Making arrows for battle

[burtonridr]

I was out researching google for information and came across a cool post in a section of Reddit on stocking an army with arrows for battle. I thought it was pretty cool and interesting.

When you are talking about the period of the English Longbowmen you are essentially talking about Henry V and his campaign in France culminating with the battle of Agincourt first and foremost, and I can tell you for Henry stocking enough arrows for his archers was a huge task requiring a national effort.

England was bankrupt and haphazardly managed when Henry V took the throne, and he spent much of the first part of his reign reforming every part of the government. The greater part of this involved consolidating his recently reconquered Welsh holdings and doing a massive audit and restructuring of the Royal estates, both of which generated a tremendous amount of ready cash. He also started reforming his military on the supply and organization side.

You are absolutely right that archers could run out of arrows in a few minutes of battle. An archer had to be able to fire ten arrows in a minute, and good archers could fire much quicker. Arrows were carried in sheaves of 24, archers carried 2 sheaves on them and a few spares, so a typical English Longbowman of Henry V's day could expend their entire combat load in between 4 and 8 minutes of steady firing. Realistically they probably would not fire at max rate for a stretch of 4-8 minutes very often, but still, they needed an ample supply to fight a battle lasting hours.

The arrows themselves are difficult. They are made of multiple pieces which each have their own supply train and manufacturing difficulty. For long range arrows the arrow head is made of iron, but two compounds, a hard edge and a softer core to absorb shock on impact, a 30 inch shaft constructed of lighter wood which has to be basically perfectly straight or it's useless. The fletchings are made of goose feathers, and this requires the plucking of a lot of geese. Shorter range arrows are a little shorter, heavier, made of a thicker piece of hard wood like ash and have a head called a bodkin which is very narrow for penetrating armor at close range.

Almost immediately on taking the throne Henry V appointed fletcher (a professional arrow maker) Nicholas Mynot Keeper of the King's Arrows and set him up in the Tower of London with a staff and healthy budget for building up stocks. This was a separate job from the King's Bowyer, responsible for making bows and with the right to commandeer any wood in the country for that purpose. The Keeper of the King's Arrows began production and farmed production out to other fletchers, making orders for arrows in the tens of thousands.

The production of arrows required arrow heads made by smiths by the barrel, tens of thousands of shafts, and goose feathers literally in the millions (there is an order recorded for over 1.1 million goose feathers for the King's arrow making facilities, and that is one single order). Because of all this planning, effort, and expenditure of resources Henry V was exceptionally well equipped when he set off for France. I would caution you though that while Henry V is the obvious example for a question on the logistics of English Longbowmen he was an uncommonly capable administrator and not every monarch would have been so well prepared for a campaign.

Robert Hardy's Longbow: A Social and Military History goes into a lot of detail on all things Longbow related, I find Juliet Barker's Agincourt very valuable for information on Henry V's campaign preparations.

Source: Reddit

[nclonghunter]

That is interesting...would like to know what type of arrow making tools they used. Sawed them square and then planned down to a round size?

[Zuma]

Good read.
The numbers are staggering but whwn compared to recent weaponry
numbers and costs, not so much. lol
Thanks for posting the info.
Zuma

[Dharma]

Many of the goose feathers for fletching were collected as a tax that was payable with goose feathers instead of cash.

[stickbender]

    Thanks, I have always wondered about that.  I have wondered where they mined all the iron ore, to make all those swords, knives, axes, and arrow heads, etc..  And the poor black smiths, who had to produce those items in mass numbers, and still make them of quality, and durability!  Talk about stress! But then again it was also job security I guess.

                                   Wayne

[longbow man]

   Love the history about our bows. How much history does a wheely bow have?

[nclonghunter]

Probably as much as a carbon arrow.....

[JW_Halverson]

   Love the history about our bows. How much history does a wheely bow have?

I dunno, but it will be pretty easy to research them when archeologists go thru the landfills. Each year a new model, a new layer of trash.   

[Dharma]

I worked awhile in a store that sold fasteners of all kinds. There were always wheelbow folks coming in hoping to find a screw that fell out of their bow. (Usually metric. Tells ya where the bows are made.) I always said, "Gee, that's funny. Never have screws falling out of my bow." They say, "Oh, should I be using Loc-Tite, too?" I'd say, "No, you should be using Long-Bow." "Really? Is that new?" "Not really."