A thick-shafted war-arrow ending in a long, four-sided iron spike driven into a reinforced socket. Loosed at close range from a heavy warbow, the bodkin is intended to punch clean through plate, riveted mail, or a gambeson’s padded layers. Royal and feudal levies keep sheaves of these in sealed wax-cloth bundles against the day of siege or pitched battle, since they are costly to forge and carry.
Heavy Bodkin Arrow
Thick shaft, four-sided iron spike; pierces plate, mail, gambeson up close.