Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => English Warbow => Topic started by: WillS on September 16, 2019, 11:21:29 am
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Thought I'd put some pics up of a few sets of arrows I've been working on lately.
First set are 3/8" birch and ash, for a 110lb bow. There's a mix of Type 7 (needle bodkins), Type 8 (square bodkins) and M3 or "Tudor" bodkins (horrible name, they're not Tudor at all!) all hand forged by myself. The fletchings are turkey, bound with black silk and the horn inserts are buffalo, tapered and glued into splits.
I've recently been experimenting with split nock inserts, as it's something I noticed when handling some of the Mary Rose arrows - generally people have been sawing the slots with hacksaws or even tile saws which leaves huge thick slots that need filling with very thick strips of horn, and this just isn't what the originals are like. They're paper thin, and the only way to achieve the correct size "gap" is to open the grain using a knife blade and glue tapered horn strips into the slot.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48744151111_49429dbe24_b.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48743818683_af59a91ea7_b.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48744328492_f008f2a558_b.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48744151151_6f8457e2f4_b.jpg)
The next arrows were for a museum display, and feature a variety of heads on authentic arrowshafts.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48744151261_f4284b3150_b.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48744151316_6e89e6af2a_b.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48744328347_219bf4a432_b.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48744150931_854130b74c_b.jpg)
And the final set are the arrows that I made for a film released on Tod's Workshop Channel. The brief was straightforward - make the most authentic arrows possible, from end to end.
The shafts are black poplar and ash (we only used the ash shafts on the day), the fletchings are swan, bound with red and green silk into a verdigris compound - beeswax, lamb kidney fat and copper verdigris - and the horn inserts are local Dorset cow horn, peeled from the main horn core with a knife blade to get naturally tapered paper-thin strips and glued into the split nock ends with hide glue.
The heads are forged in wrought iron (low grade) and are exact copies of a military head in the Museum of London, ID number 7568. Half were left pure wrought and water quenched, and the other half were case hardened in hoof, horn, leather and sugar before quenching.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48744151041_845f1d86a7_b.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48744328382_d1122d6b4b_b.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48744328457_c4b4049c5b_z.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48743818458_89e43d99e3_b.jpg)
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Lovely arrows Will, absolutely loved the videos too, truly fascinating. Could I ask what the verdigris does, besides colour the compound green?
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Looks like WillS wrote an article on verdigris:
http://www.theenglishwarbowsociety.com/TudorVerdegris2016.html
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Ta. I'll check it out now
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Very nice sets of arrows!!!
Wants me to make some too but no forge no smith...
The trick with the horn is really cool too.
I think many replicas are made with much more afford than ago...
Thanks
B2W
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Lovely arrows Will, absolutely loved the videos too, truly fascinating. Could I ask what the verdigris does, besides colour the compound green?
It's still a bit of a mystery really! The two main schools of thought are
a) It's a pesticide due to the toxic nature of the copper rust, so it prevents feather mites and moths etc eating away at the natural components while the arrows are in storage (we know they were stored in various locations for long periods between campaigns)
b) It's reet pretty, innit.
I'm 50/50 between the two - anybody who's studied medieval artwork and products knows that (and I'm misquoting somebody here) if it doesn't move, before long it'll have been decorated. Artists were using copper verdigris for their green pigments for centuries, and it was used in sealing wax along with vermillion for red so they knew it was pretty and striking. It's also conveniently the Tudor colours (green red and white) but artwork from well before the Tudor period shows verdigris on arrows.
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Lefty, Thanks for the link, very interesting article! I hope to get my "round tuition" working and make some of that stuff, if I can remember how to make the verdigris!
Will, very nice arrows! I read your article and am impressed with your research efforts and contacts. I added your article to my favorites for future reference. I am assuming the wrap is worked into the fletching by separating the feathering and then smoothing it back into place.
Hawkdancer
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Beautiful arrows, Will. I can't imagine the time and care you have invested in one arrow let known all of them. All, a piece of art.
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Very nice Will. I wondered about the turkey fletching. A quick search says the turkey was introduced into England in about 1525. Does that jive with the era of these arrows or did you have to fudge a bit. Not to appear picky I hope. I just wondered. beautiful arrows.
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Very nice Will. I wondered about the turkey fletching. A quick search says the turkey was introduced into England in about 1525. Does that jive with the era of these arrows or did you have to fudge a bit. Not to appear picky I hope. I just wondered. beautiful arrows.
Those arrows were fudgetastic! You're absolutely right, for properly correct arrows the fletchings would have been goose, swan or peacock wing feathers. However, those particular arrows were not fully authentic, hence the absence of verdigris compound. They were just a large order of target arrows for a guy who didn't want to ruin authentic ones. Plus, I have to charge a lot more for swan/goose fletched arrows!
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Nice arrows, and very wicked looking points.I wouldn't want to be on the south bound end of one of those.
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Beautiful arrows, Will. I can't imagine the time and care you have invested in one arrow let known all of them. All, a piece of art.
+2 on that, tons of work no doubt.
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Good effort on the arrows. Very nice :)
I can get goose feathers by the hundred. Proper wild ones.
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Beautiful work Will. In the first photo it looks like the second needle bodkin on the right is hollow ground. Is it really hollow ground? If it is, have you tested its penetrating powers compared with a standard flat grind?