actually I have tried real life fletching. in my highschool media class we made a Warrior movie. I took it upon myself to make 30+ arrows. what i did, i went and found about 30 marshmello roasting sized dowel rods. cut them to a nice length. and for the arrowheads and fletchings, i used duct tape. i made point ends by just wrapping the duct tape around one end into a point. for the feathers and notch, i just folded the duct tap in the middle taped it to the end and used scissors to cut little feather cuts into it. the notch was just two small rolled up pieces taped down. they actually turned out really nice looking, adn it took a long time to make all 30. after the film we only had like 2 that survived, that didnt get lost in the woods, or broken. i wish i still had pictures but i don't. ALSO, ive also did a little smithing, with a metal rod, that ive set in the fire for a long time, and put it over an axehead and smashed it to a point with a hammer. that i wasnt to successful with though though. just got it pointy, couldnt really get the sides sharp without some file or grinder thing. heh