04-28-2007, 03:56 PM
Quote:Vortigern Studies:199ia7kk Wrote:Well yes and no... and no. 8) All projectiles with a metal head and aambrosius:199ia7kk Wrote:Actually, the reason yours and Len Morgan's plumatae-heads eventuallyYes and no. You're right about tanged shafts, but that's not the whole story. Plumbatae (and pila) mostly land at an angle, and their relative high weight puts much more force on the joint between iron and wood.
broke from the shaft is that they were tanged. The socketed-head actually tends to compress the wood of the shaft, rather than split it.
wooden shaft will be front-heavy, and so land at an angle unless being
shot/thrown at extreme point-blank range. That goes for arrows and
pila as well as plumbatae.
Not all projectiles with a metal head are therefore point heavy - some arrows are not, most javelins that I held were not, and most stabbing spears certainly are not (before you correct me that these aren't projectiles - yes, they are described as being thrown regularly).
The difference between arrows and spears (hastae) on the one hand, and pila and plumbatae on the other, is that they are weighted. This weight gives them different qualities, and much more force is put on the joints betwen head and shaft.
Quote:It doesn't really matter what angle they landAnd this is exactly what happens with a plumbata - when the head hits the target (or the ground), the weight plus shaft will 'overtake' the head, thereby forcing it to bend or break. A well-poored weight should protect the shafted as well as the tanged joint from that force.
at, though, as long as the force of impact is straight through the head
and into the shaft.
I would very much like to test if tanged shaft break sooner than socketed shafts.
So far however, I assume the reason from far more plumbatae showing tanged joints is that these are much easier the manufacture. From what we know of these weapons today, they were 'fast & dirty' weapons, easy to make and unlikely to be repaired if retrieved at all.
Quote:Another point is that a plumbata is only being thrown, rather than shotSure, but a plumbata is so much heavier than an arrow that the extra weight surely makes up for being slower.
from a bow. So a plumbata is travelling a lot slower over the same
distance than an arrow. And it's speed which largely governs the amount
of kinetic energy a projectile has, rather than weight. So, even with a
lead weight, a socketed plumbata-head ought to be just as long-lasting as a socketed arrow-head (when shot at the same targets).
Robert Vermaat
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FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
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MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)