April 12-14, 2002
Academy of the Bow
A.S. XXXVI
Period Arrows Self Nocks/Footed Shafts
Wilim Penbras ap Gurgeneu Introduction
Before I get to the actual Construction of Period Style arrows let me expound a few theories. We find few fletchings from period so the evidence is sketchy. I personally dont tie my Fletching along the length. I dont need the extra weight and if they had good glue in period they wouldnt have done it either. They say they used thread to hold the fletchings on while the glue dried. I do believe though that they didnt have particularly great glue back then so leaving that sinew, linen, silk thread, whatever, on there seems like a good idea to me. I mean you try putting all that work into getting your fletchings lined up just so and then having them fall off in the rain. I think not. Nocks, well, I cant believe they would sit and carve bone nocks for every arrow. Nope. No slip-ons for these folks. Nocks were carved right out of the end of the wood. Am I the only one who after he first tied the ends of a branch together to make a bow decided to carve a little V in the end of my other sticks so theyd stay on that kite string a little better? The nocks were groves any where from of an inch to of an inch deep or more. They were cut against the grain to avoid splitting the arrow. Lets talk about that for a second. If youve made modern arrows youve probably spent some time making sure the indexer was in line with the grain lines. On the surface this is because we measure the flex (Spine) of an arrow on this axis and deviating from means we make an arrow slightly heavier than we spined it. Underneath that is an older reason. Picture a deck of cards. If you take a card of the top and line it up with the direction of the cards (Horizontal on the table presumably) you can smack that card into the deck and have it either disappear into it or push a card out the other side. Either way its not what we want. If you hold that card Vertical and hit that horizontal deck of cards then the whole pack moves when you hit it. Now, The arrow has growth rings. When you cut it those growth rings become the grain of the wood. If you were to line up the line of the grain with the angle of the string you will send that string right into the middle of the arrow just like the card moving into the middle of the deck. If we rotate it so they are at 90deg angles to each other than the entire force from the string goes into moving that arrow. I never thought about it but theoretically having the nock out of alignment with the grain might just cause you a half foot per second or more in arrow speed. Enough on Nocks I want to take second to talk about War Arrows. I cant site documentation off hand but one of the tricks Ive heard being used is the footed shaft. Lets think about that for a second. Youve got an arrow you want to send as far down range as you can. I say you find the lightest shaft you can and let that puppy sail. Its flying100 yards 200 yards its at 250 yards its found its target it hits their breast plate it splinters into a thousand pieces. What did you expect? You pretty much sent a piece of balsa wood down range. Hmmm How do we get around that hmmm I want a nice hefty piece of wood to split armor but I want range. Hey what if I could find a way to combine the best qualities of two pieces of wood. Okay I take a piece of good ole Oak and splice it onto the end of a piece of pine. A nice hardwood being carried down range by a light piece of softwood. Welcome to the land of the footed shaft.
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April 12-14, 2002
Academy of the Bow
A.S. XXXVI
Self Knocks
Materials
Shafts
Equipment
two hacksaw blades 1/8 inch drill bit drill sandpaper glue that dries clear
Optional Materials
Linen thread or Artificial Sinew Bone, Horn, or Hardwood
Self nocks
For just regular old self nocks there are only a few steps. Find the Grain. (Thatll be the side of the shaft that has all those lines running next to each other) . Avoid the grain. You want to drill a hole inch from the end of the shaft on the side of the arrow perpendicular to the grain. Take the two hack saw blades together and cut a grove down to the hole. Use the Sandpaper to sand away any rough edges and to widen the hole to fit your string. The 1/8 hole we drilled should make it a bit of a snap nock. (Watch for straightness. You can do some minor corrections with the sanding but we kind of want that grove straight so the arrow might have a chance of flying straight.)
Wrapped Self Nocks
Follow the same procedure you did for the self nocks but in this case wrap some linen thread around the base of the nock just below the bottom of the grove. You definitely want to coat all of this in glue. You can buff it up to a smooth shine later. (If you ask me nice I might teach you how to avoid needing the glue. Look up Boy Scouts and Whipping the end of a rope on the Internet.)
Reinforced Self Nocks
Ill confess here that Ive only ever done horn reinforced nocks never the hardwood but Ive seen some with purple heart wood that were just gorgeous. Anyway, this is similar to self nocks but theres a few pre stages. Remember that grain I told you to ignore. You want to pay attention to it for a minute. I want you to take a hacksaw blade and cut a grove straight down the grain to a depth of about 1 inch. Take your piece of horn sized to fit this width and coat it in glue and slide it into place. Once the glue has set treat the horn like another grain line and start cutting as you would for a self nock. Ill give you a few minor tricks/words of caution. Sizing horn is a pain. First: Boil the life out of it. You cant boil it too long. That will soften it up to the point where it can be worked with a good sharp knife. Second: horn has a grain too. Everything that grows has a grain. (How else could people rub against yours?) If you have a good, strong, thin bladed knife you can if youre lucky, split the horn with its grains and get tons of horn slivers just about thin enough to fit that slot you just cut. Itll eliminate a lot of work trying to get it to size. The horn will come out Wedge shaped so you just have to shave that wedge into something a little more rectangular.
Footed Shafts
Introduction
So, you want to know how to do a footed shaft. That my friends, is a whole other article and Ive never actually done one. Ill cover the basic theory only. As a disclaimer, these are modern methods that yield a period look. Page 6
April 12-14, 2002
Academy of the Bow
A.S. XXXVI
Rough Procedure
First you need a piece of good shaft wood. Usually pine works well. Next a piece of hardwood like Oak. Both of these piece should be about 1x1 with the pine being about 30 inches long and the oak being about 8 inches. On the piece of pine mark it at five or six inches and mark the top center parallel to the grain. Draw lines from the 5 inch mark on either side to the top center mark. Plane away this area so you end up with a nice point. On the oak, cut it down to 5.5 to 6.5 inches depending on the length of the taper you put in the pine. Clamp the oak at the bottom of the split. Glue the life out of the pine taper and force it down the split in the oak. Pry the oak apart as you go to help keep it from splitting more. Clamp the side of the oak to the pine and let the glue dry. You cant use to many clamps in this procedure. Once the glue dries you know have a footed 1x1x33 piece of poak. After that go look up on the web the best way to turn that 1x1 into an arrow because youre now just at the point of turning a piece of wood into an arrow. Now, actually use a commercially availnarrow your shaft lathe or one of the able arrow planes to down into an arrow.
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