Arrows are everywhere we look in our lives. They control and designate the movement of machines, people and information. On the other hand, using the arrow as a representation is a generally drawn as a variation of an archery arrow in which there is fletching, a shaft and the sharp point. Over the course of time, arrows became overly abstracted and simplified to the point where the only part you could recognized of the original arrow the triangle shaped tip on the end. This touches the most simple traits of the arrow no matter the meaning or the application.

History of the Arrow

The earliest evidence of projectiles with stone tips, which might have been launched from a bow, was over 64,000 years ago. These tips were located in Sibudu Cave which is currently the location of South Africa. About 10,000 years ago there was evidence of bows being used to shoot these arrows and it was based on arrows made of pinewood that were found north of Hamburg, in Ahrensburg valley. At the base of the arrow you could find shallow grooves that told a story of being shot by a bow. The oldest bow ever discovered was said to by around 8,000 years old and found in Denmark in a place called Holmegard swamp. With the Arctic small tool tradition, it is said that archery came to America around 4,500 years back.

About the Arrow

There are three parts to the arrow. These are the shaft, the arrowhead and the fletchings.

First is the shaft which is the main part of the arrow and the other components of the arrow are all attached to the arrow. Generally, the shaft of an arrow is made of lightweight, strong reeds, wood or bamboo. The arrows of today are primarily made from aluminum, carbon fiber reinforced plastic or other materials that might be combined to form a sturdy shaft.

When you feel the stiffness of the shaft of an arrow, that is considered the spine and refers to the strength of the shaft based on the amount of bend when you compress it. Therefore, a stronger shaft has more spine. If you want to make sure you are hitting your target in consistent grouping, you have to make sure all your arrows have the same amount of spine.