Side nocks

[RobertofGwent]

Question: if side nocks are authentic for medieval warbows - why is it they're not seen very often?

[nineworlds9]

Read this page, may help shed some light:

http://www.alanesq.com/sidenock.htm

[Yeomanbowman]

Side nocks work very well with natural strings and because they are cut through to the wood, hold themselves onto the bow.  This is very useful with non-waterproof natural glues that may fail in damp conditions.
However, modern adhesives mean that this isn't really an advantage anymore and fastflite etc. strings hold well on front nocks.  Another factor is that most bowyers are more familiar with front nocks and won't have a good of how side nocks work.

Jeremy

[RobertofGwent]

Thanks - I have seen that excellent article before. Alansq says on there that all true copies of medieval/tudor bows should have side nocks. Presumably it's feasible to have side nocks with modern string material? But then I guess if you wanted to be truly 'aufentic' you'd be using linen or hemp anyway ...

[Del the cat]

I was at a roving marks shoot with my side nocked bow.
A bloke approached me to say he was worried that my string was about to slip off!
He was a bit embarrassed when I dhowed him they were side nocks.
I've only done one bow with 'em. Bit of a pin to get the string sitting nicely.
Del

[RobertofGwent]

Is that covered somewhere in your blog, Del?

[Del the cat]

Is that covered somewhere in your blog, Del?

I think there is just a pic... try the search facility on the blog, it works quite well (Yes I know that's hard to believe!)
Del