Does WAX on ARROW HEADS Do Anything? 

"I might be a geek..." You're saying that to people who are watching a video on waxing medieval arrowheads. You're among friends.

"Don't tell me it's wrong, go look in a museum." What a fantastic line

As has been pointed out - my percentages are wrong (maths not being my thing apparently) and in fact it is around 80%. And while we are at it, Teflon arrantly is to protect the barrel and I have fallen for TV junk information - sorry and damn I hate falling for this sort of guff and is exactly what I try to avoid with my films.

Hi Tod, love your work ! I've got a tip about waxing metal : I'm a locksmith for historical monuments and I wax my locks almost all the time, because it protects it from rust and acts as a "dry lubricant" (grease eventutally catches the dirt and jams the mecanism). Plus it respects the texture and color of forged steel. I use a mix of different waxes, cause bee wax is a bit too soft when cold, and I apply it on hot metal (about 80°C), so it stays liquid on it and I can swipe the excess off. I know for sure this trick was used during the 18th century, not sure about the 15th, but it could be useful for arrowheads. I garantee even though there's just a thin layer, the surface is made much smoother and it does lubricate well, for my locks it's night and day. So yeah, there might be better to do than just dip arrowheads in liquid wax. Cheers from France, keep up the good work !

As the heads are made of iron, maybe waxing arrowheads started out as a way to prevent rust. As you said they were medieval, and therefore limited by the technology of the time.

When he said "Same brain", he reminded me of something my engineering teacher said a lot. "They weren't stupid. They weren't simple. They were only less advanced". And I think that a lot of people forget that.

Week two of quarantine, everyone's just laying around waxing their bodkins.

7:58 Wait, he is saying this is an increase of 55% but : - 26mm -> 45mm is an increase of 73% - 25mm -> 47mm is an increase of 88% - 18mm -> 45mm is an increase of 150% Please tell me if I just misunderstood what he is saying.

I recall reading in a college text for medieval history that beef tallow was often used for candle-making, more often than bees' wax. It was a good deal later that I saw how this was done at a medieval fair. The part that had not been explained in the text was that the tallow is boiled until it loses nearly all its water content and is (at room temperature) as hard as bees' wax. I cannot help but think that the iron and low steel of the medieval era was very prone to rusting, so perhaps it was a general practice to dip all metal arrowheads in heated tallow to proof them against rust?

This was really surprising. I was expecting something statistically insignificant like an extra one or two mm, not nearly double. Also it's easy to imagine the circumstances where someone used a bit of wax to stop their bolts heads rusting, so I could definitely see this having happened.

"i might be a geek..." Don't worry. we are too!

As you pointed out I’m sure they’d have tried all sorts of innovations. It’s what humans do best.

wow, that's a huge improvement. And as a bonus you get rust protection if you dip the whole head :D

Well. I've tested waxing arrowheads myself today. While testing my bow, I tried using a tanned red deer's neck put on a chainlink fence as a targed, just to test out penetration while the target had a good amount of give. (Too much I later found, but it is consistent) I found it surprisingly resistant, out of all my arrows only the bodkin seemed to penetrate it consistently, and not that much. Tod of Tod's stuff released a video yesterday on wax on crossbow quarrels, so I decided to try it out myself, and my findings have been almost exactly the same. I shot 15 times into the neck, which is from 6ish to 18mm thick. 7 (1into the thickest part) when dry, 8 (3into thickest part) when waxed - just rubbed a ball of beeswax on the arrowhead every shot Dry amounted to average of 32,5mm without counting the thickest part shot, 31mm when counting that as well. Waxed did 91,5mm not counting the thickest part shots, and 72,5mm with them. It should be noted that the thickest part of the bodkin itself is about 43mm from the very tip, followed by a thin neck and a socked which again tapers out. The dry's deepest was 65mm deep, the waxed 114mm, twice. Which was almost at the very end of the socket, wider than the bodkin itself again. Wax yer arrers, ladz.

Would a waxy/oily coating also be valuable for preservation. After all, many arrows/bolts would lie in storage for years, wouldn't they?

Awesome video 🍻 I am pretty sure they did it. I wax my woodworking planes and other tools to make them go smoother and with less effort and It prevents rust. I love the line: "same brain different technology"

-Random bloke: "Tod why is your right arm so muscular?" -Tod : "I shoot crossbows"

-"I might be a geek". No Tod, you *are* a geek, and that's a badge of honour where I'm from!

The reduction of friction is very import for this kind of point since they don't cut the fabric and have to forcefully move it out of the way...

8:23 Loved this and all your experiments! I just watched the previous head-type experiment with the wife last night. A geeky but important point of clarification: Teflon is NOT put on bullets to help them penetrate either fabric or plate armor, it is put on them to reduce damage to barrel rifling. The myth of increased penetration is a persistent lie widely spread by the sensationalism of news media and Hollywood in the 90s, and is complete bunk. Armor-piercing bullets are made of harder metals than standard bullets and thus wear out the rifling in gun barrels faster than normal bullets, so to reduce damage to the rifling armor-piercing bullets are coated in Teflon to lubricate their exit from the barrel. However, that Teflon is shredded in the process of traversing the barrel and does not measurably effect the penetration depth of the bullet when it hits the target.

Every time Tod puts out a new video: Me " YES YES YES! What awesome interesting fact about the past is about to be uncovered?" Also putting wax on the head of arrows seems perfectly reasonable because if an army had thousands of arrows made and they were being stored in a damp basement somewhere you would want to keep them from getting to rusty. I suppose the other alternative would be oil but that might have to be reapplied over time and oil soaking into the shaft of the arrows might cause the heads to loosen up. Wax on the other hand is a much more rugged coating and would probably only need to be applied to the tips once.

"When in doubt - More lubrication!" - Jamie Hyneman, Mythbusters

Goat's foot lever is squeaky. Would waxing it make spanning faster?

1:00 "Don't tell me it's wrong - go look in a museum." Something that needs to be said to the vast majority of keyboard warriors. Bravo. :-)

that was really eye opening! by the way: i think waxing also protects the bolt from corrosion. so that may be another argument that people back then did this. Because when you want to re-use the bolt i think you just want to be able to pick it up and not polish it and the other arrows/bolts you shot for a whole day and poke your finger several times. great video! greetings from germany ;)

Something I like about you is that you don't over-sell things. You keep expectations low/realistic. I'm glad that you got a gratifying and clear result this time.

Maybe the wax was used to prevent the metal from rusting. And it just had an unforeseen benefit?

*TOD* The Builder *CAN HE BUILD IT?* *TOD* The Builder *YES HE CAN!*

The only reference I can find to this is a reference to a letter by "Count M. Mildmay Stayner, Recorder, The British Longbow Society. Letter, 8th April, 1976," mentioned in margo.student.utwente.nl/sagi/artikel/longbow/longbow2.html and other places on the web. "Stayner notes that the 6 inch socketed heads were often waxed to aid penetration." This referred to bodkin pointed arrowheads. It's quoted by many, but where did Count Stayner get this information?

Huh, I never would have expected that. Then again, I never expected a 15th century dagger to have “eat cheese or die” written on it.... anyways, great video!

Just rewatched the Agincourt video this morning. Was wondering if there would ever be a bees wax video - expecting it would be a wish and nothing more. Thank you so much for doing this. Love your work mate.

"Lubricate the entry - maybe it goes deeper" Matt Easton and Skall would be proud. Edit: "You can feel from the resistance, that it is the right depth." 🤣

does this mean i also have to build a beehives in Stronghold 2 to make my crossbowmen more effective?

The geek in me says "Ooh, that's really cool, I'd never have thought of that!". The ex-soldier in me says "Almost two inches still isn't a guaranteed instantly fatal or even debilitating wound, but four or five of them will put anyone out of action. A bucket of melted wax is a hell of a lot cheaper investment of time and effort than razor-sharpening every bolt and gives a better return- it's worth doing".

I've been thinking a lot about the first vidoe you did, and I think the reason the needle didn't do as well as the broad bodkin might be because, whilst the broad bodkin can cut through, the needle has a much smaller cutting edge (just the tip really) and so, once it has made the small cut, it needs to force the fabric out of its way, and the fabric is simply too dense for it to be able to manage. Fantastic follow up though, lots of food for thought.

Very impressed with your presentation. You speak well, get to the point, don't waffle, don't add distracting music. Clear and fascinating demonstration. Thank you, Tod.

I can get behind a mini-series in Tod's Workshop called, "Does ________ on arrow heads do anything?" -Vaseline? -Chocolate? -French onion dip? -Ranch? -Used full synthetic motor oil?

GREAT video! Thank you for not prattling on with a bunch of nonsense. you put the idea out there, did your trials and showed the results! Perfect. So many of these videos go on for 30 minutes about nothing.

Now that you have discovered lubrication, perhaps put some on your loading leaver thing. It should make it much easier since it was making galling noises.

Someone tell Matt Easton, he'll be interested to know about the difference in penetration!!!

Really amazing to have an idea, and just trying it to see if it works. That's what experimental archeology is all about and it's fascinating

Alright, you got me. I've watched a few of your videos over the years, but your work with Joerg got me back over here again. Let's just dig through the archive now.

"SHAD, SHAAAAAD. You need to see this!"

This channel is a fantastic resource and great entertainment. I don’t say that as someone that came here because of an interest in medieval arms, but as a random RU-vidr that found this channel and because of it is developing an interest in medieval arms.

It's seems to be like waxing a needle when sewing leather, they probably did that as well.

This was very interesting. I'd never thought of waxing arrowheads before, but it makes a lot of sense. Except we put teflon coatings on bullets because it reduces barrel wear. It has more or less nothing to do with penetration, especially since all of the teflon coated rounds I've encountered seemed to be hollowpoints.

"Being the boss" sounds much less appealing in a medieval setting.

That was fantastic. I wouldn't have expected such a clear improvement.

ohhh, been waiting on this since mythbusting

This is awesome. Geekishly faszinating! Thank you! Now I will have to try it out with my bow (recurve, 50lbs, 32'' draw... and using short botkins and broadheads). You got me hooked!

Hey I worked a lot with those insulation foams and in my experience they have a hard time getting pierced or even cut (I lubricate my knife before cutting it or just use a saw), which could also affect your results of both this and the previous test. Do you think you could try and shoot the same bolt on different "stopper" materials see how it affects? I honestly believe the bolts could go deeper without the resistance of the foam

You could see in your eyes that you wanted to put on a huge grin at the end there! As would I have! Top shelf stuff, Todd!

I have heard some would mix beeswax and verdigis to fix the arrowheads to the shaft. The theory was that the head could not be pulled out because the beeswax would break and the verdigris acted as an insecticide for storage and additionally as a poison. Is there any truth to this?

Tod, your channel, and others like it, are so far removed from my daily life but so pleasurable to watch that it can be such a great relief. You are a delight to listen to with all your projects and conundrums to uncover. Thank you for everything you are doing here on RU-vid. Your videos can truly be like a stein of ice cold water in a scorching desert.

"This is my crossbow. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My crossbow is my best friend, it is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my crossbow is useless, without my crossbow I am useless..." - *Full Beeswax Jacket*

It's not often you can watch a vid with a question in the title and actually expect to get it answered. Thanks for that. Great work.

I also find that my depth penetration is not really there when going in dry.

Excellent video. Just a small note about teflon bullets from a retired law enforcement officer and former range officer for my dept. Teflon was used to coat bullets at the request of police agencies in the US because military armor piercing rounds did more damage to police gun barrels. It was the hard steel and sharp point (much like a bodkin) of the military rounds that made the bullet armor piercing, The teflon was added to help protect the barrels of police issue revolvers from damage, when compared to firing a military armor piercing round of uncoated hard steel. These armor piercing rounds were first designed by police officers in the 1960s to pierce car wind shields and doors , to aid police officers when a felon tried to crash a road block.

Would this waxing technique extend to spearheads and other piercing weapons? Also; how long does the wax last? Is it only good for the first shot or would it have a small amount of residual efficacy for additional shots?

THIS is the stuff everyone hoped the internet would do. Help spread information, make experiements people do in their back yard available to a large community that can use that data for followup studies. Sometimes as an IT guy I feel we live more in the age of missinformation and nonsense, where it gets harder and harder to differentiate the bullshit from actual truth. The community around you, Skallagrim, Jörg Sprave, Modern History TV, Shadiversity, and a ton of other channels I cannot list right now but which we all know, are always giving me back hope that the internet is actually something positive still ;-) Great job.

This is also a trick woodworkers use when dealing with old seasoned woods. It lubricates and helps prevent cracking on the way in, then cools and acts as a low-grade adhesive.

I recently watched the video of You and Dr. Capwell discussing Agincourt. In that discussion, the topic of wax on arrow or bolt heads came up. So, I was thrilled to see this new video. I had thought the wax might have an effect since I was aware of the use of Teflon on bullets intended to defeat Kevlar, the modern equivalent of fabric armour. Criminals call teflon bullets "cop killers". You will do time if caught with them. Thanks much for this demonstration of the effect.

2:54 Tod : "...wax lubricates the entry. Maybe it goes deeper, maybe not..." I'm going to try this myself

These arrow videos are so fascinating. I was thrilled to see another one pop up today. I must wonder, given the results of the last one, if you're going to try waxing flesh arrows? I expect it wouldn't give nearly the improvement it does to the bodkins, but it still might do something.

Coating arrows in a thin layer of beeswax is also a great way to prevent a stockpile from rusting during long term storage. Even if they didn't know that it would improve penetration it is very likely that at least some people used wax.

Of all the testing that you see with ambiguous results, this was truly insightful. I could imagine an old soldier, clump of beeswax, prepping up their arrow/bolt heads by the fire. Tod, it would be easy to conduct a similar test with alternative substances like perhaps tallow, flax seed oil, etc etc that could imaginably be used as alternatives to wax.

This has been the most fascinating observation about crossbow bolts as far as I have seen.

Wow that was really impressive, one that crossbow points are different and two that was made that big of a difference, thanks for sharing

I'm a member of an NFAS field archery club, we bought some 2D targets from a guy in Australia that were crafted in Vietnam. They proved extremely tough and people struggle to remove arrows, compound bows and crossbows in particular but wooden arrows with screw on piles too. People started using arrow lube from Merlin archery etc and it did improve arrow removal and penetration so not too surprising to me :)

Absolutely Brilliant! Keep them coming Tod.

Beeswax is also great at preventing rust, and repelling water in general so it seems very multi purpose practical. if they're just rubbed in some wax or dipped I would think it would help protect the arrow as well as the head, if you had enough around I suppose. Beeswax is also sometimes mixed with things like linseed oil for use on wood (though I haven't personally tried it) I definitely think it's possible one or more of materials like these proctectants would be used on arrows or other products depending on what was most available and useful in different contexts. I like beeswax for things like my walking staff or hatchet handles that I don't want to be oily, leave residues or be smelly. I want to protect and preserve the wood and it provides good grip as well and the water repellent effects of the beeswax help the grip too if it's raining or you get sweaty, as well as preserving it. Great video as always Todd

for the bolts vs armor, having the bolt capped by a bigger blob might be better. To copy one of the two behaviors of a capped ap shell. not the balistic cap(apbc) (that's for flight speed only) but the normal cap (apc) which prevents hardnend penetrators from shattering on impact & can often increase penetration on sloped armor, since it being hit on the bottom makes the main penetrator buckle ever so slightly before it impacts, that it can align it with the armor and by that i mean align it to a perpendicular point of attack (benefit is usually under 5 Degrees of angle, but it should/could almost double the area in which a bolt/arrow has a chance at penetrating/damaging the armor)

Very interesting indeed. I really didn't think it would nake a difference with the blob on top but when u coated entire head with the wax i knew it would preform just didn't think it would be that much. Certainly the difference between a wound and a kill. Very nice awesome video

On a related note, I once made a set of POC wood arrows with feather fletching, and I decided to wax and polish the shafts (as one does!) and they looked amazing. Until I shot them at compressed straw bosses. They penetrated to the same depth as unwaxed shafts, but completely locked into place. They had to be hammered through to extract them, stripping the fletching and bindings and smashing the nocks. Now I always leave shafts untreated.

Another great video. As a research engineer I love watching experiments!

You are becoming my favourite youtuber with this kinds of tests!

Separate but related issue. I remember being told that mediaeval archers put a blob of clay on the tips of their arrows. This deformed on impact and made the tip grip for a split second giving the point time to dig into the armour rather than glancing off. I also remember being told that a similar technique was used in the 20th century with armour piercing shells: a soft nose of lead (or similar) that would deform on impact and just give the shell that split second longer to dig in rather than glance off. I have no idea if this is true but I remember that I considered the source to be reliable when I heard it 40 years ago.

Very interesting, but the thing that truely amazes me is how effective fabric armour is. I love your no bs style thank you

Incredible data, thank you. I was first alerted to how amazing gambeson and cloth armor is in general a few years ago, and your tests really show how it holds up against normal unmodified weaponry of the time. And wax! What amazing results!

Quick correction of the numbers at 8:00 : The increase of penetration is actually 98,6% on average. If we look at the first line the original depth was 26 mm and the waxed one 45 mm. That is an increase of 19 mm. 19/26*100=73,1%. For the average you can just take all the increases as a sum (19+22+27)=68 and relate it to the sum of the original values (26+25+18)=69 -> (68/69)*100=98,55% or 98,6% rounded. My intention is just to straighten up the facts, not being a smart ass. I greatly enjoyed the video. Keep up the good work and stay healthy! Cheers from Germany

This is the type of history i like to learn about. And these types of experiments are the best/most fun way to learn!

Tod, Putting hardened wax on the tip of a plate cutter could help support the point on impact with a softer material deforming on impact and ‘gripping’ the plate preventing it from glancing off the smooth angled face and the wax melting and dispersing completely on impact A very similar thing has been put into practice with battleship shells. A 16inch armor penetrating shell in ww2 often had a soft lead cap in the front to do the exact same thing on a far greater scale of mass, material and energy expended. It worked very well. Might even be worth testing out.

Very interesting! I really didn't expect that to make such a difference! I'm not sure if this has got missed, but I believe that many of us who commented on the longbow vs plate video were talking about the reasoning behind adding caps to kinetic anti-armour rounds in the ww1/ww2 era. That isn't about lubrication or something like that, it's about reducing the likelihood of a round ricocheting off armour by adding a softer material to the top of the projectile that deforms and allows the round to "bite into" the armour. In the longbow vs plate video, it seemed like the majority of the arrows were wasting a huge amount of their potential energy when they hit at angles that just caused them to ricochet. If this capping does work, it still probably wouldn't allow the arrow to penetrate the front of that breastplate; but if thinner parts of a harness can be penetrated by "perfect" hits, you'd be increasing the likelihood of "perfect hits"

This also show that fabric armor is indeed very effective against sharp weapons, even those needle bolts and similarly thrusting swords. It's the friction created by cutting through that grants stopping power. Reducing friction increase penetration, great observation Tod!

Great video Todd I don’t think anybody is doing these experiments goes to show how doing practical experiments highlights facts and fictions great channel mate

Neat video as always Tod! I looked up goat's foot lever to check on the first usages of it, three videos popped up, two of which were yours incidentally. So that was cool I thought, got the info right from the guy I got curious from

I'd always wondered why no one thought of oiling arrowheads to decrease friction! Thanks for proving that it works (never thought about using wax, it's probably better than oil for staying on the head until it hits)

and now on to tallow, lard and linseed oil. the other "standard" protective coatings for wood at the time. Tallow is the one I have my hopes for it becomes a very slick oil when heated.

Lloyd did a video a long time ago pointing out that needle bodkin pointed arrows and bolts were probably for penetrating chain mail, since the padded jackets people wore under it were no where near as thick as cloth armours like gambesons or aketon armours. He made the argument that the best heads against such cloth armours were "sharp" broad heads as they cut through the quilted fabric where as a pointed arrow just gets jammed up and eventually stopped as it tries to squeeze through the layers of fabric. He provided the anecdote of how during the construction of quilted cloth armour, you need quite a strong needle as it gets harder and harder to pass a needle through the fabric, the thicker you make the armour to the point that he almost or maybe in fact did (I forget) break a needle at one point when making such armour.

Oh goodness, what a little detail which makes all of the difference! I must try that myself. It is amazing that a tiny bit of wax ca both protect from rust, and actually increase the piercing power. Now this warrants some trials with different compositions, maybe have a go with straight up wax, and then make softer and softer pastes of say 10%oil in wax, 30%, 50%oil to wax, maybe we'll see a difference. That said, it's not that much of a far cry to imagine that bow and crossbowmen carried a stick of wax to maintain their strings and such, no reason why they couldn't just rub some wax on the arrow/quarrel heads. Lovely piece of information, I have to try that out myself tomorrow!

Trained as a traditional woodworker/boatbuilder, I was repeatedly taught by the old boys to rub some candle wax on the the bottom of my hand planes, the sides of my hand saw. Wax lubrication on wooden wedges even helps when driving them in. Only proviso: don't use, when you need a clean surface for gluing.

Great video as always! Please do a video about plate armour test against melee weapons like swords (slashing and cutting), mace, axe,etc. Just like the bow vs crossbow! Would be very nice to see the damage this weapons can cause.

Holy cow! I knew it would help but was not expecting that.

Great piece one small point though. The reason Teflon and similiar is applied to bullets to get through armor isn’t the same. It’s because it lets you use harder materials for the bullet whilst protecting the barrel. In fact the Teflon itself makes it less effective at penetrating Kevlar and similar.

I paused it at 6:25, but I was thinking about how much better the second group appeared to fly/ accuracy. That alone could be a huge reason for wax. That's so simply, but extremely smart. The penetration increase is substantial. But, I can't help thinking about how much better they flew and grouped. Great video, very interesting.

Thank you for your quality content, accurate tests (pointing when it is and when it is not that much) and verifyable sources of information. As a history student it is really intresting to see that kind of practical test being done with quality.

i observed the same effect in target archery. In some clubs they have very cheap targets made of pressed straw (like 20cm thick) for everyday practice. They are way cheaper than etafoam targets and last way longer, but pulling out carbon arraws was always a pain. In fact the heat on impact was so high, that some fibres of the staw kinda burned to the carbon. You really hat to seperate them with a knife again. Our solution was to use silicon oil. You can get these in a box with a foam and it will last for years. It was significantly easier to get the arrows back out though they penetrated deeper. Obviously people back in the days were just as smart, only with less materials :D

I practiced Olympic Archery for some years and we had some targets made of some sort of EVA, a lot of times the EVA would "melt" and adhere to the arrowheads and shafts and you had to clean them up from time to time. We started using lipsticks made of cocoa butter to lube the arrows and cleaning became a lot more simpler. Some started to use mineral oil, which worked too. (Even helped when removing the arrows, now that I am writing, I don't remember if the guy that had the idea at first, used it to make arrows easier to remove from the target and the cleaning thing was just a "side effect" noticed after) I remember having thought "it seems like the arrow is even going a little deeper" but didn't care much about it since it wasn't the focus. It's interesting to see how we used the same principle of lubing the arrow, even with different purposes and in my case at the time(2010-2012ish), limited information. I imagine waxing being done in early times almost intuitively. Maybe, for storage they lubed the arrows to prevent rust and maybe on testing they found out that it helped with penetration after shooting over and over the same arrow, which would lose the lubricant and penetrate less, as probably they would be focusing more on performance, that would be clear as day and night(in this specific hypothetical scenario).

Tod, you are awesome! this is GOLD! more this kind of videos!

This is amazing! Never would have thought beeswax would prove such a useful addition to significantly increase arrow/bolt penetration. I'd love to see more exploration on this theory because it is fascinating to me.