Saturday, April 6, 2013

Odd Bodkins

And now for something completely different...
Some pseudo-medieval arrows.  I say pseudo because the actual bodkin-tipped arrows used in medieval times were much bigger.  The arrows recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose have shaft diameters of 1/2" near the tip.  These are built on modern arrows standards which are just under 3/8ths.

So anyways, these are made of commercial bodkin tips I bought (bodkins are pyramidal shaped points designed to pierce armor), black walnut shafts I cut myself from lumber I cut from a tree I felled.
The fletching is commercial feathers that I cut to shape.  I would have liked to process my own feathers but first I have to make friends with some goose hunters.  The feathers are glued on and then wrapped with silk string.  The nocks are carved into the shaft by hand, and the dark strips are inserts of buffalo horn to keep the nocks from splitting.  These ones are overly thick, but they work.

I used these arrows in the great battle against the Hippie Scoobie-Doo, and between the hard-wood shafts and the bodkin tips they really out-did the target arrows in setting Scoobie back on his ass:

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