[Illustration: FIG. X.]
It should look like this after the metal has been poured in and the
paper all stripped off. (Fig. I.)
[Illustration: FIG. I.]
It should look like this after being sharpened like a minie bullet:
(Fig. J.)
[Illustration: FIG. J.]
An awl-point arrow is made by inserting the point in the end of the
arrow, wrapping with copper wire, and getting a tinner to drop some
solder at the end to fasten the wire and awl-point firmly together. The
awl-point looks like this: (Fig. K.)
[Illustration: FIG. K.]
[Illustration: FIG. L.]
The awls (like Fig. L) are filed like this into teeth-like notches on
the part going into the wood, and roundly sharp on the other part thus:
(Fig. M.) These may be shot into an oak-tree and extracted by a twist
of the hand close to the arrow-point.
[Illustration: FIG. M.]
[Illustration: FIG. N.]
The broad-head hunting-point (Fig. N) is put on by slitting the arrow
and inserting the flat handle of the arrow point, and wrapping it with
silk, sinews, or copper wire. These points can be sharpened along the
line A B on a whetstone, and will cut like knives. The hunting arrow
looks like this: (Fig. O.)
[Illustration: FIG. O.]
To feather an arrow you strip a goose feather from the quill and,
after clipping off the part near the quill-end, you mark a line down
the arrow from a point one inch from the nock and, spreading some
Spaulding’s glue along that line apply the feather, lightly pressing
it home with forefinger and thumb. After you have glued on one piece
lay aside the arrow and fix another, and so on until the first is set,
so that you may put on another piece. When you have fastened these
feathers on each arrow lay them aside for ten or twelve hours. The
three feathers will look like this: (Fig. P.)
[Illustration: FIG. P.]
A boy can hardly make a good quiver unless he were to kill some furred
animal and make a cylindrical case such as the Indians have, out of its
skin. I am afraid that he usually would have to get a harness-maker to
make him a quiver out of leather, somewhat larger at the top than at
the bottom. It should hold from eight to twelve arrows.
[Illustration: The Target.]
A good target may be made of soft pine, circular or elliptical in
shape. In the latter case a line-shot might count, even though it were
farther from the centre. Pieces should be tacked to the back of this
target at right angles to the grain of the wood. Differently-colored
circles or rings, a little more than the width of an arrow, must be
painted on this, with a centre twice the width of an arrow. The outer
ring counts one, the next two, three, four and so on to the centre,
which of course counts highest. By this plan one’s score could be told
with perfect accuracy.
If an arrow struck on a line between number three and four it counts
three and a half. Anything like this rarely happens. The target is
fixed upon an easel formed of three pieces of wood fastened together
by a string at the top, and it ought to lean back at the top slightly,
away from the archer.
The three arrows count seven, nine, ten—twenty-six in all. In
target-shooting you should use awl-pointed, wire-wrapped arrows, as
they can be easily drawn out of even a wooden target.