Here are some arrows I recently made for my Chinese style bow. They are based after the color patterns found on Janyinbao's portrait, a Qianlong era officer.
The wood is pine, the feathers are left wing turkey feathers that I cut in shape myself. Shafts are 9mm thick and 90cm long. Plastic nocks and modern steel target points for not ruining the targets at the club.
Peter Dekker
The arrows
Romain
the arrows are nice, but the plastic nocks ruin the 18th century effect...
Self nocks won't damage the target, if fired properly.
Peter Dekker
You're totally right about that.. those plastic nocks are a torn in my eye as well.
I chose the plastic nocks because I had ruined some 20 arrows in my first few months of shooting and I decided to cut on expenses and efforts in these. Even with the stiffest spine, arrows this long (90cm) tend to fish tail all the way to the target and are often not well aligned on impact. This way they break more easily. Perhaps this is a reason why Qing targets were so different from the targets we use today, or it's the rationale behind longer shooting distances as our regular 18 & 25 metres.
Within now and a year I'll reproduce some arrows exactly according to the 1759 Qing regulations, using only traditional materials, fish glue and hand forged arrowheads.
I'll ad pics when I finished them!
-Peter
Bede
The Qing target arrows I have are not of great spine. I will check them and let you know. They did shoot at shorter distances for horseback archery examinations. The big feathers corrected the excessive movement of the arrow.
The arrows I have are birch. The nocks are reinforced with wedges of bamboo. Unlike the Qianlong arrows I have examined, they were neither barrelled nor had the feathers as close to the nock.
Fishtailing either means the arrow is not stiff enough for your bow or there is a shooting problem. Did the arrows make a lot of noise when you released them?
Peter Dekker
Hi, thanks for the info. The Qianlong arrows you examined? Please tell me more, it sounds really interesting.
I haven't had the chance to examine many arrows hands-on, my info mostly comes from period artwork and translating Imperial regulations so it's very interesting for me to learn how certain features (like the nock) worked out in practise.
These arrows were "spined" for my bow, however because they're some 10cm longer than an average longbow arrow they do fishtail a lot upon release. They don't seem to make more sound than other arrows I've shot.
I've made some barelled arrows as well, with an 11 mm mid and 9mm ends. These are so stiff that with my current bow I have to aim several metres more to the right in order to hit what I aim for. These weigh 70 gram each.
-Peter
Bede
Peter,
It is natural when using a thumb draw and the arrow on the outside of the bow to have to aim to the right. When I shoot, rarely, with my fingers I have to aim considerably to the left because of the opposite problem. It's just physics.
The Qianlong arrows were part of exhibitions from China here in Australia. I measured them at the time due to the help of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, who also helped me look at quivers. There was on one occasion a senior official from the Palace Museum in Beijing and I was able to ask questions through an interpreter. As you can imagine this was closely supervised and only officials moved the objects with gloved hands.
These arrows were barreled, thick in the centre, unpainted, iron or wooden pointed and in various shapes of arrow heads. They were were very long, around a metre, though there was variation. They had self nocks for a thick string. In one group there were two smaller arrows with gold inlaid broadheads that I assume were for a child.
One of the bows had a smooth rawhide string that would have fitted the nocks. It was a single piece of twisted and smoothed rawhide knotted at each end. There was no serving and the twists in the string had been smoothed down into a uniform cylinder.
Peter Dekker
It is natural when using a thumb draw and the arrow on the outside of the bow to have to aim to the right. When I shoot, rarely, with my fingers I have to aim considerably to the left because of the opposite problem. It's just physics.
Oh I forgot to mention, I shoot left, so my right hand is my bow hand. I'm aware of the behaviour of arrows, but that of those barelled ones is really into the extreme. Your really hear and see them bouncing off the outside of the bow due to their stiffness. At a normal archery range on 18 metres I need to aim two targets to the right in order to shoot it straight forward.
Thanks on the additional info on these Qianlong arrows, very interesting! The lengths seem to be consistent with the imperial regulations I translated so far, most of these arrows are at least over 95cm and many exceed a length of a metre.
I'll be living in Beijing from the end of this month to the end of august, but last time many parts of the Palace Museum were closed down for restoration and I'm afraid I'll find the same again this time due to the upcoming olympics.
The bow with the rawhide string, exactly what kind of bow was it? (Workmanship, size, estimated draw weight?)
-Peter
Bede
Peter,
Let me get this straight, you draw with your left hand and hold the bow with your right hand and put the arrow on the left side of the bow?
With the saber I'm right handed, but I hung it on the other side for this pic to show how the way the Manchu's wear it is convenient with a bow.
-Peter
Bede
Peter,
I don't know if this will help, but here are some comments.
You have an unusual grip on the bow. It appears you are holding it with the two middle fingers. Is that right?
Your elbows are lower than your shoulders. I know that when you pose for the camera, you sometimes hold to long and your body can get out of alignment.
How close is your arrow or bowstring to your face. Is the arrow close in or is it held away from you body?
The reason I ask these questions is that the grip affects how the bow behaves, the elbow/ shoulder alignment affect your stability and the position of the arrow affects how you aim. I am only talking about the static position of you and the bow. How you get there and what you do next are something Stephen is more expert at than me.
Peter Dekker
Thanks for the observartions!
Indeed I took this pic myself with a timer and my stance is not too representative for how I shoot. But lowering my drawing elbow is something I've also seen myself do on pics made by others while I was shooting. I was just moving my fingers on the bow grip when the timer went off here. Normally I make a ring with thumb and middle finger, my index finger points to the target, and the rest are loosely bent around the grip.
I'm still experimenting with slight adjustments in pose to see how it works out. I mostly base what I do on manuals like that of Qi Jiguang, and some old pictures and period artwork. Of course, due to the time these guys had to pose for the pictures we can't be too sure about their stance either but if it's close to period artwork of earlier times, it's a good guideline nevertheless.
Anyway, the arrow bouncing off the bow is surely caused by the arrow's spine above anything else. Others at our club had shot it for fun and experienced the same problem. The thing is very stiff and none of our bows is strong enough (most got 40-60 pounders) to shoot it properly.
On aiming, I don't really aim but I look at the target and guess. By now, the longer I think about a shot the less accurate I am too. I'm by far not a good shooter, but I do outperform many longbow archers that have been shooting for much longer than I have.
