Village. Gathering flax gains no experience, but spinning it into bowstrings gains 15 crafting experience each (level 10 crafting required). If the flax has been banked unspun then spinning can also be done at the spinning wheel on level 2 of Lumbridge Castle, and the bowstrings can then be banked on level 3 of the castle. Stringing bows provides slightly slower experience than making unstrung bows from logs because only 14 bows can be strung from a full inventory (with 14 strings), however it remains a useful option for those wishing to generate some crafting experience, and provides some variety in the game.

[edit] Tips

A good way to raise you Fletching without losing your money, is to buy Yew Logs and Bow Strings (If you have 70 or higher Fletching). Cut the logs into Yew longbow (u)'s using your knife, and then add Bow Strings to them. This way you will gain a little profit in money and very fast experience. Another option is to buy Nature Runes and then High Alch your bows to gain even more profit then selling them. If you want to sell your Yew Longbows fast try the Grand Exchange. This will speed up your selling ability a lot, because theres almost always someone buying your Yew longbows.

[edit] The Fletching Hole

Some players had asked for a string-x feature, and Jagex eventually added it to the game. There have been some complaints that the string-x feature is actually slower, because the automatic fletching speed is lower than what players could originally do manually (manual stringing is now much slower because players now have to go through an additional menu), but others welcomed the fact that there would be less clicking and sore fingers.

As the Grand Exchange was introduced, raw supply prices have soared, leaving the finished products in a muck. It is now rarely profitable to buy raw materials and sell the final, as the GE prices are usually lower and players have started buying less finished products. Because of the GE's set prices, many players have gone to buying raw materials in the races to 99s, a great fad as of yet, and thus making items has become less profitable.

On that same note, players suffer a great loss by making full bows now, as Nature rune prices rise, surpassing alchemy prices of items if raw supplies were purchased. Due to these rises, the number of players willing to lose money on buying these bows has dropped severely. Concludingly, fletching has become a non-profit skill, as many have with the Grand Exchange update and players must beware of the price.

[edit] Fletch in the correct environment

Fletching is a tedious and monotonous skill. Some players will therefore fletch in a crowded area so as to have other people to converse with.

Some banks are not so crowded, but are bank chests that open with a single click. These bank chests are at Castle Wars , the Culinaromancer's Chest in Lumbridge castle cellar, the Duel Arena bank chest, the island of Neitiznot (also a great place for smithing) and the Shantay Pass chest work this way.

At Yanille's bank in world 132, there was a player made fletching guild where people could fletch and talk. The population of the bank has since gone down because of the 3-30k max trade that has made it harder to trade supplies for longbows or sell longbows which used to be a popular method of training fletching very fast.

[edit] Temporary boosts

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

As with all skills, your Fletching level will temporarily rise by one when a Fletching skillcape is worn, though it requires level 99 Fletching to buy/wear.

[edit] Trivia

• When Jagex update the Chat Filter at one time, which broke the communication from Classic to RS2, Fletching was accidently censored in chat.

[edit] See also

• Quest experience rewards - Fletching

Skills
Free skills
Members skills