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Pre 14thC bulbous English arrows.
davecrocket:
Thank you very much for the pictures Daniel. That is much more like it. My arrow was rubbish. I don`t know why I thought I had to put the fletchings in a recess. Been looking at too many Turkish arrows maybe. Anyway I don`t think any of you need to be told I failed when I shot it. It was just like shooting an over spined arrow in a weak bow.
I will try to make on of those. I wish his hand wasn`t in the way. The tapering is very harsh on closer inspection.
I have been emailed by Mike who works for a master fletcher and he also associates bulbous nocks with rings. The arrows I have seen that would have been shot with rings do have bulbous ends alot of the time, but the actual nock is thin and pointy. This is where the confusion is creeping in I think. A nock to me is the bit where the string sits in. I collect archery rings and it makes sense to have the knock as slender as you can so it can sit as close to the ring as possible. I could be wrong.
As for making these arrows..it`s a real pain. I have only been doing it for a couple of years. Other arrows that I have made have been much easier. I have a steel plate with holes in with different diameters which alows me to shave them down and shape them. I can`t use the smaller holes because the nock won`t fit in.
Thank you all very much for all your helpful advice and coments.
Rod:
--- Quote from: triton on May 11, 2009, 03:40:26 pm ---I've been reliably informed that bulbous nocks were used in conjunction with a thumb ring.
--- End quote ---
With a composite bow, no doubt.
With an English bow, unlikely.
Rod.
triton:
have it your way but I've seen hundred year old arrows along with the bows. they are of course victorian but the reasons they used thumb rings with bulbous nocks remains the same.
Rod:
--- Quote from: triton on May 14, 2009, 11:45:05 am ---have it your way but I've seen hundred year old arrows along with the bows. they are of course victorian but the reasons they used thumb rings with bulbous nocks remains the same.
--- End quote ---
Perhaps I should have made it clearer that my comment refers to the use of thumb rings with an English bow, not to the use of thumb rings with bulbous nocks which may or may not be the practice in other cultures.
Nor would an English lawn archery shaft of one hundred years ago typically have a bulbous nock as you seem to imply.
Presumably the "they" in your second paragraph does not refer to Victorian archers shooting English bows.... :-)
Rod.
Rod:
The picture posted by Daniel shows an interesting variant on a gentleman's sporting shaft, if you compare this to the Lutrell Psalter picture (used on the cover of Hardy's "Longbow" and also shown in "The Great Warbow") you will see a different nock aperture, not the triangular shape of this Burgundian example on a clearly bobtailed shaft, but more of an enlarged "C" shaped nock aperture shown in use for shooting at the butts in an earlier period, also with the interesting bulbous head with the marks made by these heads on impact with the clay face of the butt.
Neither of these are primarily bulbous nocks so as to be "pinch gripped" as we usually understand the term, they are far more likely to be "clip on" in function, something not in evidence on a livery shaft for warfare, partly no doubt for reasons of economy of production, partly for the reasons given by Ascham in making his distinction in nocking depth and function between shafts for war and shafts for sport.
It should also be borne in mind that primary and secondary pinch grips, where employed, set a lower draw weight limit on the bow than that which would be used in a heavy war bow culture for fighting, though it should be noted that Gaston Phoebus does make a recommendation that a lighter draw weight than that typical in a war bow might be usefuly be employed for hunting.
Not that I expect that this is addressed to the common archers, but obviously to literate gentlemen who may well have been less frequent users of the bow.
It is also worth noting that with a basic pinch grip, above a certain draw weight, the arrow escapes the grip, like it or not.
Where a primitive culture uses a very heavy bow, we do not see a simple pinch grip in use.
For example, the Liangulu elephant hunters, drawing around 100 lb use a grip not unlike a Mediterranean loose.
FWIW
Rod.
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