Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
war arrows of the mary rose?
Yeomanbowman:
--- Quote from: adb on April 22, 2013, 08:23:39 pm ---I think this debate will continue to go on forever, because nobody knows for sure.
--- End quote ---
Well the debate about a cloth yard may run and run but, really, it is a moot point because we have so many of the real artifacts. The one medieval and vast majority of the Mary Rose arrows are a useable draw length of 30" or less. The MR Trust measure their arrows from the cone tip to the nock end, not arrowhead to shoulder of the valley of the knock. The lesser amount, by some way, of arrows that had a 32" usable draw were very likely to have been for fire arrows. Draw a lit fire arrow to the shoulder of the arrowhead and you char the back of the bow. Not good in a battle or otherwise.
adb:
I agree... I only meant the debate about what a clothyard shaft is will continue. There are enough artifacts from the MR in terms of arrows to determine the length of most late medieval battle shafts.
mikekeswick:
I don't worry about the spine. I don't think medieval era bowyers or archers even thought about it or knew about it. The arrow needs to be strong enough to withstand the initial force of being shot from a heavy bow. I'm more worried about the grain of the shaft, and what it weighs.
I bet they did. Remember they likely knew more about bows than we do.
adb:
I seriously doubt that. I think it unlikely they measured arrow shaft deflection and separated the arrows into lots. They were livery arrows... to be shot out of all bows.
WillS:
We'll obviously never know, but I can't help thinking that if my life absolutely depended on my bow, and I had days and weeks between marching to sit around, I'd probably spend a lot of time sorting the arrows that flew the best from my particular bow.
Whether it was "spine" back then who knows, but I can't imagine anybody going into a battle with "basic" or rough weapons if they had the option not to. Nobody would go into a modern-day warzone with a roughly setup scope on their rifle!
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