I made the warbow and I'm very happy with how it performs so far. After a week or so of shooting it, its now a fun bow to shoot so there are plans in the works for a heavier one after I complete a few commissioned bows.
BUT,
You cant have a warbow without proper arrows!! So I did some research and after chatting to an incredible young bloke, Jake Fenwick, who is a founding member of the Canadian Warbow Society (look him up on youtube is a MUST!!), I was put onto the official specifications for all of the different arrow types they shoot for records.
Having already bought some half inch Poplar dowel earmarked for shafts I set about picking out which arrow they would best suit, and came up with The EWBS-NZ Sheaf arrow, which is a standard military style arrow used throughout the hundred years war.
Arrow specs:
http://www.canadianwarbowsociety.com/NZSheaf.html
I am using Poplar not Ash because that's what I had, will use ash next time if I can get some easily. I also have no horn in the nock as I don't have any at the moment.
This is what I have come up with so far.
- First Sheaf arrows (640x480).jpg (197.1 KiB) Viewed 1404 times
Getting 4 turns per inch in the whipping is a challenge but im getting better at it now. The arrows were fletched using no modern fletching jig, just a medieval one that I may eventually reveal the design of
and everything was done by hand.Takes about 30mins per arrow from scratch, that is marking the shaft for placement, cutting the feathers, actually fletching them and binding the nock.
Very happy with how these turned out!! Now I just need to hand forge the heads for them and they will be complete.
Let me know what you guys think.
Colin
