Why Bladed Steel Arrowheads were Superior - Arrows vs Armour 3

‘Arrows vs Armour’ is back! This time we have an armoured soldier of 1450 in our sights. All of him. But we need to know more about the arrow heads that we have been using over this series of tests, so Tod visits Wills’ forge. We chat about the three heads involved in these tests and watch and time him making them, allowing us to get an idea of the relative costs of each type.

Knowing details like this allows us to get deeper insights from the main Arrows vs Armour 3 film, where 7 heavy bow war archers shoot steel tipped barbed arrows from their war bows at our soldier of 1450.

We changed from the earlier iron short bodkins of our previous tests because by 1450 they had been using these new steel barbed heads for a while and it was time for us to find out about them.

Our testing showed they worked in a very different way to the old iron bodkins we used previously with several distinct advantages. But presumably this comes at a cost?

To help refine our opinions of the Arrows vs Armour 3 tests, we needed to know all about the heads…….



Flat plate strike tests -    • Flat Plate Strike Tests - for Arrows vs Ar...  

Arrows vs Armour 3 – Can Arrows Defeat Armour? -    • ARROWS vs ARMOUR 3 - Can Arrows Defeat Arm...  

Damage Report -    • Arrows vs Armour 3 – Damage report  



Clarification: Around the 14:30 point I clumsily tried to convey what I was thinking and messed it up; apologies. I said “Type 16’s, they are hard, they are light, they hit harder”. I was discussing benefits and yes they are harder than iron bodkins, they are lighter than iron bodkins (and so fly further), but let me explain what I was thinking that made me say ‘they hit harder’.

In our earlier tables from our research film “flat plate strike tests” it is unquestionable that the heavier type 9 iron bodkins deliver more energy and momentum to target, they should hit harder; in theory. But at the moment the arrows hit a hard target, the two arrow head types generally perform very differently, as we had been discussing earlier in the film. If the arrow hits a plate at an angle the iron type 9 deflects away and often breaks in the process, carrying much of its energy away from target. The steel type 16 is much more likely to bite, not deflect and deliver all the energy to target.

So although the 16 carries less energy it is able to deliver what it has far more effectively, meaning “it hits harder”.