Tools used by Romans.

[Lithil]

Hello everyone, since it's my first post here

I came here to seek for little practical knowledge.

Can anyone show me what tools were used by Romans to create arrows?

I'm a member of a group which reconstructs late rome times.
Each member has their crafts. Boots, jewelry, blacksmithing...Everything on a really high level.

I'm huge fan of bows (Nydam bow is in progress). I have knowledge about bows and arrows but I completly lack of practical aspect like what tools were used.

For example, I know how to get tree phloem or tar but I fail when I must say anything about how excatly those were made.
What did they use to make arrows round, with what excatly they cut wood, how they get tar etc.

It's not a problem to use modern tools but it's not about it. It's about showing people how they had lived in Rome.

So... Have you any sources, drafts, photos... Anything what whould show me what tools were used to create complete arrows?

[JackCrafty]

The Romans would probably have used planes and files to shape dowels made from split wood.  I think pole lathes might have also been used, but the evidence points to these being used to make wooden cups, bowls, etc.

Here's a link to Roman woodworking tools:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rogerulrich/tools_woodworking.html

There's lots of information if you look up "iron age Britain" or "Roman Britain", for example.

[Lithil]

And what about phloem? Was there any special knife for such porpose?

[JackCrafty]

I don't know about a "special" tool for cutting bark (to allow the sap to run into a bowl mounted to the tree) but all you would need is a wood-carving gouge.

In most cases, large quantities of wood tar was made from the bark, wood, and roots of the tree rather than the sap.  It was done with a process called destructive distillation in a wood kiln.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar

If you need small qualities of pine sap, for a few arrows, you don't need special tools.

[Lithil]

I belive they were using clay pots to receive tar, but do we have any pots with little hole in the middle, which have survived to our times?

[JackCrafty]

Sorry, I don't know of any such pots for collecting sap.  I studied the Roman army, and weapons, for a few years but I sold off those books a long time ago.  I'm sure there are in-depth books published these days on the archaeology of the Roman military.  Wish I could be more help.

I do know that the Romans were not too keen on the idea of spending a lot of time and money on arrows shot from bows, and their arrows show it.  They preferred much heavier projectiles.  Much of the archery equipment was foreign-made and maintained by the individual.