Turkish Arrow Splices

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 8:27 am

In response to a question in another thread, I have photographed some of my Turkish arrows to show the type of repair that was used on them.

The first arrow has a single splice. The tip is missing and the splice is now crooked. The arrow is well over a hundred years old so the bend could be from glue creep caused by bad storage. The two pieces of wood were not matched for grain. There is abrasion near the where the tip would have been suggesting the arrow had been shot repeatedly.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 8:30 am

In the second arrow, you can see the beginning of the splice near the top of the picture. Some of the splices started almost one third the length of the shaft from the point.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 8:38 am

This picture shows clearly that the grain direction was not important at the time. Some of these arrows had tip diameters as low as 3.25 mm.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 8:41 am

As I mentioned in the other thread, multiple spliced arrows were common. This one has two clear splices.

JJ · Post by JJ » Wed Jul 07, 2010 9:51 am

Great! I would have doubted that this could really hold it together when shooting, but this proves it was made and was successful. I?ll try that on an arrow that broke yesterday

JJ

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 1:08 pm

Here is one I made when I broke a tapered arrow. The arrow head was only 6.3 mm (1/4 inch) and the middle of the shaft was 8.73 mm (11/32nds). The taper is lined up so that if it failed, the sharp end would have gone up away from the archer's hand.

jack farrell · Post by **jack farrell** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 2:23 pm

I would consider this THE MOST DANGEROUS thing one could do as an archer. Wish all could meet the guy I met who had to have an arrow splinter 5 inches long surgically removed from his index finger.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 2:48 pm

Jack,
I was surprised too when I found this worked. I have had arrows with hairline cracks break up on shooting. I advise all archers to check the integrity of the arrow before shooting. One of the essentials of repair splicing is to remove all damaged wood. The glue is technically stronger than the wood, but if there is damaged wood still present in the arrow shaft, the arrow will break there.

I do not suggest that people without experience use this technique. This was a technique for flight shooting arrows. The flight shooters were already at the edge of arrow performance. Some of the old repaired arrows I have I would not have been able to shoot when they were whole, but the old masters could. With a siper, you have some protection from the tabla if the arrow breaks.

When I made my repair, I made sure that the splice went up from the bottom of the shaft, when nocked, to the top to maintain the stiffness of the shaft. If the shaft had broken, the sharp end of the splice would be travelling up and away from the hand. I also tested the shaft by drawing it to the base of the splice and shooting it into a hard target to test its integrity.

Orda Khan · Post by **Orda Khan** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 5:10 pm

I agree with Jack, a broken arrow is fire wood.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 7:49 am

I agree with Jack that you should be careful, but what you seem to be missing is that this was really done and is a legitimate part of Turkish archery practice.

The Turks made flight arrows that were very expensive and had particular qualities. The wood was carefully selected and the arrow was crafted to take account of the special qualities of that piece of wood. When an arrow broke near the tip, it was considered worthwhile to repair. These were valuable pieces of sporting equipment being used by master archers. The repaired arrow would never be as good as the original (Kani wrote), but it could still be a very superior shaft. This is not a practice for beginning fletchers on ordinary arrows.

A different type of splicing was used for making stronger footings for war arrows. It was like the reverse of a Western style splice. The foot was cut with a long tapering wedge and inserted into the arrow shaft which had a matching slot. It was not the simple straight-line splice of English two-footed splices. The shoulders at the top of the shaft slot were rounded and the beginning of the wedge on the foot was rounded with a complimentary curve.

Jos?Dom · Post by **Jos?Dom** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 10:31 pm

I think like Jack, these are for experts only. I'd feel uneasy shooting one of these repaired arrows.

Samuraiwarrior · Post by **Samuraiwarrior** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 3:38 am

Bede, do you have photos of the nocks/fletchings of these arrows?

I think that they should be safe to shoot. It's really no different than arrows spliced in the western way. 1, 2 or 4 feet on the splicing probably doesn't make a huge difference in strength if the joint is close fitting and done with proper glue. Obviously I see it also as another place that can fail, just like an other footed shaft or a poorly done foreshaft in a bamboo arrow.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 11:08 am

I have pictures of the nocks. One arrow had parchment fletching that appeared to be re-attached some time during its life. A target arrow from this group had one feather intact. There was also an abrish arrow in the group with intact spiral fletching.

I will post the pictures soon.

Daniel · Post by **Daniel** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 8:44 am

I have some experience shooting a single spliced arrows and I can honestly say that those are as good as 2 and 4 point footed arrows.
The Ones I had were assembled from pine and purpleheart using simple jig like the one on the picture.
Obviously you don't want any type of joint near center of the shaft.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:16 am

The Turks used a knife with a blade in line with one side of the handle. A Japanese single bevel making knife works. If you tie the two pieces parallel to each other, it is easier to make matching bevels at the same time. This was a trick that Dr Grayson showed me. He could make perfect matching bevels in a couple of minutes on a belt sander. It is only slightly harder with tapered arrows.