Some medieval style tournament arrows

[Ruddy Darter]

Life stuff has been getting in the way of some bow projects, although I got my Osage bow bending nicely and looking forward to getting back to that, but I managed to get some arrows made up for an upcoming tournament at my archery club. I had six already made up with the 7" goose fletchings bound on to beeswax/pine resin, so needing a couple more for spare I made four more aspen shafts with goose feathers and peacock as the cock feather. They are a barrelled profile tapering to 3/8" at the head and nock and 11.5mm at the thickest, 12" rear taper and 4" front taper. I sealed in the silk bindings on these four with three coats of a thick batch of hot rabbit skin glue which is a bit of an experiment as I wanted something more durable than the beeswax/resin mix as when I skim the side of the target the silk bindings/fletchings get wrecked quite easy, the rabbit skin glue sealant seems a lot more robust, I just have to give the R.S.G. a coat of danish oil tonight to weatherproof it. The heads are machined replicas of medieval target points weighing 8-9gram.
The arrows weigh 47-56gram, so some variation due to my planeing skills as I made the shafts from square stock aspen which I sawed up.
 R.D.

[Pat B]

Cool arrows, RD. I especially like the colors. 

[Ruddy Darter]

Thank you Pat B, just got to give them a little test flight and then hopefully good to go. I just found some old half inch ash dowels  that I must of had for well over 15+ years, and I'm going to try for some similar type arrows with it for hopefully heavier bows I got in the works, they should make some hard hitting tough arrows.

R.D.

[Pat B]

Like with good bow wood well seasoned wood is great for arrows too. You should be able to make some good arrows for a heavy bow with that ash shafting. 

[Ruddy Darter]

Good to read Pat B, nice to be reassured of their worth,
 Here they are, bone dry and browned after being stored in the bottom of a closet for said years. They are 13mm in diameter so probably block plane a skim off the whole length, 12mm or a smidge under would be ideal, as the target points I'll use are very light. I'm rather keen to start on a batch of three. I got a few squared aspen to use and I'm going to make another four of these. I did find making an even round the whole length first and then putting on the tapers works a lot better than trying to do it while square, they turn out with a lot less variation.
... I collected some goose feathers today, I'm just giving them a sanitizing bath .😊
 R.D.

[Pat B]

Yeah, I guess it's molting season. Good way to collect goose feathers.
 Looking forward to your next batch of feathered shafts, RD.      

[Pappy]

Good looking arrows, haven't made any with goose feathers in a good while but really like them, really high oil line on the ones I have use so very nice for hunting in bad weather. 
 Pappy

[Ruddy Darter]

Thanks Pappy, I really like the goose feathers, I found the smaller primaries match the peacock feathers better in regards to rigidity, so i collect them all, the smallest are definitely great for light weight arrows for lower poundage bows, aiming to make some of those for people. I got four more aspen shafts rounded and the rear taper put on, I'll do my best to have them ready for the Sunday tournament, I did watch a Clay Hayes YouTube vid on putting tapers on and I use this method (although I make the tapers a little longer and use a shooting board), a very helpful video.
I also seen some vids of earth pigment powders added to rabbit skin glue, may play around with that for sealing in the bindings, some creative colour schemes come to mind.
 R.D.

[bjrogg]

Beautiful arrows Ruddy. I really like them

Bjrogg

[Ruddy Darter]

Thank you bjrogg,
 I cut in the horn inserts first thing this morning and glued in with rabbit skin glue, I found these clothes pegs do the trick clamping, and I read rabbit skin glue is self clamping to a degree on its own during the drying process.
 The weather is great here and I hope you are all enjoying the summer season    ,all the best,
 R.D.

[Strelets]

Beautiful arrows R.D. These look like the same machined points that I use, 10 mm external diameter. I put tungsten powder inside them to adjust and match the arrow weights. You can get another 3 or 4 grams in and still have enough room for the tapered point of the shaft.

[Ruddy Darter]

Thank you Strelets,
 They sound the same and are a little on the light side but I really like these points, in the past I  have put in little inserts of lead sheet in the cone to make weight on other types of arrows, thanks for that tip and I may give that a try😎👍
 R.D.

[Strelets]

Yes, I used to use bits of sheet lead and hammer them into the socket, but tungsten is denser and you can get more weight in. Golf suppliers sell tungsten powder for weighting golf clubs, and Amazon stocks it.  These points are very good for field archery 3D targets, the long tapered point means fewer arrows glancing off if they hit a curved part.

I have now gone over to using lime (Tilia x europaea) for arrow shafts. Before I used American poplar, birch, ash (both American and European), maple, pine and spruce. Of all these woods lime is much the best for staying straight. It is no denser than pine or spruce, but stronger.

[Ruddy Darter]

Thanks Strelets, I'll have a hunt for some lime if I can get it anywhere uk, definitely want to try that. And I will try that tungsten powder, thanks very much for the info.
I've got some Black Alder (Alnus glutinosa) timber on its way to me and looking forward to trying that. I am hoping it will make nice arrow shafts. I've read conflicting opinions on it as an arrow wood so would very much appreciate any experiences anyone may of had with Common Alder.
 R.D.

[Strelets]

This is where I get lime, they are in Scotland.

https://plugitwood.co.uk/collections/round-dowels/products/lime-wooden-dowel

If you tell them that they are for making arrows they will pick out the straightest ones for you. I use the 10 mm diameter dowels, but they also do 12 mm.  Lime is lovely stuff to work and very stable. It is a favourite for doing fancy wood carvings.