#making arrows

Crossbow bolts often used two flat vanes of parchment or leather for fletching rather than the triple feather-flights on arrows. Maybe it was to make them fit better on the trough in the crossbow tiller (stock), maybe because they survived the violent “kick” of crossbow release better than arrows. Haven’t looked it up, so can’t say for sure.

Bow and arrow-making, since it related to “Defence of the Realm” (or in the case of lesser nobles, Defence of My Turf) was an established industry so the infrastructure was in place. I’ll use medieval England during the Hundred Years War as an example.

First was the “military-industrial complex” based in the Tower of London and various other royal castles around the land, which received supplies of bow-wood (usually yew), arrow-wood (usually ash), linen thread for bowstrings and fletching-ties, metalwork either as bar stock or finished arrowheads, horn for nocks, material for glue (animal, fish* or wood-resin based) and lots and lots of (wing) feathers, usually from geese though Important People might use swan and Chaucer’s forester used peacock.

(*Amused to see a fish-glue from my childhood still apparently available. Seccotine had (has?) an extraordinary smell that will transport anyone my age back to the classroom. IIRC it was safe for the tinies because of being non-toxic, and the pong discouraged taste-testing. Well, mostly…)

Then there was the (literally) cottage industry supplying archery equipment to rural yeoman subject to military draft (they weren’t “peasants”, I get a feeling that a yeoman would have taken offence at being called a “peasant”.) These men were famously required to put in a daily hour’s practice at the butts and were fined if they didn’t, and while doing so arrows would break or get lost, bowstrings snap, bows break too. They’d need a steady supply of spares and replacements, and modern surnames like Arrowsmith, Bowyer, Fletcher, Nock and Stringer tell their own story…

There’s lots on the internet, and Youtube probably has video like the one I mentioned - maybe the very one - but I also consulted these books from my shelves…

“The Archer’s Craft” - Adrian Hodgkin, Faber & Faber 1951 - lots of information about making archery tackle at home - he refers to arrow-making as “a tedious, tiresome, difficult, almost mass-production job” (my emphasis - Hodgkin was making his entire arrows himself, not passing each task to a specialist).

“Longbow” - Robert Hardy, Patrick Stephens Ltd 1976/1995 and “The Great Warbow” - Patrick Strickland & Robert Hardy, Sutton 2003 are more about the history of the weapon, but this includes how it was made, stored, supplied and issued in time of war.

“English Longbowman 1330-1515″ - Clive Bartlett, Osprey 1995/1998 is more of the same, but in a snack rather than four-course serving, so easier to digest.