Dogwood for warbow shafts

[markinengland]

I just cut some dowood for arrows. I cut some thinking it may make good war arrows.
Has anyone tried it? Does anyone know if having been used in medieval times or even if it is native to the UK?
Mark in England

[SimonUK]

I know nothing about it.... but Wikipedia does. Apparently it is a strong wood and common dogwood is native to England.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogwood

[Pat B]

Marc, I asked the same question a while back but about shoots in general for war arrows. I have some sourwood and other hardwood shoots that I collected for war arrows but never got around to making any.    Pat

[Hartung]

Mark, on page 7 of this pdf file (http://users.skynet.be/fa057790/Zug.pdf) you’ll find a list of different bow woods (Tableau 2 : Bois de flèches préhistoriques) used in ancient times.

Dogwood (Cornouiller) is named three times:

-   Bregentwedt (D) ca. 4500 - 3500 AC
-   Hauslabjoch (I) ±3200 AC
-   Hochdorf (D) 550 - 500 AC

Dogwood has been around continental Europe for many thousand years. That’s why I think it could just as well be native to the UK. But have no documents about this.

These dogwood target arrows are heat straightened, hand planed to 5/16”, yew knock, gray goose feathers, glue, sinew, colza oil, 26”, 480 grains including 100grain point, spined 35# for a 55# self bow. It is quite common to find dogwood shoots spined well over 80# and sometimes up to well over 90#. Pretty much enough for a warbow arrow.

[markinengland]

Hartung,
That article looks interesting. is there any way to get a translation into English?
Mark

[Hartung]

Sorry Mark, I only know of that one document.

[markinengland]

Hartung,
I wonder if you can pull text out of a acrobat file to put into babelfish?
Nice arrows by the way. Why did you use yew for the nocks?
Have you tried fibre reinfoeced nocks? Chris Boyton showed me a way of using hemp fibre to make up a nock for shoot arrows. Simply wind the fibre arround the nocks area along with glue, Titebond works well but so would any glue. Build the nock up to a bulbous shape, allow to dry thoroughly  and then cut the nock in. This way you can use a slender shoot and still cut in a durable nock.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a277/MarkinEngland/arrows/DSCF0009.jpg
A picture (not very clear) of such a nock.
Mark in England

[Hartung]

Mark, I just copied the first paragraph into babelfish. Works surprisingly well:

“This article has as an aim the study of a fragment of Neolithic barrel of arrow having preserved its flint point and the remainders of a binding in tendon. This object was discovered in 1843 in a site of peat digging with Zug (fig. 1).1 It acts of the oldest archaeological discovery of the canton of Zug.”

I used a bigger yew nock because the bow I’m shooting them from has a thick string from deer leg tendon. That string has broken several nocks on wild rose arrows. I know there is a big difference between wild rose and dogwood. Nevertheless, the arrow is just under 8mm in diameter, the string is between 3,5 to 4mm thick, That leaves little room for a knock wall. I hardly ever broke a self nock with regular Dacron string. String made from sinew seems to be a real self nock killer. Don’t know why. Anyway the yew nock works great and look s good  .

Thanks for the tip with the hemp fibre. Have to try that one day.