The Armour Archive

Well, here it goes. My first "How I Did It" overview of period style target arrows. These are being made for use on an SCA target range, so a few minor variances from "proper" period arrows are being used.

The changes include:

• shaft size of 11/32" so that it stays consistent with my existing bow and target arrowheads
• SCA-suitable bullet tip arrowhead so as not to freak out the range marshals and owners of the target butts
• right helical fletching (instead of proper straight fletch) as this is all I can afford at the moment and since I'll be using, and re-using, these arrows for target competitions... well, I'm going to cheat a bit and give them some spin

The supplies I am using are:

• The Nifty Nocker from Raptor Archery - this is a small jig to help keep the cuts to a consistent depth. Very useful thing.
• 11/32" ash shafts also from Raptor Archery
• Purpleheart nock inserts from Raptor Archery
• 5.5" traditional English fletching from The Longbow Shop who sells pre-cut custom shaped fletching. I wasn't sure if this was going to work so I bought the pre-cut fletch before buying a bunch of stuff that I may have hated to use.
• Two-part epoxy glue from LePage (but any two-part epoxy will work)
• assorted sand paper from 80 to 220 grit
• Stanley Flush-Cut Pull Saw (specifically I have a #20-331 that I use)

Step One - Mark the Nocks

Mark the nock end of the arrow going WITH the grain. This will be the first cut for the inserts to go in so you want the added strength of the wood to complement the grain of the wood. Neatness kind of counts as you will be cutting through this but some remainders of your cut line may remain. I used a blue marker so that I was positive it would show up but it was a bit wider than my cut later.



Step Two - Insert Cutting

Attach the collar from the Nifty Nocker on the arrow by sliding it down. Not all arrows are EXACTLY the size they claim to be so some sanding may be required to make it fit well. Slip the business end of the Nocker on the arrow and tighten. I found that a pair of pliers was needed sometimes to tighten it to where I wanted it. Line up the cut line with the long depth on the jig.





Start to cut along the line. I found that gentle pressure to start the cut and pushing on a slight up angle tended to work better for these. Work through the arrow keeping an even and gentle pressure.



Eventually (in all of about 1-2 minutes) you will end up with:



Slight shifts of your hand may cause the cut to wiggle a little. This is easily fixed in the next step but should be avoided if possible.



A nice collection of arrows after the first cut is done:



Step Three - Gluing of the Inserts

Mix your two-part epoxy according to instructions. I used a fast, but not quick, set glue that claimed to set in five minutes and was generally correct. Mix small amounts - about as much as you can use while working neatly and accurately. Apply the glue to both sides of the nock insert and some on the inside of the nock cut on the arrow. I found that some gentle pressure to ensure the insert was FULLY inserted was needed. I simply pressed the nock end of the arrow vertically on the desk to push the insert all the way up. Clean up any excess glue.



Clamp the nocks so that the wood seals nicely around the glued inserts. I used a variety of simple clamps and then I let it dry for several hours. The glue was setting nicely but I like leaving it for longer if I have the time.





Step Four - Cleaning the Inserts

Once the glue is totally dry, its time to clean the nocks up. The inserts would sand fairly easily since they are quite thin. However, to speed the process I used my flush-cut pull saw. This can be very quick, but can also damage the side of the arrow if you are not careful about your cut depth.



I used my bench clamp to gently hold the arrow so my hands are free while I cut. Gentle pressure and a slow pace will keep the cut fairly clean and away from the shaft. It does not need to be perfect for the cut as a simple bit of sanding will clean the insert after.



Once done, you should have a bunch of shafts that look something like:



Step Five - Cutting the Nocks

Once all the shafts are cut, clean the inserts with some sandpaper and make everything nice and smooth. The shafts need to go back into the Nocker and they need to be the right size. Sanding will ensure that the shaft will fit neatly into the jig. Do not over-sand the shaft as you can get it too small prior to the nock being cut out.

When putting the shaft back into the jig, make sure that the new cut will be at 90 degrees to the insert. The idea here is to cut across the grain to give the shaft the necessary strength to stand up to being flung off the string repeatedly without shattering. If the nock is cut WITH the grain, the arrow will suffer a catastrophic failure at some point from the stress on the wood.



The new cut for the nock itself will be less than half the length of the actual insert that has been added. Again, this keeps the strength of the wood intact.



Work away at all your nocks trying to keep them all at the same depth if possible. Eventually, you end up with...



Some slight sanding is useful here to clean up the cuts and to gently shape the ends of the shafts. A slight taper is generally used on the end.

More to follow in the next few days as I have a chance to work on them. The next step will be applying a thin finish on the shafts and gluing of the fletching. The finish I am planning to use works better on a warm sunny day so I may need to wait a bit for the weather to co-operate with me.

Griffin. very nice tutorial....I will have to save this and show some friends...I really like the nock tool...Might have to look this raptor archery site...

I think the purple heart is gonna look great with the ash shafts....Can't wait to see the finished results.

Eamonn MacCampbell wrote:I will have to save this and show some friends...

Don't worry Eamonn, I've already seen it.

Griffin,
Very nice. Thanks for showing this.

Jason

I've never seen them with the insert the other direction. What does that do? Strengthen, presumably? How necessary is it?

Lianor de Najera wrote:I've never seen them with the insert the other direction. What does that do? Strengthen, presumably? How necessary is it?

It's not entirely necessary, but it certainly adds some strength to the arrows. As I'm not planning to engage the cream of the French chivalry across a rain-soaked farm field, I do plan to re-use my arrows more than once or twice. Thus some added durability is being built into them.

Okay.. so the gf deleted a bunch of the photos off the camera's chip when we went to Newfoundland for a bit... I have a few still to post but I'll get it done soon.

Anyways, I did finish the arrows and finally got the camera down to the basement.





I've managed to shoot them a few times and I'm happy with them. A very different flight from using the ash opposed to the Orford cedar I normally have used. They give a very satisfying THUNK when they hit too.

OK..Now for the questions...Were did you get the goose feathers...And did you use silk or linen thread for the wrap?

I did some a few years ago with linen, but all I had was some thicker stuff, and I didn't like how it came out...Been useing silk since then, the added bonus is I can have more colors...Not necessarily period, but it looks nice to match my heraldry...Plus, I can't seem to find any linen thread around here...I'm not even sure how I ended up with what I have....

And that sucks about the photo loss, would have loved to see how you prepped the flights....I just use the synthetic fletchings, but want to try real again....Just need some place to get some...In an issue of Primitive Archer, a year ago there was a great article on how to prep flights straight from the bird...Was interesting...

Those are just normal turkey feathers pre-cut in the "traditional" style from The Longbow Shop in the UK. 3Rivers does have a chopper in the same pattern that I'll buy before I do more and then just cut my own down.

The thread is actually cotton thread that I was given. A friend's family used to own a large leather business and had LOTS of leftover spools when they shut it down. It is cheating by using the cotton, but it looks right and feels right. I did do two of the arrows with a silk thread but found it was very slippery and a pain to use. I did find a few vendors with hemp thread that I wouldn't object to using but I'd need to order it - but the loads of cotton thread means I won't do that for a while, if ever.

The feathers were just all put on with a normal Jo Jan 6-pack jig and Fletchtite. Again, not the most period way, but I was going for a period-style end look, not total production method. I have a set of 6 straight clamps coming (as opposed to the right helical that I had and used for these) and will do the next set with them which will give them a more correct look.

First off let me say as a fellow fletcher and nocker (archer), great job on the arrows. It's really this attitude to do things as they would have in period that is the life blood in the SCA and living history. As you do more you'll get more even with the wraps. And other things will come into line for you.

The ash is an excellent choice. It's a period wood, and american ash tends to be nearly identical to the european except under a microscope. It's not much heavier then cedar but tends to be much more durable, so if you're shooting on butts that are built on metal or solid wood bases, you'll tend to less breakage.

To answer one person's question, I can suggest JAS Towsend & Son for obtaining linen thread. They used to carry Barbour #50 3-strand 100% Irish linen thread which is a great shaftment binding for weight and durability. Make sure you laquer or glue it where it is tightly bound (behind and before the fletches) to prevent unraveling. You can usually do 2 or 3 dozen shafts per spool.

A few suggestions to you, Griffin and others that may be considering building late medieval arrows...

First, your nocks appear to vary a bit in depth between arrows. You should make them uniform in depth, and only about 1/4" (to 3/8" max). Any longer and the arrow can actually be fouled on the string upon release. Modern snap nocks and nerks clip the string tightly and this is not an issue, but for self-nocks the nock is sort of floating on the string, and upon your release the string thrusts forward pressing against the bottom of the nock. When the string recoils it may not (and I can gaurentee it won't 9 out of 10 shots), come perfectly straight back out of the nock groove. And by moving one way or the other it will cause the arrow to move one way or the other as well.

A shorter nock takes a tad more skill to keep in place then a longer nock, but you will get used to it very quickly.

My second recommendation is that your fletches are very tall. I'm assuming they're 5" x 5/8" tall fletches, which are an off the shelf item for archery shops. They will stabalize quickly, but will move very slowly off of the longbow unless you're using an extreamly heavy bow (60#+). If you're shooting standing next to someone with more moderate 4" fletches and a reflex bow, your arrows will look like they're moving in slow motion. At very short distance (20 yards), you won't mind too much, as you're getting the benefit of the quick stabilization, but at medium distances a moderate breeze will have its way with your arrows. And if you ever shoot longer distances (60+) your arrows will not travel an agreeable distance without having to really raise your aim.

I trim my 5 and 6" fletches down to 1/4" in height. Which in math terms means that my surface area of drag on each arrow is somewhere around
3.75 sq. inches, and if my estimation of yours are correct then they have about 9.5" of area. Arrows from the Mary Rose were estimated to have fletchings ranging from 6" to 12"! But are believed to have been very short in profile.

As a note; at short distance 1/4" tall fletches suffer from stabilization, but at that distance, if I'm off by 1 or 2", I'm still hitting custard.

My last suggestion is that you should count your wraps when you're starting and finishing the bindings. If you do say 15 wraps starting and 15 finishing on each binding, it will look much more uniform and professional and it will help weight match the arrows better.
-Cian

whats the best way to trim feathers? i tried making a cardboard template and using scissors but the edge had some jaggies, any tips on this?

I use very sharp leather shears. But as you notate, you can only cut in a single direction and you have one shot, so no corrective cuts.
I also use something called a "Chopper" that you nest an arrow into, and then the top folds down, you smack it with a mallet and it cleanly produces a fletch.
Fletch wire burners are the fastest and cleanest way to do it. It's basically a heating element you can bend into any shape that cleaves the fletch. But I hear that the smell is a bit foul.
Since no european treatises exist on making arrows, all or none of those forms may have been used. (and before you ask where they'd get electricity to use the 'burner', they may have just heated a piece of wire in a fire and layed it on the fletches to do the same function as the electrically powered burner).
-Cian

Cian of Storvik wrote:I use very sharp leather shears. But as you notate, you can only cut in a single direction and you have one shot, so no corrective cuts.
I also use something called a "Chopper" that you nest an arrow into, and then the top folds down, you smack it with a mallet and it cleanly produces a fletch.
Fletch wire burners are the fastest and cleanest way to do it. It's basically a heating element you can bend into any shape that cleaves the fletch. But I hear that the smell is a bit foul.
Since no european treatises exist on making arrows, all or none of those forms may have been used. (and before you ask where they'd get electricity to use the 'burner', they may have just heated a piece of wire in a fire and layed it on the fletches to do the same function as the electrically powered burner).
-Cian

Cian, they also could have heated up the cutting element of the "chopper", or just used a heated knife or similar object and freehanded the "cut". With some of the common skill sets in this crowd, I would think making a custom feather chopping die would be pretty easy

It's just a steel rule die, after all...

Cian of Storvik wrote:To answer one person's question, I can suggest JAS Towsend & Son for obtaining linen thread. They used to carry Barbour #50 3-strand 100% Irish linen thread which is a great shaftment binding for weight and durability. Make sure you laquer or glue it where it is tightly bound (behind and before the fletches) to prevent unraveling. You can usually do 2 or 3 dozen shafts per spool.

That's good to know. I couldn't find anyone that I liked/trusted that had a thread that would be useful. I'll have to order from them soon and add some other things I've been wanting anyways.

A few suggestions to you, Griffin and others that may be considering building late medieval arrows...

First, your nocks appear to vary a bit in depth between arrows. You should make them uniform in depth, and only about 1/4" (to 3/8" max). Any longer and the arrow can actually be fouled on the string upon release.

The nocks are all "close" to 1/4 deep but not exact. I'll have to work and get them a bit more regular.

My second recommendation is that your fletches are very tall. I'm assuming they're 5" x 5/8" tall fletches, which are an off the shelf item for archery shops. They will stabalize quickly, but will move very slowly off of the longbow unless you're using an extreamly heavy bow (60#+). If you're shooting standing next to someone with more moderate 4" fletches and a reflex bow, your arrows will look like they're moving in slow motion. At very short distance (20 yards), you won't mind too much, as you're getting the benefit of the quick stabilization, but at medium distances a moderate breeze will have its way with your arrows.

They are off the shelf from the store. I still have another set of the same type (different colour) that I'll heed this suggestion and cut down before I work with them. I tend to do most of my shooting at 20 yards with only occasional summer shooting at 30 & 40 yards and a very rare clout shoot out to 100 yards. At the moment, the 36# recurve is being used but I'm hoping to replace it with a higher poundage flatbow sometime in the fall.

My last suggestion is that you should count your wraps when you're starting and finishing the bindings. If you do say 15 wraps starting and 15 finishing on each binding, it will look much more uniform and professional and it will help weight match the arrows better.

I realized that about halfway through that I was being inconsistent. Good advice for me.

Cian, thanks for all your comments and input. I'll work on another set sometime next month hopefully and will post the results from that too.

Humbly,
Grif'