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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Sep 19 2014, 12:56pm
Post #26 of 28
(294 views)
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If I'm off, it is not by much.
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The following is typical of the information that I've uncovered concerning bolts or quarrels for ballista:
A large ballista could launch an imposing javelin weighing up to 10 pounds. The steel bolt might be four to six feet long with a shaft two-and-a-half inches in diameter. The "feathering" consisted of about eight inches worth of wood, horn, or brass laminates. Affixed to this intimidating rod was a steel head weighing three to five pounds.
I assume that the alloy of steel used was significantly more heavy than your modern kitchen knife. Even if the Dwarves developed an unusually light and strong alloy, given the size of the head of the Black Arrow (about 2 feet?) I would stick with that range. By the way, that head is supposed to have been crafted from a single piece of steel, not two.
Given that even the hero version of the Black Arrow, crafted from aluminum and resin, is described as being heavy, I think that 7 to 10 pounds is still a reaasonable estimate.
'There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.' - Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring
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Cirashala
Valinor
Sep 20 2014, 5:17am
Post #27 of 28
(284 views)
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I'm fairly good with spatial relations (estimating how big an object is, like I was able to tell just by looking that a new desk would fit in the spot it's now in on my bedroom wall, or can hold my fingers about a foot apart just by estimating and not being off by much, etc).
I don't think the head of the arrow/bolt is two feet long. Even if Bard were about seven feet tall, it does not look any longer than the length from his head to neck- there's no way that's a distance of two feet.
BUT- I haven't watched the movie in a while (harvest season and all that) so I will agree that I'm wrong if it is in fact two feet long (or if you have WETA info on it or something)- would you post a screencap of it?
I'm also not sure the shaft is two and a half inches in diameter- it looked more like an inch to an inch and a half to me. The fletching on the end looks to be about eighteen inches or so.
Plus, correct me if I'm wrong, but javelins aren't typically hollow, and their heads do not have an opening in them (the black arrow's head is not solid, but rather the center of the head is gone, leaving only the outline).
Not saying that it isn't possible that the black arrow is so heavy (perhaps, and this would be cool, Bard uses his bow and it shatters the bow, as a too heavy arrow could, but still manages to fire it in desperation).
But your estimate (barring info from WETA) seems to have several variables to it that must line up to reach your conclusion, like hollow/solid, dimensions, etc that could definitely alter the weight either lighter or heavier than 10 lbs 
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Sep 20 2014, 12:57pm
Post #28 of 28
(274 views)
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Remember that a good part of the head of the Black Arrow is the part that extends down the shaft. The business end of the head is about 2/3 of the total length. In the photo from the Cloaks & Daggers book, the quarrel measures 8.5 inches (21 cm). The head measures 1 7/8 inches (4.8 cm). Given that the actual length of the quarrel is over 6 feet (almost 2 meters) full size of the arrowhead is nearly 1.5 feet. That tallies with Alex Falker's anecdote about the making of the prop:
Initially designed by John Howe as an option for a conventional Lake-town arrow; I originally prototyped the arrowhead of what became the Black Arrow of Girion at around ten centimeters or between three and four inches in length [3 15/16 inches to be precise]. It went in front of Peter and the note came back, 'Nope, this arrow is for shooting at Dragons. It needs to be 400% bigger!' At that point it went from being an arrow to a harpoon.
That gives a length of 400 cm or just shy of 16 inches for the head.
'There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.' - Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring
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