Hi all,
After a couple of recent trips to museums, an observation I made was that in the exhibits for Scandinavian Iron age and Viking eras, there was a lot of tanged arrowheads on display.

In medieval exhibits, I have not seen any. Am i correct in assuming tanged heads went out of style somewhere in the 12th century, at least in northern Europe?

However on the reproduction market, I think I have never seen a tanged arrowhead for sale. They are all socketed.

So here is a few points that I would love some input on:

1. Are there any traditional archers out there that make and shoot arrows with tanged heads?
2. What is the drawback/benefits as compared to a socketed arrowhead? (I guess ease of manufacture could play a role?)
3. Do you know of any vendors that make and sell tanged arrowheads?

Links to images:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxXTpSwyELmDSGVneThzaW45ZTA/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxXTpSwyELmDUkJXcWRmcjVsQmc/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxXTpSwyELmDWnhWTmU3R1FiRGc/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxXTpSwyELmDVmxjOTBJb21zeW8/edit?usp=sharing[/list]

my first thought when i see the heads is that wow their tangs are really big, i expected to see something smaller.

when you think about it, its easier to produce a flat arrow head rather than one fixed with a socket.

For starters, when you shoot a tanged arrow and it hits something reasonably solid the impact drives the tang in and splits the shaft. Some have shoulders that help prevent this but not greatly.

2ndly when retrieving the arrow its more likely to pull out and remain in whatever you have hit. Again, there are ways and means with glue as you need to do with a socketed point or the same thing is more likely again.

Never having forged a tanged one (and only 2-3 socketed ones) I've no idea what the time/cost advantages are but you'd have thought that there would be a high percentage of these 'disposable' arrows in the record from the 12th cent onwards as well but for whatever reason, there doesn't seem to be, socketed massively outweighs them.

Maybe it's not the time forging the head that is the key issue but fitting the arrow to the shaft?

With a socketed arrow head you can just about take a branch of a tree and put a head on it - vastly exaggerated of course ;) - but with a tanged one my guess would be that there is much more work necessary to get the head fixed properly and straight on the shaft.

I have made and used tanged arrowheads a bit over the last few years and the problems Mark pointed out are the big drawbacks with them! The production time is a bit less than a socketed one, but the greatest advantage with them is if you want to make a lightweight arrowhead! To avoid splitting of the shaft it is a good idea to bind the tip with cord and glue!