[Daniel Parry]

I was thinking the other day seeing a bunch of European medieval bodkin arrowheads a friend had and comparing to the few medieval crossbow and longbow arrowheads I have and have seen in books and museums, there seems to be a mix of socket and tang heads. Is this right or a reason for it ?

There seems to be a logical advantage in sockets for spears because of strength. I wondered whether the same was relevant to arrowheads as they are one-shot weapons in that even if recovered they only have to stay straight on their shaft to deliver the penetration Or is there a difference in performance between socket and tang ?

Struck me that socket should be easier to fit as you don't have to make a hole in the shaft, and also to refit to new arrows in the field if recovered. Also struck me they may be harder to make ? And they would presumably be heavier (I was perhaps not surprised but struck by the difference, the first time I had a go at shooting a longbow with a wooden arrow with an iron broadhead, by the difference in feel and trajectory compared to modern target arrows ).

Interested as like archery and related historical topics but seemed there would be a clearer divide between socket and tang. Unless of course there is and what I have seen is not representative.

D

[Tyler C.]

Hi Daniel,

You've somehow landed on another one of my areas of interest .

I'm no expert, but I do have some thoughts and things to share on your comments. More points to add rather than answers though.

[Tyler C.]

Just noticed when I posted that the Qing arrows almost look socketed. To clarify, here is what the points look like when they are not mounted.

[Dan D'Silva]

Don't forget in many parts of the world you could make arrow shafts out of heavy grass stalks like bamboo or reeds, so a tanged arrowhead is not necessarily difficult to mount.

IIRC, though, some Scythians actually used reed shafts and socketed heads. They added wooden inserts between them, sort of like modular tangs.

[Pieter B.]

I might be mistaken but I often get the impression period war arrows weren't necessarily meant to rapidly cause death by bleeding out but rather aimed to wound and impede enemies by sticking in them and being hard to remove.

A socketed arrow and an arrow with a tang actually seem to require different medical tools to extract them successfully. Paul of Aegina briefly mentions this.

[Tyler C.]