[ANST - Suffer the Slings and Arrows?]

[Keith Hood]

> > I am enjoying this discussion but some parts of it remind me of a
> > little challenge I observed at an event a
> > few years ago.


<snipped the rest of description>


Yes.  Any discussion of archery firepower must take all the factors into
account:  weight of bow, type of point, capability of archer, *quality of
armor* (that's a biggie), etc.  As you pointed out, there is no such thing as
a magic weapon.  Every weapon has it advantages and drawbacks and there is
none that is automatically superior to all others.

But this rememberance of the shooting test has got me thinking.  I would
dearly love to REALLY test medieaval archery power under the right conditions.
 I mean take bow and arrows of size, design, and weight that were actually
used in period, and actually try them out against shields and armor made of
the same materials and using the same construction methods as period samples.

One of the things to consider when thinking about the test using Sutan's
shield, is the construction of the shield itself.  I'm willing to bet the
shield was made of modern plywood rather than being made to actual period
standards.  Most descriptions I've read of ancient shields describe them as
being leather stretched over a wood frame, and similar construction methods. 
If the whole thing was made of wood I'm sure it was single-layer wood and not
plywood.  Most shields made of wood were probably made of several planks
joined at the edges, and those joins could be split by an arrow.  While
plywood was possible in ancient times, the plywood we have today uses glues
that are much stronger than the purely organic glues available then, and the
plies are glued under much higher pressures than could have been achieved
then.  So this stronger glue impregnates the wood fibers...yadda yadda yadda. 
The end result is that a modern SCA plywood shield is most likely stronger
than most actual period shields.

A&S mavens, armorers, bowyers and anybody of like mind, please take note:  I
would love to get a project going to research and recreate period-accurate
equipment, and then do a destruction test.  Anybody interested?  I know it may
sound a little crazy to want to do all that work so that things can be broken,
but it would put an end to the "how dangerous were archers" arguments once and
for all.  And it just may be fun to do.


      Tomonaga

------

A long bow and a stong bow,
And let the sky grow dark.
The nock to the cord, the shaft to the ear,
And a foreign king for a mark!

     --  Stolen from "The Song of the Bosonian Archers" --
               By Robert E. Howard, who should be
                 the patron saint of Ansteorra

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