[Ansteorra-archery] Wooden Shafts for Combat Arrows and Bolts

[Eadric Anstapa]

As far as I know the only materials that have been tested and found not
suitable are the Carbon Fiber tubes and solid rods.  As I said when they
break they do so pretty spectacularly with a SNAP and send slivers
everywhere.  Shafts produced by pultrusion and filament winding have both
been tested and failed.  I tested some my self.  You can see some of my
testing results from a couple of years ago at
http://www.baronbows.com/scafiles/shafts.htm

Personally I think that the tubular fiberglass arrows that I tested showed a
lot of promise. They are much lighter than solid rod I think they are likely
much safer than wood after all they are typically called "Safety Glass"
arrows.  They are available almost anywhere which is a big plus but of
course they are about three times as expensive as just buying fiberglass
rod.  If someone wanted to test these I would be happy to work with them to
develop a suitable test plan.  Of course after all the initial non-combat
safety testing is done we have to follow the proper experimental weapons
procedures and get it approved experimentally at the Society level before we
can do any live combat testing.  Once we have gathered enough data and are
convinced it is a good and safe alternative it would have to be submitted to
the society for final approval.

I am also open to any other alternatives that anyone would like to test.

For what it is worth, and if anyone is wondering, there were almost no
wooden arrows that came through the inspection points that Ansteorra was
responsible for at this was.  There were some but the percentage was well
below 1 percent.

Regards,

Lord Eadric Anstapa
Kingdom Archery Marshal, Ansteorra
eadric at scabrewer.com



----- Original Message -----
From: <Robinbowmaker at aol.com>
To: <ansteorra-archery at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 5:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra-archery] Wooden Shafts for Combat Arrows and Bolts


  In order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort could you please post
what material has been looked at and what it's shortcomings are? I know that
may be a lengthy post but it would help in this quest. Thank you