I've been using oak for my 1/4# arrows. Also, WillS, we've been getting 200 yards with 1/4# arrows from a 120# maple backed yew bow. It recently set a number of new CWBS records.
That's very impressive Adam. Congrats! To clarify though, I wasn't saying it didn't fly without a 140# bow behind it, that was a rough estimate. I just see a lot of people making them because they're listed amongst the other arrows but don't really do them justice. I made some a while ago and I've stopped trying to shoot them as they just don't have the sort of energy from my bows (in the 120# range) to do the kind of damage they would be designed to do. Still, perhaps that's saying more about my bows than the arrow!
Lucasade, I was chatting to Mark Stretton recently about the ewbs arrows, and it seems that with his deep understanding and knowledge of the genuine historical side of them, he approaches making arrows slightly differently to the rest of us. For example, the EWBS Standard arrow is (when you use the specs) 3/8" thick. So everybody makes them 3/8" thick, usually from ash. Mark makes his 1/2" thick but uses woods like limewood and poplar to keep the weight right. It seems that there was a huge influx of warbow archers who pushed the regulations right to the limit to win records, rather than keep things historical.
Mark believes that pretty much all medieval heads save a few would be half inch, including the Standard type 10. He even has genuine 14th/15thC examples of Type 10s at half inch diameter sockets. It made me realise that most of the EWBS arrows are actually likely to be a fair distance away from genuine medieval arrows, and are just a medieval look-a-like flight arrow.
I have a feeling that the 1/4# arrow is the same, but from the other end of the spectrum. It's pointlessly heavy, where we have no genuine example of anything so big, and its just a macho thing now, so people can pull out the largest arrow you can make and reel off a load of "this is what REAL medieval archers would be shooting....imagine an arrowstorm of these coming down at you" rubbish.
There is written testing done by Mark in Secrets Of The English Warbow (I think, or a similar book) that shows the lack of any exceptional penetration with such a heavy arrow until you start chucking it from bows over 140#. In fact at our latest ewbs shoot, it was only really Joe with his 170# who was properly getting through armour sheeting (cough...boiler cover....) and everybody else using heavy platecutters was lucky to get about half an inch through it
