10 Medieval Arrow Types - What are they for?

The arab archery talks about these fire basket arrows: The third is the shooting of flaming arrows, which are called spindle-shaped, and are used for incendiary purposes, to set fire to the place where they fall. Such arrows are made by constructing a hollow arrowhead consisting of a number of tubes the ends of which are brought together. The interior of the arrowhead should be hollow, like the interior of the spindles women use. This is why it is called spindle-shaped. It should also have a cylindrical extension into which the shaft is inserted. You mix some straw and cotton together and make them into a ball. Then you saturate the ball with tar and insert it into the hollow of the arrowhead. Then you bring it next to a flame, and shoot it as soon as it begins to burn. It will spring into a flaming projectile and will start a fire wherever it falls. You may also take some otter fat, wax, black sulphur, bdellium gum [Webster's International Dictionary: "A gum resin obtained from Cammiphora africana, similar to myrrh and used for the same purposes."], the pith of fresh cherry seeds—if you cannot obtain this, you may use coconut milk, and if this is not to be found, you may use the sap of wild figs—and a piece of quicklime untouched by water; you then grind the whole together, knead the mass with pure oil of balsam, roll it into small, pebble-like granules, and dry them. When you wish to shoot, sprinkle the granules with powdered black sulphur and shoot them with a stiff, strong bow, at night or by day, without bringing them next to a flame or fire. As each travels through the air it springs into flame. Al-Ṭābari has declared this to be true and that it has been practiced by experts in Egypt.

At Duncarron Medieval Village we looked at the Fire Basket arrows and came to the conclusion that they were best used for toasting marshmallows 🤔😉

Something I would like to point out (though this is very recent history for an example and I am going off the assumption humans are consistent in general behavior) during WW2 things like the Russian 76mm Zis-3 and the US 75mm guns were considered Anti-Tank weapons despite not being particularly good at the job but they were better than nothing so they still got used that way all the time. I think the same can be said for the short bodkin, just because it can't reliably penetrate plate armor doesn't mean that it wasn't intended to fight plate armor but rather that it was the best design they could come up with to counter plate armor using the weapons they had available. with the absence of a perfect solution you will always adopt a "good enough" solution to increase your chances.

Ok Tod....there is an complete cage bolt at coburg castle (Bavaria ,Germany) WITH(!) incendiary mass and fuses. Probably 14th century.

Theory for fire basket arrows I've heard is that they weren't for hitting anything, but used for signalling. For example, to an army around a castle. Akin to a "Ye olde flare gun", which might be why so few are found or exist in artwork, and why the bodkin point is so simple on the end.

As modern hunters in the American South (Appalachia) we still use those bird hunting & thumpper type heads for turkeys, rabbits etc to this day & im sure other places do as well. Those blunted heads arent just good for training. You can kill a small animal without harming the hide using blunt force.

The blunt headed arrows could also perhaps be used if you were in the business of collecting undamaged pelts, almost certainly got enough energy at short range to brain something a bit bigger than a rabbit

I must say I loath adverts, though being interrupted by the guy selling his own wares is 100% fine. Well done Tod for your videos and your adverts that are informative and on topic.

This video makes me wish video games incorporated more variety in their archery ammunition, other than just "armor piercing arrow", "explosive arrow", "incendiary arrow", etc. It's crazy how much variety in performance you get can from just using different shapes for metal arrowheads even whilst using the same exact materials.

Tod you’re pretty much right about the hunting broadhead. Not only do they make a wider wound channel allowing it to bleed out faster, the shape allows em to keep cutting flesh and organs and doing more damage even after the arrow has stopped.

On the subject of lighter weight arrows being able to pierce armor, many militaries, such as the Ottomans and Mongols used significantly lighter arrows than those of the English. Turkish war arrows were 20-40 grams and shot from bows of similar strength to the Mary Rose longbows (Karpowicz, Adam. Ottoman Bows - an assessment of draw weight, performance, and tactical use). I personally believe it unlikely that their arrows would pierce plate, but they certainly were effective enough for their time period. While we have less definitive weights for their arrows afaik, the Mongols and other steppe people also used light arrows to great effect. A really interesting passage that touches on this subject-- and related ones of arrow construction, is found in the records of John of Plano Carpini (discussing how to fight the Tartars (Mongols)) "the heads of the arrows for both bows and cross-bows ought to be tempered after the Tartar fashion, in salt water when they are hot, to make them hard enough to pierce the Tartar armour. They should also have swords and lances with a hook to drag the Tartars from their saddle, for they fall off very easily; knives, and cuirasses of a double thickness, for the Tartar arrows do not easily pierce such" (Dawson translation) It was written significantly before agincourt, and the armor discussed would have been lamellar or chainmail, but it recognizes that Mongol arrows, which were quite light, required more protection than was commonly worn to stop. On this note as a whole, I'd love to see some interaction/discussion with scholars that focus on non-European arms/armor. I'm sure there would be a lot of interesting knowledge to be gained.

The first time I saw that basket Arrow was in a "Lillian and Fred Funcken" book about Medieval Arms and Armour. Unfortunately my entire collection of these books burned down with my house a 9 years ago. And if I remember correctly, it was claimed that these Basket Fire Arrows were a medieval type of "flare-gun". Obviously, as teenagers, we had to find out if you can do that, and it worked. Although we used crayons, sugar and baking soda, wrapped in linen, cotton like a Swiss roll to make coloured smoke for the arrows. It was a lot of fun, until we set a hedge on the edge of the field alight.

A few things to consider both in favor of and against the use of blunt wooden heads as practice heads, from a reasonably experienced hobbyist longbow and period crossbow archer: As compared to the larger hunting broadheads, the blunts would almost definitely do less damage over time to most sorts of archery targets. However, the needle bodkins are similar enough to modern field points that they would probably cause less wear and tear on softer butts (heh), such as loose straw bales, as compared to the blunts. A hunter who has a sheaf of hunting broadheads might have blunts for practice, while a military archer with a quiver full of needle bodkins might prefer using those instead. If shooting at a harder butt, such as the wrapped rope style Todd uses, I'd be very concerned about the blunt headed arrow breaking against the target, especially at close range or if using a heavier bow. While the shafts are less expensive, if you break one on every few shots you would very quickly negate any cost saved on the cheaper heads. Losing arrows is an excellent point - however, most experienced archers I know (including myself) tend to suffer many more arrows broken than lost when shooting at a target, especially at closer ranges. In that case, the head - by far the most valuable part of the arrow - can be removed and repurposed fairly easily, even if riveted to the shaft. As all of us archers know, losing arrows that burrow in the grass is simply part of the hobby. However, simple measures, such as a small berm behind the target or keeping the grass trimmed short (local sheep or cattle, provided the butts are located on the village common land) are a great aid in finding missed arrows. I've shot at ranges where I've lost more arrows in a month than I have at better laid out ranges in an entire year. Furthermore, if a single lost arrow represents a significant monetary investment - especially if that investment can be reclaimed even if the arrow is broken - the person who lost it will be a great deal more stubborn in looking for it after practice than the average modern archer who might spend 100$-200$ on a dozen mid-to-high-end arrows that will last them the entire year. While this doesn't entirely explain the dearth of archaeological evidence of metal arrowheads, it does make a decent start. There are historical accounts of archers being severely wounded or killed after accidents at the butts - I suggest starting with The History Squad's video on the subject (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSofqwCstmo&t=7s) , and if you're interested further, checking out the article "Archery Practice in Early Tudor England" by Steven Gunn, for more examples. Even the summaries of these events I've heard of generally describe penetrating injuries much more in line with metal heads than wood. Maybe the people irresponsible enough to be involved in such accidents were more likely to take the risk of using metal heads for practice? It might have been the period equivalent of bringing broadheads to a field points only range - a little reckless perhaps, but generally tolerated as long as they provided their own targets. I think an explanation that decently fits the evidence might be that most archers used metal points when practicing at closer ranges, where the arrow shaft would be less likely to break as compared to using a blunt head and where there would be less chance of losing the arrow after a missed shot. For longer, riskier shots, the wooden arrowheads might have been used instead to mitigate the risk of losing an expensive arrow in tall grass. I'd love to see those wooden heads tested at different ranges and against different types of practice targets - perhaps it could be called "Arrows vs Targets"? I'd definitely watch that.

Transverse arrowheads have a big history as hemorragic weapons, and were both used as hunting, but also as military arrows against soft targets. Crescent arrows inflicts gashing wounds that are extremely demoralizing due to the amount of blood. The incendiary basket arrow will lodge itself and crush a coal ember into soft flammable material that in the past were everywhere. Cloth, hay, straw, basketery, thatched roofs, wood bundles, firewood stacks, and so on. The average traditionnal bakery would have piles of wood bundles as tall as a house laying around. Stables would have piles of hay and straw everywhere. The ubiquitous thing for makeshift defense and palissades are different type of wickerworks, like hurdles and gabions, the basket arrow are ideal to try burn it up from further away than with cheaper torch arrows. The coal inside the basket last a long time, is less conspicuous (especially at night) than a bunch of lit up torch arrows and does not need to be launched from a very low poundage bow to avoid snuffing out the flame.

Very interesting discussion with examples and history. I had no idea the forked head had been evolved in so many places and for so long. Two craftsmen talking about items that interest them never gets old.

Great video Tod (and Will) and your comments/observations marry up with my own armour tests. Needles are great against everything except "hard metal armor". But in my experience, the square section needles perform better than the diamond section ones. I have both Will's and Hector Coles Needles. Perhaps if they were steel and sharpened they would do fair better against Gamebson, but in their default, from the smith shape, square section needles just do better in all my tests. The type 9/Crecy/Warbodkins, as you said are very multi-purpose while having a "chance" to penetrate the plate. Type 16, Miltary Broadheads (Chippenham/Viking Leaf) when sharpened are gambeson killers! It makes sense to have steel barbs. So you can sharpen them better. They don't do well against Mail or Shields though. In fact, they are quite poor against those armours. I have an unpopular theory regarding square-section needles, but I will save that for my future armour test.

Hi Tod, about the hunting arrow, you nailed the purpose of barber broadhead to make it only go forward, we actually still use this kind of blades in hunting scenarios (Simmons great white shark for example) anyway most of the time on good shots the arrow pass through the pray easily. For the arrow drift you experienced with crossbow I think it's because of the weight of the broadhead combined with the shaft of the arrow, heavy point on arrow softens the stiffness of the shaft (spine) which causes it to flex more then it should, this make the arrow drift to the left or to the right depends on which side is lean the crossbow or the bow, to avoid this effect in the past they used to craft arrows shafts out of stiffer wood, or they increase diameter shaft, put more fletching or add a weight on the back of the arrow which increase the stiffness of the shaft

My Austrian grandfather showed me how to make blunts by pushing an arrow shaft into the pith of a section of elder wood about 100mm long. At short ranges typical for small game he didn't bother fletching the shaft and they were extremely effective and easy to make. He didn't mention shooting waterfowl, but did shoot fish!

I really liked this collaboration. Two experts sharing what they know, occasionally interrupting one another to throw more information on top. No egos, no showing off. Just a... Kinda cozy lecture? Thanks!

Fun fact: On the Battle of Grunwald reenactment blunts made of rags and leather are used during the "battle" Together with blanks fired from cannons and harkbuses. I think that is translation of Polish "hakownica".