[Archers] Bolt caps

[John Atkins]

Mungo,
As an historically accurate alternative you could use paper.  Yes,
indeed.  I have seen bolts in the Armor Museum in Vienna Austria that
have paper fletches.  It's been a few years but I believe the paper
fletched bolts were in the same case as the crossbow used to hunt birds
so it may be that paper was used on the lighter bolts.  However, if you
were to use pergamenta (modern velum) that would be sufficiently stiff,
replicate "paper" (a valuable commodity in period) and be "historical".
The issue with pergamenta or velum is that it tends to curl depending
upon the humidity.  On the other hand that could provide some serious
entertainment watching your bolts fly down range.....................or
wherever they ended up!  hahaha
 
We had an individual come out to the range at an event a year or so back
who had fletched his bolts with wood vanes.  He constructed the bolts as
you have suggested.  That is, cutting a, basically, heart shape out of
very thin wood then cutting a slit in the bolt shaft to slip the heart
shape into.  I don't recall that he had end caps on his bolts but he was
using a powerful (SCA wise) corssbow and had no issues.  The only issue
he had was damage to the fltetches either from his own bolts hitting
them of shafts from the other archers.  The thin fletch wood does not
hold up well to a "crowded" target.  One one occasion his bolt sank
quite deep into the target and pulling it from the backside rendered the
fletches useless.
 
cog

-----Original Message-----
From: archers-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
[mailto:archers-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org] On Behalf Of Groff,
Garth (ggg9y)
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 8:24 AM
To: archers at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
Subject: Re: [Archers] Bolt caps



M'Lord Siegfried,

 

Thanks much. Your description was my alternative to the slot cut across
the shaft. I suppose it could be done with simple hand tools. That's
pretty much all our ancestors had. I will have to think about this

 

Yours Aye,

 

Lord Mungo Napier, The Archer of Mallard Lodge

Read "The Tale of Mungo Napier": 

http://people.virginia.edu/~ggg9y/napier1.html

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