Well this has just got interesting. Hi its Tod of Tod's Workshop and Tod
Cutler here. I've just finished a film about needle bodkins and fabric armour, but I've had another thought and I'm gonna go back and have a look at needle
bodkins, fabric armour and what happens if you wax them. Maybe nothing. Before we do that though, just so you know, I've got some excellent websites full of medieval
weaponry so if you're interested in that stuff go and check out the links. What am I talking about when I'm talking about wax on arrowheads? The short answer is
I don't really know. The long answer is more involved. Last year I did a film
with a bunch of friends called Myth busting - Arrows versus Armour and it
was looking at shooting an Agincourt era arrow at an Agincourt era
breastplate and what happened. Spoiler alert. I've got two heads here,
the crossbow head on your right hand side, shorter blunter very very typical
of a crossbow head. Don't tell me it's wrong go look in the museum's. The one on
the left is a longbow arrow short bodkin. Slightly pointier usually and that
one's based on a Museum of London find from 1410 I think it was. Obviously the tip is
deformed where it struck some steel, but you get an idea that there's quite
difference in the shape of the head. You know there's a million of you out there
and collectively we can really learn some things and one of the comments that
kept coming up was "put wax on the end of your arrow head". Now I don't know quite
what that means but it's talking about a blob of wax on the end of your bolt head.
So there you go; I've just fitted a little blob of beeswax on the end. Does
that do anything? Well today we're not going to find out because I'm not
shooting plate cutters with a blob of wax on it. The last film I have just done, was
on fabric or flexible armour, so maille, but also fabric armour and needle bodkins.
My understanding before I did that film was that needle bodkins were excellent
at going through fabric armour. I did not find that the case. It was not the most
powerful of bows, it was a 350 pound crossbow, this one here, so equivalent
weight to maybe a 70 or 80 pound longbow. But nonetheless it gives a difference
between different bolt types. I mean here's the hole here and this one went
through as you can see maybe 25 millimeters, an
inch. It went through the gambeson and into the foam beyond. So not most likely
not a killing depth. But it got me wondering because this needle bakken
jammed up in the gambeson very quickly and that's what stopped it going deep. And I
wonder what happens if you dip a bit of wax on this and if there was a
difference between this one with the wax and without the wax. Because as it goes
in, the wax will melt, because the amount of energy that's being expended in
deforming that gambeson to get through is heat. The energy turns into heat. Heat
melts the wax, wax lubricates the entry. Maybe it goes deeper, maybe not let's
find out. So we're going to shoot three dry and then exactly the same three
again and I'm gonna mark them and measure them. Exactly the same three
again with a little bit of wax on and see what happens. I have my three needle
bodkins here, my gambeson and a section of house insulation foam.
The reason I'm shooting against the insulation foam is that I want each shot
to be comparable with the last and if I put it straight onto the straw boss
there are hard bits, soft bits and so on. So I'm going to nail this whole set up
onto the boss and then we're going to go and shoot at that.
These bolts weigh in at about 58 ,60 grams each. Lovely needle Bodkin heads
made by Will Sherman at Medieval Arrows. So three hundred and fifty pound draw weight bow. Let's go again. So you get an idea of the
kind of speed that you can load these things at with a goat's foot lever,
it's not bad, it's about a shot every 10 seconds. You can see that they're not
going in super deep into the gambeson, they're getting a bit wobbly. In fact we've lost one. So you can see
how resistant that gambeson is in fact to these needle bodkins that it was
quite wobbly so the third one one of them fell out. I've marked those two I'm
just gonna do a third one again and then we'll go back mark that. Well that one
bounced straight off, so in fact let's use that as the beginning of our test.
We'll see if the wax ones do any better. These are our three bolts that we just
shot. This was the one that actually skipped out, fell out at the end, but I
put it back in until you can feel from the resistance it was the right depth,
and I've marked it. I've marked these ones as well, and what I'm gonna do is
pull them out measure that distance from the mark to the tip and just write it on
the butt of the bolt so we've got a record of it. I'm gonna wax it. And do it all
over again. I've taken the same three bolts, exactly the same bolts and I put a
slight... doubt you can even see it, wax coating on them. Very thin skin of
beeswax. Shoot them again let's see what happens. Let's go have a look.
So we're back at the at the target again and I can tell you this is about to get
very interesting so I'm going to remark these and that is the new position. I
don't even know if we're going to know the old position. They all have got the
measurement of the depth written on it and the other ones are just on the other
face, but let's pull out and see what we got...... It really is tough this gambeson; blimey!
That is the new mark, that is the old mark. Next one, so the old one was 26 and
the new one is again...40... 45. I did wonder if there was going to be
something and I was hoping there was gonna be something, but you are never quite
sure. That's experimental archaeology for you.
This one was 18, this went in less before, maybe it's a thicker head and it doesn't
have the old mark on it, but it was 18 before and again, amazingly consistent 45
millimeters again. So 45 millimeters into Imperial - inch and 3/4. Well this has just
got interesting. Well I might be a geek, but goodness I found that interesting. So
three-needle bodkins and I wrote the numbers on the back. First number is
depth of penetration dry, second one, depth of penetration waxed. 26
millimeters 45. 25 millimetres 47. 18 millimeters 45. So off the top of my head
there, what we're talking about is an increase in penetration of 40-45 % (actually 55%) That
is fantastic. Medieval people are not stupid you know, from 800 years ago, same
brains we've got. Different technology, but the same ability to observe and to
adapt and to change what they do. I can't tell you that they put wax on
there on their bolt tips and arrow tips, but there is a persistent thinking that
they might have done. Was it on needle bodkins? Don't know. Did it work?
Hell yes it works! You know, that was brilliant. Now we today, we put teflon on
on bullets for getting through fabric armour, so you know, they're facing the
same challenges back then why wouldn't they have done it. Did they? We don't
know, maybe. Does it work? Yes it works. So another fantastically interesting
experimental archaeological test. Or at least interesting for me anyway and if
you're interested in medieval weaponry, go check my sites out there's lots to
have a look at. Thank you very much, I hope you've enjoyed it
