Bodkin point

A bodkin point is a type of arrowhead. In its simplest form it is an uncomplicated squared metal spike, and was used extensively during the Middle Ages. The name comes from the Old English word "bodkin" or "bodekin", a type of sharp, pointed dagger. Bodkin arrows complemented traditional broadhead arrows, which continued to be used, as the sharp, wide cutting surface of the broadhead caused more serious wounds and tissue damage than the bodkin arrowhead. The typical bodkin was a square-section arrowhead, generally up to 4 1/2" long and 3/8" thick at its widest point, tapered down behind this initial "punch" shape. They were as long as a man's middle finger.

The bodkin point is an uncomplicated design, probably with much in common with the era's pike heads, and the origins of both are lost in history, possibly extending back to the Roman Pilum and javelins of Antiquity. It has been mistakenly suggested that the bodkin came into its own as a means of penetrating armour, but research [ [http://www.royalarmouries.org/what-we-do/research/analytical-projects/armour-piercing-arrowheads Royal Armouries: 6. Armour-piercing arrowheads ] ] has found no hardened bodkin points, so it is likely that it was first designed either to extend range or as a cheaper and simpler alternative to the broadhead. Broadheads were made from steel, sometimes with hardened edges.

In a modern test, a direct hit from a steel bodkin point penetrated Damascus chain armour. [Hunting with the Bow and Arrow, by Saxton Pope.http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/8hbow10.txt "To test a steel bodkin pointed arrow such as was used at the battle of Cressy, I borrowed a shirt of chain armor from the Museum, a beautiful specimen made in Damascus in the 15th Century. It weighed twenty-five pounds and was in perfect condition. One of the attendants in the Museum offered to put it on and allow me to shoot at him. Fortunately, I declined his proffered services and put it on a wooden box, padded with burlap to represent clothing.

Indoors at a distance of seven yards, I discharged an arrow at it with such force that sparks flew from the links of steel as from a forge. The bodkin point and shaft went through the thickest portion of the back, penetrated an inch of wood and bulged out the opposite side of the armor shirt. The attendant turned a pale green. An arrow of this type can be shot about two hundred yards, and would be deadly up to the full limit of its flight."] Armour of the Medieval eras was not proof against arrows until the specialized armour of the Italian city state mercenary companies. ["Medieval Military Surgery", Medieval History Magazine, Vol 1 issue 4, December 2003] Archery was not effective against plate armour in the Battle of Neville's Cross (1346), the siege of Bergerac (1345), and the Battle of Poitiers (1356); such armour became available to European knights of fairly modest means by the late 1300s, though never to all soldiers in any army. [Strickland M, Hardy R. The Great Warbow. Sutton Publishing 2005. Pages 272-278: "even at a range of 240 yards heavy war arrows shot from of poundages in the mid- to upper range possessed by the Mary Rose bows would have been capable of killing or severely wounding men equipped with armour of wrought iron. Higher-quality armour of steel would have given considerably greater protection, which accords well with the experience of Oxford's men against the elite French vanguard at Poitiers in 1356, and des Ursin's statement that the French knights of the first ranks at Agincourt, which included some of the most important (and thus best-equipped) nobles, remained comparatively unhurt by the English arrows."]

The bodkin point eventually fell out of use during the 16th and 17th centuriesFact|date=June 2007. Firearms were beginning to dominate the battlefield and would make infantry armour largely obsolete in the coming centuries, though it was still used to a limited extent as late as the First World War.

References

External links

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* [http://www.hectorcoleironwork.com/Arrowheads.html Arrowsmith catalog showing several bodkin points] .
* [http://www.maryrose.org/ship/bows2.htm Mary Rose historical ship] .
* [http://www.royalarmouries.org/extsite/view.jsp?sectionId=3006 Royal Armouries arrow research] .