Did archers of the past know about spine?

[Bjorn]

And let's not forget the Vikings-there is a lot of controversy surrounding whether the English introduced the long bow to the Vikings or the other way around. Both relied heavily on the accuracy and power of the longbow.

[nevada cody]

the vikings did use the longbow the scripts carved in stone proves that but only a few bows have been found.
 elusive one  are you going to sweden iff so were

[John Nail]

I believe so. In old books arrows were referred to as "10 shilling", ect. I believe that was the amount of coinage used(as weight) to check deflection

[nevada cody]

yes John they must off hade some system off spining the arrows it is very simple to measure
the amount off deflection

[poekoelan]

I would have to yes and no. Yes because they may not have measured spine like we do, but many cultures knew stiff long arrows did the trick when short limber ones wouldn't.

And I'd have to say no just because from what I understand, when the concept was introduced there were many debates over it. So apparently some didn't believe in it.

[nevada cody]

Most of the  Mary Rose arrows fell into two lengths. One group for a draw of ca 28 inches and the other more common group for a draw of ca 30 inches. The range of draw lengths was ca 24 to 32 inches
some  arrows were taperd 1/2 thick at the head
ca 3/8at the nock their were ca 3500 arrows found on the mary rose. some were spined differently from others but the ones that were off simmilar spine and length were packed together so im quite sure they knew about spine
i mean iff they could not shoot a certain arrow they would pick a stiffer or weaker arrow and then copy the one that fly nice because they packed them acording to lengths and taperd with taperd non taperd with non taperd and so on they must off known .
cheers cody

[nevada cody]

i think trad member bjorn described it best just
because they did not have a name for spine  they knew a heavy pound bow needed a stiffer arrow
to fly nice