Hector cole heads have arrived with a slight problem.

[Lloyd]

I think that war arrows at least have to be considered a one shot item. You will almost assuredly get a large percentage of the shafts back but you cannot depend on it. Hunting arrows may be another thing entirely.

I'm also leery about the comments regarding infection and dirty heads. We with our modern knowledge know that dirty heads will cause infection but germ theory is not known when the war bow is in use.
So while archers put their arrows in the ground I don't think the purpose was to increase the chances of infection, that's merely an unintended and unknown side effect. IMHO ;-)

[triton]

  I can imagine fletchers/arrowsmiths sitting around chewing bluebell bulbs.


Pine sap?

[mole]

"A small pipe cutter from a hadware shop is useful for cutting the shoulder on the shaft."

Now why the heck didn't I think of that!?!?

Thanks,
John

[anglobow]

Pitch extracted from birch bark, pine tar, or a combination of the two would have been available and common. It works very well to glue a point on. Asphaltum was probably available to a lesser extent.

[triton]

"A small pipe cutter from a hadware shop is useful for cutting the shoulder on the shaft."

Now why the heck didn't I think of that!?!?

Thanks,
John

I said the same too, when I picked it up

[bow-toxo]

They are believed to have used sealing wax rather than plain bees wax as more re recent traditional archers have. It can be melted with a little heat and dripped into the socket and the shaft end pushed in. Reheating makes it easy to adjust the point to be dead on. The head will stay on as long as the arrow doesn't hit some hard object. I think the bluebell glue was found on bronze age arrows only.