[QUOTE=Jim McDougall]
Concerning the leather fletches, I found the following:
"...bolts differed from arrows in that they were fletched with leather, or in rare cases copper strips instead of feathers. Since these materials lacked the natural curvature of feathers, they were usually attached in a slight spiral around the bolt shaft to provide the spin necessary for accuracy and improved flight".
"Daily Life in the Middle Ages"
Paul B. Newman, 2001 p.232-33
It notes further more rigid heads, thicker shorter shafts and highly durable fletching to withstand tremendous force of launch and impact.
Hi Jim,
Highly interesting quotation, thank you so much, and also very lively discussion going on here - just great, folks!
On almost all Late Gothic crossbow quarrels that I have inspected (and they numbered in hundreds) the mostly wooden fletches/flights were inset with a slight torsion/curve to achieve a more accurate ballistic spin as they went.
The famous Nuremberg Löffelholz Scrapbook started by Martin Loffelhölz in 1505 illustrates two mechanical devices to cut curved slits in the hafts of crossbow quarrels.
Here they are.
Michael
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