Ever wondered how to build longbow arrows?

Offset

Fascinating stuff @skunkwerx - this is the sort of traditional craftsmanship/skill we should cherish and encourage.  It's good to know there are enthusiasts like you and your club to keep it alive. 

skunkwerx

Alright! So all the shafts tapered. 11 degrees for the nock and 5 degrees for the point. 

Cleaned the inside of the point out using 0000 steel wool and methylated spirits to remove any machine oil, and steel wooled the tapered points all to help adhesion. 

Taped off the shaft to help control any overspill, and used araldite rapid to glue the modkin point on. 

Hugely important to have a good bond on the point, as straw targets eat them otherwise! 

For the nock, I install these orientated so that when nocked to the string, the string is at a 90 degree angle to the grain of the shaft. Idea is it is a stronger position given the force of the string on the wood. 

I'm not convinced it would matter much for modern nocks such as these with a tapered end, and I think it matters more to 'self' nocked arrows, where a channel
is cut into the back end of the arrow for the string to go, which is the traditional way. I will learn how to do this in future as it looks great and is a proper traditional method. 

I've tried to go for a happy medium here of medieval looks but with modern bits which are easier and quicker to install and on paper would be more accurate/consistent. Though this being a first time attempt I have no doubt I have fucked up several things so far in the learning process. 

Nock end, marked the 'top' of the arrow so as I could install the nock and quickly orientate it. 

Used hot melt glue for this. 

Should I strike the end of this arrow with another, plastic nocks stand a better chance of deflecting the incoming arrow, or if they are damaged, can be removed and replaced. Whereas if a self nocked arrow takes a hit from behind, it would be game over for that arrow. 

skunkwerx

Next step, which the medieval archers would not have had to worry about is initialling and number the arrows. 

A lot of clubs will want your arrows to be marked incase of lost arrows, and most competitions and tournaments require it. 

Now, I didnt want to just slap some numbered stickers on there, so I started thinking of alternative methods. Marker pen, paint etc. 

Then I had an idea.. I could burn them in!
So I first had to work out where on the shaft they needed to go, so I put the arrow into the jig, placed a feather in the clamp and got an idea where on the shaft I needed to be. 

Taped the area to guide me. 

Et voila

I then experimented with a different tip on a spare shaft and much preferred the result, so for the rest of the set beyond this prototype I'll use this tip: 

Next step is sealing the shaft. 

The longest but an easy step. 

0000 wire wooled the length of the shaft, 
Then applied a clear coat varnish. 

Wait 2 hours, repeat a total 3 times. 

You can stain/seal, paint, many people use danish oil. 

I like this varnish as it is water based, easy to apply, dries quick and more importantly gives the feathers a really good surface to be glued to. 

I had a nightmare trying to glue the feathers to a bare shaft in my tests.. maybe the wood was too oily, too slick.

Terrible photo but the shafts got a little sheen to it. 

More importantly it is protected from moisture. 

Next step:

Preparing the feathers.. I'll have to update on Sunday as I'm away from home now for the weekend. 

But here is a little preview. I'm using full length right wing turkey feathers. There is no difference between right or left wing other than the natural curve of the feather and therefore which direction it will spin the arrow when in flight. No benefit one over the other. 

You can buy pre cut feathers but thats no fun! 

So I bought full length feathers and I'm using a plastic template to create a 5.5" medieval shape from it. 

5.5" is.. well huge. I use 1.5" on arrows for my modern recurve bow and most traditional shooters who use feathers go for 4". 

The bigger the feather, the quicker the arrow will recover in flight, so it has more stability and the cost of arrow speed. Smaller the feather the faster the arrow but it will take longer to stabilise. 

Indoor shooting at close range, I favour bigger feathers. Can afford a slow draggy arrow that is stable. 

For longer range shooting, speed helps so a smaller feather is better, for me. 

You can fletch feathers/vanes straight, offset or helical. 

I'll be doing these fairly straight. Offset and helical can further increase spin for a given feather size, but again at the cost of drag. 

So, my thoughts are, big 5.5" feathers but fletched straight as can be to maximise arrow speed. The sheer size of the feather will make it a slower more draggy arrow anyway. 

I believe medieval archers when using warbows would use feathers 7" or so in length. Huge!

Full length above.
what I cut from it below. 

I place low tack painters tape on the full length feather, this helps the cutting, then use the plastic template to carefully cut the shape I need. 

I'll talk more about the importance of cutting the quill at an angle when we get to the fletching stage.. as a sharp quill can literally tear through the top of your hand or shooting glove when the arrow is shot.. and there will be three of them on the shaft! 

Anyway, next steps on sunday will be restraighting/checking the straightness of the arrow, then fletching then whipping the feathers, and thats it done! 

blobb

is a 'Fletcher' someone who just installs the feathers or someone who makes the whole arrow including the feathers? Or something else completely?

CavemanGrogg

I whittle the occasional super high quality slingshot/catapult that generally self destructs after less tan half a dozen shots.  The girlfriend has a mate that she works with who has a Youtube channel dedicated to medieval blacksmithing and weapon making, his whittled slingshots/catapults not only last a lot longer than mine, are far far superior quality, far far more accurate, take him less than 15 minutes to carve, but are also carved with a whittling knife that cost a good few hundred quid, where as mine are all carved from a sub £20 Swiss Army Knife Classic, given him a huge unfair fair advantage easily far far worse than being a drug cheat.

Schnozz

How did they attach the point and nock in olden times? (Enjoyed reading through this btw)

koneguitarist

I used a device for fletching similar to this but could put all fletching on at once. 

https://walesarchery.com/collections/fletching-jigs

skunkwerx

blobb said:

is a 'Fletcher' someone who just installs the feathers or someone who makes the whole arrow including the feathers? Or something else completely?

I think the term fletcher can mean many things. One who merely puts the arrows together and sticks the feathers on, or one who makes them from scratch and provides them. 

Feathers/vanes can be called fletchings, or to put the feathers/vanes on the shaft call be called to 'fletch'. 

Arrowsmith is another term which I think generally referred to someone who created the points or again to someone who understands the principles of arrow making and creates them from scratch. 

skunkwerx

Schnozz said:

How did they attach the point and nock in olden times? (Enjoyed reading through this btw)

Middle ages I think the arrow heads were a similar cone style fit with some form of glue or resin, or the arrow heads had a tang that went into the arrow shaft that was then glued or tightly bound with string or wire. 

Primitive wise in earlier times I think they split the arrow, inserted an arrowhead made of flint and tightly bound the shaft, maybe using some form of sap or elsewhat to help glue it. 

Kurtis

I watched something a while ago about prehistoric hunters and they showed them using sinew, twisted with a stick to be really tight, and reasonable, for the time, I suppose, glues, made by cooking and mixing multiple ingredients. Quite clever, went pretty much rock hard. 

blobb

Every day's a school day. Cheers. great thread. Fascinating to see how it's done.

My brother was an 'outdoors' instructor for many years, they did archery as one of the activities. Now I'm not sure the target was very difficult to hit, neither was it particularly far away, but doing it every day for 10+ years him and his fellow senior instructors could hit the bullseye without even looking - firing sideways while they were talking the participant through how to do it. They were nonchelant.  I had a go and the arrow was flying everywhere, straw bales, telegraph pole, you name it.

Dominic

LionAquaLooper said:

As an archery aficionado the Bernard Cornwell books are right up your alley mate.  The whole series is about a fictional English bowman and his band of archers as they rampage through France, but the backdrop is the Hundred Years war.  Cornwell did a lot of historical research.

Others may already know this but one of the trivial things I learned from those books is the origin of the English "two fingered salute".  Story goes that whenever the French captured English archers one of the things they do is to cut their index and middle fingers so they can never use a bow again.  So during battles or sieges, the English archers would give them the two fingered salute to basically say "screw you we've still got our index and middle fingers"

Urban legend?  Don't know.  But it makes sense and I found it funny nonetheless.

Also ,maybe Urban myth but I was always told that an archaic law still stands (rather like keeping hay in the boot of a Hackney carriage ) that prescribes the death penalty for anybody caught poisoning /cutting down a Yew tree without permission.
 The History being that after the devastation in battle wrought by British Longbow men ...the French sent many agents to England to destroy the Yew stock thus depriving the Archers of Bows

Dominic

I'm interested to know ;
What was the killing range/distance of a medieval Longbow ?

Offset

Dominic said:

I'm interested to know ;
What was the killing range/distance of a medieval Longbow ?

Are you 'asking for a friend'? 

Kittyfrisk

Offset said:

Dominic said:

I'm interested to know ;
What was the killing range/distance of a medieval Longbow ?

Are you 'asking for a friend'? 

Have to be a relatively close friend, to be in with a chance of hitting them 

Dominic

No, I'm asking out of curiosity because I remember a wispy-bearded chap running an Archery demo at a Country Fair doing a Talk on Archery and Bow making saying that a traditional Long Bow was still a fearsome killing machine at Three quarters of a mile !
I can't believe that to be true 

Supportact

Interesting thread this, thanks for posting. 

skunkwerx

Dominic said:

No, I'm asking out of curiosity because I remember a wispy-bearded chap running an Archery demo at a Country Fair doing a Talk on Archery and Bow making saying that a traditional Long Bow was still a fearsome killing machine at Three quarters of a mile !
I can't believe that to be true 

Id say that was a little optimistic!! 

Flight archery is a type of shoot where the goal is to get the arrow as far as you possibly can, I think the current record is something like 450meters with a longbow and that would be using arrows built specifically for that kind of shooting. 

In medieval times they used massive feathers so I'd imagine the drag was high and the arrows were heavy too. 

Hard to find reliable info but I'd reckon 200 yards/ 182 meters probably its effective range if using a proper weight warbow around 150lbs. 

 

skunkwerx

Righto so to finish this arrow.. 

First I have to cut the feathers to shape. 

As I mentioned before I'm using Turkey feathers from
the right wing of the bird. You can also use left wing feathers, but you shouldnt mix the two on a given arrow. 

Only difference between left and right is which way they spin through the air. 

I'm using a 5.5" template to cut the design out from the full length feather. 

I find it easiest to apply low tack masking tape to the feather. Not only does it stick the feather to the cutting board, but it keeps the feather together for an easier cut. 

Template can then slot onto the quill of the feather and I can start cutting it out using a small rotary blade and craft knife. 

There are a few ways to cut feathers to shape. Some stick the full length on to the shaft then just cut them using scissors. Other methods involve feather chopping which is just a small guillotine with a shaped blade, and others use a hot wire tool and a jig. 

I cut the front quill at an angle, and same for
the rear. 

The front is important as when shooting the arrow off the back of the hand, the quill can tear your hand apart as it flies off the string. I usually wear a golf glove for my bow hand when shooting, but they dont last long before theyre also ripped to shreds. 

I'm going to bind the feathers so that should prevent this from happening. I'm also going to adjust the nocking point on the string to further help this. 

So time to glue them on to the shaft. 

I'm using fletching glue that is similar to super glue. 

Clamp time 20 seconds, and will be fully cured in 2 hours. 

The jig ensures each feather is placed in the right spot, and I've set this one to have a tiny amount of right offset. 

You can kind of see the feather itself is stuck on straight along its length but angled slightly to the right, going from bottom to top in the image. 

All glued on. 

Then once the feathers are cured. Time to whip them. 

Using some black thread and.. with lots of swearing, binding the feathers. The method of doing it doesnt require any knots or glue at either end of the thread.. but its bloody fiddly! 

This step isnt really necessary. In the old days it would have held the feathers on nicely. 

These days it looks nice, but the front of the whipping is done over those sharp quill points, thus protecting your hand when shooting. 

Instead of whipping you could file the quill ends and place a blob of glue over them to soften the sharp points and also help keep the ends of the feathers stuck. 

One medieval style arrow complete.. 

Now to repeat 13 times. 

Kittyfrisk

Great looking result.
You'll have to let us know how they perform for you, particularly compared with 'shop bought' ones.
Hopefully the dedication & enthusiasm you put in, will help improve their utility