Fletching

By: Salmoneus
Special Thanks to: Red_drago364, Nadpese, Neo Avatars, Hawk, Spleen Cake, ianmichael7

Fletching is a useful skill allowing you to make your own bows and arrows, as well as several other useful types of weapons that are used in Ranging. This Members' skill is not only helpful for making weapons to Range with, but it's also a great and fun way to make a profit.

Table of Contents



The Basics

Fletching can often be an interesting skill to work on in RuneScape, since you can make all sorts of different things with it. The skill can also be fun, as you're not standing in the same place all the time. Instead, you can move around working on the skill, and usually you will be gaining experience toward other skills as well.

Required Items

The necessary items for Fletching vary with the particular item you are creating, but there are two main items which are common to essentially all types of fletched items.

LogsLogs are required for cutting or whittling objects such as bows, arrow shafts and crossbow stocks. To obtain logs, cut down a tree using the Woodcutting skill. They may also be bought from other players on the Grand Exchange.

KnifeA Knife is used to cut logs into items including bows, arrow shafts and crossbow stocks. There are Knife respawns located behind Bob's Axe store in Lumbridge, upstairs in the Varrock General Store, inside the Musa Point General Store, and in the house just south of the Seer's Village Pub. They may also be purchased from the East Ardougne Spice Stall, or from Arhein's Store in Catherby for 25gp.

Sacred Clay Fletching KnifeMembers also have access to special knives from the Stealing Creation Activity. The Scared Clay Fletching Knife gives a 100% experience bonus when it is used to cut logs. Once you earn 30,000 experience from it, the knife will disappear. The Volatile Clay Fletching Knife gives a 120% experience bonus when used, and will transform back into a Volatile Tool once 10% of its charges have been used up.

Beaver PouchCertain Summoning Familars are able to act as a Knife and cut logs for you, including:

  • Beaver: Level 33 Summoning

Use the logs on the Summoning Familiar to cut them into the item of your choice.

Fletching Items

Once you have the required materials, it's time to begin Fletching. To fletch an unstrung bow, arrow shafts or a crossbow stock, use your Knife on some logs in your inventory. A Fletching dialog will appear, allowing you to select the number and type of item you would like to create.

Choose how many you wish to make, then click on the chosen item to begin.

After you select how many you would like to fletch, click the icon of the item to begin Fletching. By default, you will use up all of the logs in your inventory to make the maximum number of the selected item.

Fletching logs into a bow using a knife

Arrows

Arrow ShaftsTo Fletch some arrows, you'll first need to make Arrow Shafts out of regular logs. One set of logs will make 15 Shafts, giving a total of 5xp. Now you need to obtain some feathers, and then use them with the arrow shafts. Each arrow needs just 1 feather, and you earn 1xp per feather you add. To finish the arrow, you need to get some Arrow Heads of the metal you want, either by Smithing or buying them from the Archery Shop in Catherby, the Ranging Guild, or King Lathas' Training Area. Use the heads with the arrows to finish them.

Arrows
PictureArrowFletching LevelFletching Experience (per set of logs)
Bronze Arrow Bronze 1 19.5
Iron Arrow Iron 15 37.5
Steel Arrow Steel 30 75
Mithril Arrow Mithril 45 112.5
Adamant Arrow Adamantite 60 150
Rune Arrow Rune 75 187.5
Dragon Arrow Dragon 90 225

Repairing Arrows

You can repair arrows with your Construction and fletching skills by using them with a repair bench in your house. You will receive 8 xp per arrow.

Bows

FlaxTo make a bow, first Fletch either a Short Bow or a Long Bow out of the wood you wish to make the bow from. Now pick some Flax from either the field south of Camelot Castle, or from the Gnome Stronghold. Use the flax with a Spinning Wheel to get a Bowstring Bow String. Spinning Wheels can be found in the southeast corner of the Gnome Stronghold, upstairs in the house southwest of the Seer's Village bank, as well as in Lumbridge Castle, the Barbarian Village and Falador. Use the string with your Unstrung Bow to finish it.

Bows
PictureBowFletching LevelFletching Experience
Shortbow Shortbow 5 10
Longbow Longbow 10 20
Oak Shortbow Oak Shortbow 20 33
Oak Longbow Oak Longbow 25 50
Composite Ogre Bow Composite Ogre 30 90
Willow Shortbow Willow Shortbow 35 66.6
Willow Longbow Willow Longbow 40 83
Maple Shortbow Maple Shortbow 50 100
Maple Longbow Maple Longbow 55 116.6
Yew Shortbow Yew Shortbow 65 137
Yew Longbow Yew Longbow 70 150
Magic Shortbow Magic Shortbow 80 166.6
Magic Longbow Magic Longbow 85 183

It's also worth noting that in the chart above, half of the experience comes from cutting logs into an unstrung bow, and the other half comes from stringing that bow.

Crossbows

Using a combination of Smithing, Fletching, Crafting and Cooking, you'll be able to make your own Crossbows. These objects are made out of both metal and wood (as well as a string), and so they require you to use these three skills to complete them.

First, use a knife with a set of logs to make a Crossbow Stock. Next, you need to make a set of Crossbow Limbs from metal. These can be made by using your Smithing skill. But remember, only certain kinds of metals will work with certain stocks.

Crossbow Stocks & Limbs
PictureStockPictureLimbs
Wooden Stock Wooden Bronze Limbs Bronze
Oak Stock Oak Blurite Limbs Blurite
Willow Stock Willow Iron Limbs Iron
Teak Stock Teak Steel Limbs Steel
Maple Stock Maple Mithril Limbs Mithril
Mahogany Stock Mahogany Adamantite Limbs Adamant
Yew Stock Yew Runite Limbs Rune

SinewOnce you have those pieces put together, you need to add a string to the crossbow (u) so that you can actually use it. This is fairly simple to do; first you need to cook some Bear Meat (or Beef) over a range, and choose to turn it into Sinew rather than making it into an edible piece of meat. Next, spin the Sinew on a Spinning Wheel (requires 10 Crafting) to make a Crossbow String.

Lastly, just use the Crossbow String with your unfinished Crossbow to complete it!

Crossbow Chart
PictureCrossbowFletching LevelFletch Stock ExperienceAdd Limbs ExperienceString Crossbow ExperienceTotal Experience
Bronze Crossbow Bronze 9 6 12 6 24
Blurite Crossbow Blurite 24 16 32 16 64
Iron Crossbow Iron 39 22 44 22 88
Steel Crossbow Steel 46 27 54 27 108
Mithril Crossbow Mithril 54 32 64 32 128
Adamant Crossbow Adamant 61 41 82 41 164
Rune Crossbow Rune 69 50 100 50 200

Other Items

You can also Fletch several kinds of Bolts, as well as Darts with your Fletching Skill. Usually these are not made to increase your Fletching level, as they give less experience and are more time-consuming to make.

Darts

To make a Dart, you'll need to have already completed the Tourist Trap Quest. First Smith some dart Tips of the type of metal you want to make the dart from. Then just add a feather to each dart to complete them.

Darts
PictureDartFletching LevelFletching Experience (per dart)
Bronze Dart Bronze 1 1.8
Iron Dart Iron 22 3.8
Steel Dart Steel 37 7.5
Mithril Dart Mithril 52 11.2
Adamant Dart Adamantite 67 15
Rune Dart Rune 81 18.8
Dragon Dart Dragon 95 95

Composite Bow & Brutal Arrows

First get an Axe, some Nails of your preferred type, a Hammer and a Knife. Now cut down an Achey Tree and use the Knife with the Logs and choose the arrow shaft option. Use 4 feathers on the arrow shafts and you'll have some headless arrows. Next get your Hammer and Nails and use the nails on the headless arrows and you've made your Brutal Arrows.

Note: you will make 2-6 arrows per set of logs.

Brutal Arrows
PictureItemFletching LevelFletching Experience (per arrow)
Ogre Arrow Ogre Arrow 5 1
Bronze Brutal Bronze Brutal Arrow 7 1.4
Iron Brutal Iron Brutal Arrow 18 2.6
Steel Brutal Steel Brutal Arrow 33 5.1
Black Brutal Black Brutal Arrow 38 6.4
Mithril Brutal Mithril Brutal Arrow 49 7.5
Adamant Brutal Adamantite Brutal Arrow 62 10.1
Rune Brutal Rune Brutal Arrow 77 12.5

Bolts

There are quite a few different kinds of bolts you can Fletch. You can make bolts from any type of metal, including Blurite, and add tips made from gems. All metal bolts, without gem tips, are able to be poisoned by using a Weapon Poison potion on them.

To make a bolt, you need some Feathers and some Bolts (unf). Feathers can be bought from any Fishing Shop (such as the ones in Port Sarim or Catherby), or obtained from Chickens. Bolts (Unf) are made by smithing a metal bar on an anvil into bolts. Simply use the Feathers on the Bolts (Unf) to make some complete Bolts for use with a Crossbow.

Crossbow Bolts
PictureBoltFletching LevelFletching Experience
Bronze Bolt Bronze 9 .5
Blurite Bolt Blurite 24 1
Iron Bolt Iron 39 1.5
Silver Bolt Silver 43 2.5
Steel Bolt Steel 46 3.5
Mithril Bolt Mithril 54 5
Adamant Bolt Adamant 61 7
Rune Bolt Rune 69 10

With bolts, there are two things worth noting. First, Blurite Bolts can only be made after completing the Knight's Sword Quest. Secondly, Silver Bolts are actually Crafted with a Silver Bolt Mould and a Silver Bar, rather than Smithed.

You may also add Bolt Tips to your Bolts, which make them more powerful. Bolt Tips can be made from Pearls, Gems, Barbs and even a Mithril Grapple.

  • Opal - Mine for some Opals at Shilo Village, and then use a Chisel with them to make Opal Tips. Now just use these with some regular bolts.
  • Pearl - Obtain some Pearls by Fishing with a big net, and then chisel them into Pearl Tips. Use them with some regular bolts.
  • Barbed - Buy 30 Barbed Tips from the Ticket Merchant in the Ranging Guild for 140 Tickets. Use them with regular bolts.
  • Gem - Use a Chisel with a gem to cut it, and then use your chisel on it again to make bolt Tips.
"Tipped" Bolts
Original BoltNew Bolt PictureNew BoltFletching LevelFletching Experience
Bronze Opal Bolt Opal 11 1.6
Blurite Jade Bolt Jade 26 2.4
Iron Pearl Bolt Pearl 41 3.2
Steel Topaz Bolt Topaz 48 3.9
Bronze Barbed bolt Barbed 51 9.5
Mithril Sapphire Bolt Sapphire 56 4.7
Mithril Emerald Bolt Emerald 58 5.5
Mithril Mith Grapple Mith Grapple 1 11
Adamant Ruby Bolt Ruby 63 6.3
Adamant Diamond Bolt Diamond 65 7
Rune Dragon Bolt Dragonstone 71 8.2
Rune Onyx Bolt Onyx 73 9.4

Any of the Gem-tipped bolts can be enchanted using your level 4 "Enchant Bolt" spell in your spellbook. There are all sorts of helpful effects that will give you an advantage in battle. See the "Crossbows & Bolts" section of the Ranging guide for more info about these enchantments.

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Published on: October 28, 2004 01:30 AM UTC by Salmoneus
Updated on: August 25, 2011 12:38 AM UTC by Salmoneus