07-28-2014, 06:28 AM
There are no gaps in Roman mail large enough to admit anything larger than a needle without busting the links. In order to bust a link you need more than one hand - estocs were used in two hands. Rondels were specifically designed to enable the second hand to be employed on a stiletto. The idea was to knock down the fighter and fall on him with your weight behind the rondel. You can't get through the mail while he is standing.
A good case can be made that the bodkin was used on flight arrows while the compact broadhead was the armour-piercer. Consider the following:
1. Middle Eastern flight arrows have heads shaped like bodkins only they are very small and light.
2. Take two arrows of the same weight - one with a military broadhead and one with a military bodkin - and shoot them from the same bow. The bodkin consistently outranges the broadhead.
3. In order to have even a small chance of punching through metal armour, an arrow needs to be heavy, its head made of hardened steel, and it has to be shot at close range with a heavy bow.
4. Smythe recommends a fourth of each sheaf of longbow arrows to be flight arrows to "gall the enemy at range".
5. On the Mary Rose the ratio of compact broadheads to bodkins is about 4 to 1.
6. There are a couple of online tests that reckon that compact broadheads punch through armour just as well as a bodkin.
7. The only arrowheads so far analysed that were made of hardened steel are compact broadheads. Every bodkin has turned out to be unhardened wrought iron.
Conclusion: The bodkin was the flight arrow described by Smythe and the compact broadhead was the armour piercer. The former was a compromise between a true flight arrow that is useless in battle and a heavier arrow that can still do some damage at range.
A good case can be made that the bodkin was used on flight arrows while the compact broadhead was the armour-piercer. Consider the following:
1. Middle Eastern flight arrows have heads shaped like bodkins only they are very small and light.
2. Take two arrows of the same weight - one with a military broadhead and one with a military bodkin - and shoot them from the same bow. The bodkin consistently outranges the broadhead.
3. In order to have even a small chance of punching through metal armour, an arrow needs to be heavy, its head made of hardened steel, and it has to be shot at close range with a heavy bow.
4. Smythe recommends a fourth of each sheaf of longbow arrows to be flight arrows to "gall the enemy at range".
5. On the Mary Rose the ratio of compact broadheads to bodkins is about 4 to 1.
6. There are a couple of online tests that reckon that compact broadheads punch through armour just as well as a bodkin.
7. The only arrowheads so far analysed that were made of hardened steel are compact broadheads. Every bodkin has turned out to be unhardened wrought iron.
Conclusion: The bodkin was the flight arrow described by Smythe and the compact broadhead was the armour piercer. The former was a compromise between a true flight arrow that is useless in battle and a heavier arrow that can still do some damage at range.
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
