Consistency and Accuracy- the archer’s driving force
Evidence suggests that human beings have been using arrows for 64,000 years.
In that time, archers have adapted to their circumstances, developed their bows and shooting styles to the job they had to do as archers. Over the centuries, the variations in style and equipment have been considerable and many of the bows, shooting styles and their contexts have been documented in detail. The characteristics of the arrows they used are less well documented. Much knowledge has been lost. The goal of archers throughout the ages has been to achieve consistency and accuracy in shooting. This has been the driving force for practice and repetition regardless of style or purpose.
Shooting arrows is a dynamic exercise. During the process, there are few static moments and, therefore, the scope for inconsistency and inaccuracy is vast. One of the major obstacles to achieving consistency and accuracy is the use of a set of arrows that do not complement the attributes of the archer and his bow.
In recognition of this, John promotes the use of, and makes every effort to manufacture, arrows which do complement his customers’ physical abilities and chosen archery equipment.
Identity through decoration
Throughout the ages, archers have decorated their arrows to distinguish them from those of others and to indicate their allegiance to their tribe, family or leaders. For example, the Native American people used arrow decoration for hundreds of years to proclaim their tribal identity. Individuals decorated their arrows to mark their prowess as hunters or warriors. Through his or her choice of arrow decoration, crowning, cresting, and fletching, today’s archers can express their personalities, their prowess as archers or acknowledge their allegiance to their “tribe”- their archery club.
The inescapable truth
So, the decoration and colours chosen for an arrow can be an identity or “trademark” of an individual archer or group of archers. However, all that decoration is for nothing if the arrows are not matched to, and designed for, a specific bow in the hands of a particular archer. Mismatched arrows will always hamper an archer’s ability to achieve consistency and accuracy.
When designing arrows, John considers the archer’s bow type, its strike plate position, its draw weight, its designed draw length and the archer’s actual draw length. From these values, John can calculate what is the ideal dynamic spine value required of the arrows. The arrows can then be made to have closely matching dynamic spine values.
John’s arrows have wooden shafts. By its nature, wood displays wide variations in texture, density and the ability to flex and recover. Initially, the static spine value of each shaft is measured. That value is later fed into the matching process and dynamic spine calculations.
To produce a set of wooden arrows with the same or closely similar flight characteristics for each bow and archer pairing is his aim.
Your Choice
Currently, John offers for sale wooden arrows in a limited range of colour combinations. Any of those can be custom-made to complement an archer’s bow and his draw length.
However, if none of the colour combinations appeal to you or, perhaps, you would like them to reflect the colours of your Company or your Archery Club, please contact John to discuss alternative designs.