I go by Scyph Kordaghn in Amtgard. Scyph is a fantasy character I made when I was like 12 years old. Not only is Scyph one of the best in archery, but as a leader of his nation, he strives to make the lives of his people easier to live. Some place where they can live without fear of losing their lives. While in real life, my goals aren’t as ambitious, but it has the same concept.  Archery is my greatest passion in my life and Amtgard has allowed me to fully realize this passion that target archery never could. However, Amtgard of old carried with it a stigma against bow users that created a fear that made people hesitate to pick up a bow; and it’s because archery is inherently dangerous and people who don’t know better can and will hurt others. 

In the olden days of Amtgard, arrows hurt. They didn’t have the soft open cell padding the tip of the arrowhead and they were heavy which really increased the impact force. The round tipped phoenix tear arrowheads were the primary arrows that I used. At the time, all I cared about was to be able to shoot arrows and these arrows were “good enough”. Because of its heavy impact, EVERY time I accidentally landed headshots, I cringed and I felt so bad because it did hurt. Depending on the person, it was even painful to get hit in the body. This is that stigma that bow users carry even with “legally” made arrows. I know people who specifically did not participate in a battle solely because of the pain that comes from an arrow hit. At some point, enough was enough and I wanted to change that.

After NLCC Winter 2023, I was motivated to start the build process of a new arrowhead. The arrow design was the brainchild of Badwolf (mi’ lord and squire); he and I collaborated throughout the whole build process as I purchased hundreds of dollars of different foam materials that I built and we tested. There was constant trial and error testing of different ways of building the arrowhead. At some point, I was happy with a 3” diameter flat tipped arrowhead, but one of the very few things we can do to decrease the impact of an arrow is a reduction of the weight. Badwolf really pushed and challenged me to do just that, so I cut away at the arrowhead shape and tried different materials until what we have finalized today. The arrowheads do not use 3D printed materials, so each and every arrowhead has been hand-crafted and shaped by my own hands. One of the very few things we can do to decrease the impact of an arrow is to reduce its weight.

These arrowheads have been tested to withstand over 50 shots onto a tree using a 55 lbs bow from 20 feet away at different angles with little to no degradation to the foam above the blunt; and more importantly, the core blunt did not move from its position in the cone as there was absolutely no damage to the close cell facing the blunt. This had far exceeded both of our expectations and through trial and error, we eventually found the best materials that made the arrowhead as light as possible, which in turn made the arrow impact softer, and fly faster; which in turn reduced the arc of the arrow flight path; greatly increasing the accuracy of each shot. The arrow shaft sits dead center of each arrowhead making it fly almost as straight as a live steel target arrow. Even with the superlight arrowhead, it still flies as far or even further than the heavier phoenix tear arrowheads. The best part is that I have never seen or heard of an instance where accidental headshots have resulted in injuries from these arrowheads. 

Badwolf and I are incredibly proud of these arrowheads and we know these arrowheads are not the end-all, be-all arrowhead. However, this is an important step in making arrows in Amtgard to be more safe, so that we can enjoy archery in our game without worrying that our arrows will hurt someone.