Recent content by bobnewboy

Looks like lemon balm, but that would be obvious if you crush a leaf.

Mink oil, by Fiebings, for me. See: Linky

At dusk today we noticed the first pair of bats of the year circling in the gathering gloom, in the southern lee of the house. I’m exceedingly unlikely to be able to photograph any of them, but they are certainly very active.

Congrats from me. Life very soon takes over any kind of ‘spare time’ and fills it up, so make sure that you’re doing things that you always wanted to. Life also doesn’t need to be too expensive if you cover the important things, but give yourself a little treat every now and then! Health to...

Have you guys had a look at the Ringway Manchester YT channel? He covers a lot of radio stuff - my particular twist is for cellular, having been a cellular geek - but he’s done some interesting videos around meshtastic LORA devices.

Idiots and those with ill intent always have and always will commit crimes without any recourse to what is or isn’t legal. Banning crossbows and so-called broadhead arrows won’t make any difference to those people. They will still find ways of sourcing those kinds of items for illegal use, and...

Through the lounge window

Sounds a bit like Secret Island in Wivey…. :)

Try Merlin Archery online. Broadheads will be few and far between in the UK as only people who go overseas to bow hunt would use them.

Watched & liked. It’s good to get it off your chest sometimes :)

Hi Hugh. Well, for feathers it isn’t really the size so much as the oil line in the feather, and how tough and resilient the barbs of the feather are. I tend to follow advice from an old friend of mine, Hilary Greenland, and especially from her book “The Traditional Archer’s Handbook, A...

Perhaps another aspect is that a crossbow is far easier to operate effectively as a weapon than a longbow is. Very little training or practice is required to be effective. But all of these comments are as old as time, qv crossbows being seen as “evil”, and “an instrument of the devil”. In the...

Yep. Trade points are as old as metalworking.

If I’m not using paid-for fletchings, I’ll just hang around lakes which hold stocks of geese or swans and keep an eye out….Alternatively, while I was still in Surrey, I made friends with some smallholders who raised turkeys…..a goldmine of great feathers for “a drink” :). See :

If the whistler’s cost will be prohibitive for fun roving, then I’d suggest making a few flu-flus with 3x pieces of full feather fletchings on each shaft. They work well for stumping etc if you put an ordinary field point in the arrow.