[Archers] Vermil Period-style Nocks

Fri Jun 29 22:04:28 PDT 2018

 Interesting questions....- the revised Society guidelines for Period stuff as of October 2016   state the following  

Nocks shall be either self or reinforced self, or period style insert nocks, for 
wood, bamboo or reed arrows. They may be of any materials that are similar 
in appearance to period materials and also similar in style. 

this would seem to prevent the use of Vermil ,or other nocks that glue on the end of the shaft, just as plastic nocks do with the reverse taper. On one hand, I had no issues with plastic nocks for Period category as long as they provide no advantage over self nocks,(and were either black or white, not some obnoxious flourescent color. )  except that these do for speed nocking. and they take a bit less time to install, vs making a self nock.   I have a bag of M nocks, and have installed a few, but not seriously trained with them.    so I am a bit ambivalent, being that good self nocks, or pegged horn nocks, require more work to install. and the increased speed of loading with the flared nocks is an issue.  Would I allow them in a period shoot?  I am honestly not sure.It would be a slap to those who went to the extra trouble of making good quality self nocks.

 On a related note,  the new guidelines also did away with the requirement of a composite bow replica actually having layers in the limbs, vs having a solid fiberglass limb(which almost all the Kassai horsebows did, with wooden siyahs/ears/tips, and leather covers, so you could not see what was under the wrapping)  Plenty (relatively speaking) of SCA nomads) were using those, in contravention knowingly or un, of the Kingdom rules.  I believe that the first distinction for Period Hand-bows  should be lack of pistol grip and fixed arrow shelf.  which does open the door to simple fiberglass sticks and strings with a handle wrap being counted as :period".....  Grimm has a Ben Pearson? with horn looking nocks that would sort of pass as a Scottish short bow, although making enough of a handle for comfortable shooting would maybe not pass the "no fixed arrow rest issue. I have sourced some fiberglass/polymer resin injection molded Mughal Crab/Yuan Dynasty bows (only 18 #28", but they are marketing a 30# model)  that very acceptably passes as a period bow, despite being all one piece of synthetic material.    

Thoughts?   

Naran

-----Original Message-----
From: Garth Groff and Sally Sanford <mallardlodge1000 at gmail.com>
To: archers <archers at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org>
Sent: Fri, Jun 29, 2018 9:00 am
Subject: [Archers] Vermil Period-style Nocks

Noble Friends of the Bow,

We often think that period-style arrows have to be self-nocked. Not so among archers from the far east. Applied nocks have a long history with the Chinese and some steppe tribes. But applied nocks also show up in middle ages Europe. Note the nock in this painting of Antoine, Bastard of Burgundy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony,_bastard_of_Burgundy#/media/File:Antoine_de_Bourgogne.jpg . This Rogier van der Weyden portrait was likely painted in 1463 after Antoine won the prestigious archery tournament at Bruges, and possibly shows one his personal arrows used in the tournament.

With Antoine in mind, I decided a few months ago to try the new Vermil "V" nocks from 3Rivers on some of my period arrows. I bought several packages and mounted them on 50/55 pound shafts to use with my 45-pound yew longbow. Since the yew bow died, I have been shooting the same arrows from a 43-pound hickory longbow (with less power and accuracy--poop!). 

The Vermil "V" nocks are said to be based those used by Asian horse archers. They have a rather wide mouth for easy string gather and thus faster nocking. The nocks are made of a creamy-colored polycarbonate plastic that imitates horn or bone. They are available to fit 5/16 or 11/32-inch shafts and are to be glued in place (insert nocks for carbon shafts are also available in both the "V" and "Y" series and might work with bamboo shafts).

The nocks performed admirably, though the nock slot is rather small at the bottom. Since most of us use 14-strand strings with serving at the nocking point, the nock slot is a bit tight for a clean release. I chucked a fine rat-tail file in my electric drill and reamed out the bottoms of the slots just a bit. This made the fit perfect for my strings. If you shoot with an unserved string, or one with less strands, the nocks should work fine as-is.

My only criticism is that horns of the "V" nocks stick out more to the side than most nocks. This makes them easier to break with a subsequent arrow in the same spot. I've Robin Hooded several of my arrows because of this. Polycarbonate might be tough, but it won't stand up to an arrow hit.

While researching for this review, I went to Vermil's web site ( https://www.vermilarchery.com ) and found that they also make an "M" series with shorter horns. These are based on Manchu nocks, and should be a bit less likely to be hit by another arrow.

3Rivers ( https://www.3riversarchery.com/vermil-arrow-nocks.html ) offers the Vermil "V" series in packs of six for $5.99. I noted that the list price from the manufacturer is $9.00 for a pack of twelve, with small quantity discounts for packs of 50 or 100. 3Rivers does not currently offer the "M" nocks, nor do they offer the "V" nocks in large-quantity packages. 

I'm still making self-nocked arrows, but like the "V" nocks very much. I will be trying the "M" nocks next, and you can be sure I will order from the manufacturer (remember, I'm a penurious Scot). I'm planning on shooting my "V" nock arrows at Kings Assessment in July, and might have arrows with "M" nocks at WoW this fall. I will be pleased show them to any of you who are interested.

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆

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