The one i would least like to get hit by.
Hi it's Tod of Tod's Workshop and Tod Cutler here and today we're back with
the lockdown longbow which is quite clearly a crossbow i know
i get it. If you don't follow the early films. It shoots these
true weight heavy warbow arrows at the right speed so
it makes no difference for my testing. That's what this is all about. Now today
is another one of those sort of like slightly silly ones in a way but also it
has a real purpose. The noise of an arrow going over your head, or going past you
is a really quite extraordinary buzzy fizzy sound. It's
fabulous. So it's partly an excuse just so that we can hear that,
but there's also a very real thing. Can you tell the difference between one bow
and another, the weight of the bow or the speed of
the arrow, from the noise it makes as it passes you by. Now in a modern
context you don't need it, in a historical
context actually that really could have been quite useful.
So for instance if you're at the back of a baggage train and you get ambushed or
something; you jump behind the wagon that's great.
Arrows are coming over your head. Who's shooting them?
Is it like a brigand with a 60 pound or 70 pound bow?
Is it a fully trained archer with 150 160 pound bow?
Because not only do the arrows make a difference, but the men on the other end
of the bows are going to make a difference to your next couple of
minutes or seconds. So this sort of stuff actually would
have been useful to know. So, let's go find out. And to do these
tests i've got three bows with me today; a 60 pound bow, a 95 pound bow
and uh well it's a crossbow but it is a 160 pound
longbow simulator and of course the arrows to go with them. Now clearly
getting shot by anything is not a good idea
but all that time ago were you to find yourself in that situation and you had
to make your break for freedom maybe it would be useful to know if they
shooting bodkins at you or the barbed type16s.
We've got two bodkins in the middle there, at the top of frame, and m2 which
is also kind of clean if you like, and then we've got the barbed arrowhead
the type 16 at the bottom. The type 16 is the one I'd least like to
get shot by. So can you tell the difference between
any of those? So in a very unscientific way, we're going to go down to the range
we're going to put a microphone out of the range listen to the arrows coming
over the top and see if we can hear any difference
between any of them. It's largely a pointless exercise but the sound is
fabulous. Right we're just going to head off to
the range now but before we do, T-shirts are available from the merch shelf
bracers and historical knives from www.todcutler.com
Let's go. Here we are starting off with our 60 pound
let's see what sound it makes.
Onto our 90 slightly different technique of shooting.
A little bit high that one.
I have got a GoPro camera out there that I'd really quite like to not hit
so I am sort of biasing a little bit on the high side.
And then the last of them so I'm going to call out
the arrow type on these.
So this is a type 7, a needle bodkin. This is one of those slightly funny
films, I can't see what's going on, so there's not really a lot that I can
comment on.
A type 9 short bodkin. So this is a like armor-piercing type, the last one
was really chain maille and fabric armour I think.
This is going about 40 centimeters /15 inches above the microphone and the
GoPro. M2
And then the last of them is the type 16, the one I would least like to get hit by,
but you know I think getting hit by any of them is pretty bad news.
Well there's very little more I can say to that, we're just going to play the
sounds back and we're going to see if we can hear
any difference between them.
Back at base now and I asked the question first of al.l
"Can you hear the difference between different arrows being shot at you?"
Absolutely you can. I mean it's one of the things I love
about this whole series of films, I didn't know I wanted to know that until
I decided to make the film. Now I do know it I'm just pondering why
this is the case and this is just learning all this stuff
around bows that I just didn't know before.
So what I can tell you from my ears, your ears might be different,
I couldn't tell much of a difference between a 60 and a 90 pound longbow,
maybe the arrows go around about the same speed as the type 7.
Needle bodkin type 7 is starting at the top there, then you've got the short
bodkin, then the m2, and then the type 16 with the barbs.
Why do I say that? I say that because I couldn't hear
much of a difference either myself between the type seven
and those ones, but what was absolutely clear to me
was that I could hear between these four, I could hear a tone difference, getting
higher and higher and higher the lighter the shaft went.
And I think that's probably the answer. Is that
the 60 and 90 pound shafts go around about the same speed,
I think they're probably a bit slower but around about the same speed as this
type 7. But all of these are going up in tone and what we're hearing
is a difference in the speed that the arrow is traveling.
So you're there, hunkered down behind your cart, arrows are coming over your
head, can you tell which are the type 7's or
the type 9's or can you hear which is the barbed type 16? You can
hear the difference. I would guess in that scenario you need
to be quite experienced and a pretty sober guy to make your choices
on that, but nonetheless answering that question,
"Yes you can hear the difference between different arrowheads
coming off that bow" , but it's probably not the head shape
but I think it's the mass of the arrow itself and therefore the velocity.
Thank you very much and here's the epilogue to this little film.
The first arrow has come in and John Carter has jumped for cover,
there's 20 archers out there, six arrows a piece. So put your computer to stereo if
you've got it, turn the volume, up close your eyes and
listen to what it could have sounded like.
Thank you.