Organic Farm Author: Farmer is flying

Chapter 192: Making a Bow and Arrow (Part II)

The last key ingredient is the arrow feather. The "carved feather arrow" mentioned in the certificate refers to the arrow that uses the carved feather as the arrow feather. Tagawa did not prepare such a tall material, and there were also three kinds of materials he prepared, namely rooster feathers, goose feathers and polypropylene films. Both the rooster and goose feathers come from his own farm, and the polypropylene membrane is from Professor Lu of the University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

The purpose of the arrow feather is twofold. On the one hand, it is to maintain the stability of the arrow in flight. When the arrow flies normally, it is consistent with the flight direction, and the resistance itself is not large, and it can also play a diversion role to avoid turbulence at the tail of the arrow, so as to reduce the overall flight resistance of the arrow, which is conducive to maintaining the speed of the arrow, increasing the range and accuracy.

On the other hand, if the arrow is deflected in flight, it will be sideways windward, increasing the tail resistance of the arrow and keeping the head of the arrow forward.

The difficulty of making arrows is not too big, but it is not too small.

Tagawa first chose the shaft of the arrow. He selected 10 shafts from each of the three materials, selected the same thickness and length, and did not have any defects such as cracks or bending, and weighed them one by one in order to control the total weight of the final finished arrow.

The next step is to load the arrow cluster. The arrow cluster he made is an external type, that is, the tail of the arrow cluster is relatively thick, and there is a hole in the middle, and the head of the arrow shaft repaired to the appropriate diameter is inserted into the hole at the tail of the arrow cluster, that is, the installation is completed.

Of the ten arrows of each type, five, three, and two arrows were made using male triangular arrows, conical arrows, and diamond-shaped arrow clusters, respectively. It is used to compare and test the advantages and disadvantages of several arrow clusters.

The diameters of the shafts of the three materials are different, and in order to fit the holes in the clusters, he carefully sharpened the tips of the thicker birch and bamboo shafts before fitting them into the holes at the tail of the clusters. The diameter of the carbon fiber arrow shaft is exactly the same as the tail hole of the arrow cluster, which is designed in advance, and can be loaded with a slight trim with sandpaper.

After the shaft and cluster of arrows were matched one by one, Tagawa used epoxy resin to glue the two together, and after waiting for an hour, they were inseparable. He trimmed the joints with a knife and sandpaper, checked again how firmly and properly the arrow clusters were installed, and made a triumphant gesture to himself with satisfaction.

Then open the slot of the bowstring at the end of the shaft. He estimated that the diameter of the bowstring was about 5 mm, so the width of this groove was slightly smaller than the diameter of the bowstring, which was 4.5 mm, and the groove was cut with a saw, and the depth was controlled at 1 centimeter.

When cutting this groove, Tagawa used a special fixing tool to ensure that the groove would not deflect and the shaft would not crack.

The next step is to install the arrow feathers. The number of the three feathers also varies, with the number of rooster feathers, goose feathers and polypropylene membrane arrow feathers being three, three and four respectively. It is also used to compare and test the advantages and disadvantages of different materials.

The installation method of arrow feathers is relatively simple. First of all, the feathers are processed, the feathers are drawn into a consistent shape with a pre-made mold frame, and then cut with scissors, and each arrow is loaded with three tail feathers, a total of 30 arrows, a total of more than 90 pieces, and it took Tagawa a lot of effort.

Tagawa drew a circle of markers 3 cm from the tail of the shaft as a baseline for the installation of the feathers. The arrows are then fixed on a specially made rack and the three feathers are glued to the shaft of the arrow. After sticking, then use a fine silk thread to wrap 6 mm on the fixed section reserved at the front end of the arrow feather, and wrap 30 mm at the back end of the arrow feather until a little before the slotting, which can ensure that the arrow feather is not easy to fall off, on the other hand, the more important role is to increase the strength of the tail of the arrow shaft, to prevent the arrow shaft from being unable to withstand the huge thrust of the bowstring and break when shooting.

After installing the arrow feathers, Tagawa applied tung oil to the surface of the bamboo and wooden arrow shafts to prevent moisture absorption and deformation. And use 502 glue to saturate the groove at the tail of the arrow shaft, as well as the winding silk thread, to increase the strength. He carefully controlled 502 to keep it from sticking to the feathers, which would become stiff and hurt the hand holding the bow when shot.

Tagawa didn't make any further attachments such as quivers, which would not affect the trial of bows and arrows, and could be done later.

The last thing to do is the bowstring. This is a very troublesome thing, and it is the most troublesome part of Tagawa. The bowstring is an important part of the bow and arrow, and the most basic requirement is to have excellent rigidity and wear resistance. The thrust of the bow is generated by the bow body, while the bowstring should not be elastic/sexual, and under the action of a strong bow force, there should be no obvious telescopic deformation. If it is the appearance of multiple strands of thin wire being rolled or twisted into a rope, it will be extended when it is subjected to tensile force, which is unacceptable. Moreover, in the use of this twisted bowstring, the stress of each thin wire that composes the bowstring is not uniform, and it is easy to break a certain one with a large force first, and then cause the whole bowstring to break, and the service life is very short.

The material he prepared to use to make the bowstring was the paracord core. He chose a 16-core paracord core, a single core about the same thickness as a shoemaker's thread. Paracord is a very rigid rope with very low elongation when tensioned, which can meet the rigidity requirements of the bowstring. And the paracord is a very strong rope, a paracord as thick as a keyboard line, which can withstand more than 100 kilograms of force, and its strength is amazing.

Tagawa measured the bow he had just made, obtained the exact length of the bowstring he needed, calculated the strength of the bowstring he needed, and determined that he needed to use a 32-strand paracord core to make the bowstring.

Tagawa pulled/out the core of a 60-meter-long paracord, separated the 16 strands, and took out one for later use.

He took out a one-and-a-half-meter-long wooden plank that he had prepared, about thirty centimeters wide. I placed the wooden board on the shelf in the middle of the workshop room, drew a 25 cm by 115 cm rectangle on the wooden board, and drew the central axis of the rectangle in both directions. The circumference of this rectangle is twice the length of the future bowstring.

Nail a nail into each of the four vertices of the rectangle, and try to make sure that the nail is the same vertical and high as possible. On the outside of one of the nails, Tagawa drove another one, and the preparation was complete.

Tagawa tied a rope sleeve to one end of a parachute rope core, fixed it on the fifth nail, and then wrapped the core around the nails at the corners of the rectangle to form a rectangle. In this way, it was wrapped up round and round, a total of 16 circles, and finally the tail of the rope was fixed on the fifth nail, and the first step was completed.

Tagawa took out a pair of wear-resistant shoe strings and wrapped them around the paracord core at one end of the rectangle, tying the 16 strands of paracord core together. This is a water grinding work, winding circle by circle, starting with one nail and ending with another nail next to it, and finally knotting and fixing. Once one end is finished, wrap the other end.

After wrapping both ends, Tagawa removed the two ends of the paracord core attached to the fifth nail and connected them in knots. He is very careful when tying the knots, controlling the tightness of the core to be consistent with the core of other loops.

Tagawa drove a nail at one end of the center line of the long axis of the rectangle, and then carefully removed the rope that was attached to the nails at the corners of the rectangle. Due to the previously wound shoe string, the 16-strand paracord core has formed a rope loop, which is not easy to fall apart.

Tagawa hung the middle point of a section of the rope loop with the shoe thread wrapped around it on the sixth nail, straightened the rope loop into a straight line, took out the seventh nail, put it on the other end of the rope loop, and fastened it, and nailed the nail into the wooden board to fix it, forming the rudimentary shape of the bowstring.

He took out another shoe string, began to wrap it from the end of the shoe thread that had just been wound, and wound the 32 strands of umbrella rope cores that had been merged together to form a complete rope, which was wound until the part of the shoe thread that had been wound on the opposite side, and the knot was fixed and completed.

At this point, the noose becomes a two-end noose, with a bowstring of 32 strands of paracord core wrapped around the outside of the paracord core. Tagawa folded the bowstring in half, found the midpoint of the bowstring, and marked a star at the midpoint with a marker, which was used to quickly determine the position of the tail of the arrow when shooting.

He took the bow that had been made, put the noose at one end of the bowstring on the chord groove of the bow arm at one end, bent the bow arm on both sides, hung the noose at the other end on the bow arm at the other end, gently pulled the bow half-open, and then gently put it back to complete the winding.

Hold the well-wound bow in your hand, grasp/hold the bowstring with your right hand, hold the grip on the back of the bow with your left hand, and pull the bow away slowly, feeling that the force is not too great, and it is relatively easy. However, the right hand of the bowstring is a little painful, and if you release the bowstring and release the arrow, the damage to the fingers may be greater, so it is definitely not possible to shoot arrows, and it seems that you have to make a wrench.

Gently release the bowstring, return the bow to a relaxed state, and consider what to use as a wrench. In the absence of the arrow to bear the force of the bowstring release, it is not possible to directly let go of the full bowstring, this behavior is called "empty release", is a big taboo to play with the bow, this will make the bow's elastic force in the moment the bowstring straightens the moment completely act on the bowstring, the damage to the bow body and the bowstring is very large, it may cause the string to break or the bow arm breakage, even if it is continuous, it will cause permanent damage.

Common materials for making wrenches are jade, metal, bamboo, wood, etc., as long as they can bear the tension of the bowstring instead of the fingers and are easy to release. The special archery gloves used by players in modern bow and arrow competitions can also be regarded as a more complex wrench. Tagawa plans to make a traditional Chinese ring wrench for use on the thumb, which is more convenient to use and the most durable of all kinds of wrenches.

Tagawa thought that he had some bamboo poles of different thicknesses at home, and he should be able to find the right thickness, which was the easiest to make.

So, he estimated the diameter of his fingers, and estimated that the inner diameter of about 20 mm should be usable. I picked a few of those bamboo poles and found a few of them of similar thickness, sawed off a 3-centimeter-long section from one of them, polished them slightly, and tried them on my fingers, which were a little thin. I found a thicker one and made one, the size was just right, so I carefully sanded it with sandpaper and put it on the thumb of my right hand, which was just right.