Peter Hutchison wrote:
>Having just reread the Schubert reference I think that this is the earliest
>surviving reference to steeled arrowheads. It does not tell us that there
>were no steeled arrowheads prior to this order.
>
>My guess is that there were many plain iron arrowheads which would probably
>have been adequate for many uses (hunting for example) where there was no
>need to penetrate armour. In 1341 (p118) Yorkshire supplied 580 garbs of
>arrows only 360 of which were steeled.
>
In Carpini's writings (1245AD) he describes how the Mongols harden their
arrowheads and implies that he was not familiar with the practice of
making hardened steel arrowheads.
http://www.deremilitari.org/RESOURCES/SOURCES/carpini.htm
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