Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
Medieval Fletching
JackCrafty:
Amazing how uniform the whipping is...and the number of turns is much higher than I would expect of a war arrow. Looks like there was a lot of care taken in the construction of the MR arrows. I haven't read the article in PA yet....looking forward to seeing it.
From personal experience, a beeswax mixture seems to be a more reasonable "glue" than an animal based glue. Rain and moisture would affect the animal glue and make quite a mess, in my opinion. Isn't formaldehyde the only thing that makes animal glue insoluble?
anglobow:
Jack, adding tannin is suposed to make hide glue more water resistant. I tried it and did not notice a difference. Also tried smoking it over a fire, said to naturally impart formaldehyde. That did not work for me either.
JackCrafty:
Anglobow, that's good info. I've heard of the "smoke the glue" idea for making animal glue water resistant (because of the formaldehyde present in smoke) but the concentration seems to be too small to make a difference. I'm glad you were able to perform a test to confirm.
In the discussions I've seen on the MR artifacts, the chemistry of the interaction of the water (where the ship was submerged) and the artifacts was only briefly mentioned. I wonder how well it is understood? Certainly animal glue would not survive after being submerged for so long....even if it was "waterproofed". Is there a good reference on the chemistry of the interaction between salt water and the bows/arrows? Have there been tests performed on reproductions which have been submerged for long periods? Thanks.
anglobow:
Jack, I don't know if such tests have been made, but it would be interesting to see.
I haven't done a whole lot of reading on the Mary Rose or the medieval archery texts that everyone talks about. I guess I'm more interested in the earlier stuff, stone age through early medieval.
Ohio John:
I think less typing and more shooting would straighten out everyones attitude
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