Do they still make the old Bodkin 3 blade heads?,were they good heads?

Bodkin with capital "B" is a brand name broadhead made by Whiffen Archery. Other three blade heads such as Mowac Dot, MA-3,Hi- Precision,Hills Hornet, have also been called a bodkin(type of broadhead having three blades). The Bodkin is still available along with MA-3. Yes, they are a good head.

PM Sent. Fred

have a few old bodkins 47, 49, 55, 58 including a prototype un sharpened from 68. dont know why they didnt go for more money but they are realy cool. Bought them for the 1947 to put on an arrow for display next to my Grumley.

I still have a couple of dozen Bodkins and MA-3's. They work great on hogs with my lighter bows, that can't push a Snuffer through the shield.

IIRC - The MA-3's are marked Del-Ma.

Probably one of the toughest heads ever made, but almost impossible to sharpen. I still use them for small game.

I have got five dozen of the bodkins but as stagetek said they are hard to sharpen! Jimbow

They can be sharpened quite well with a wetstone jig that angles the opposite way of a 2 blade stone jig. made out of wood with a slit down the center where the third blade passes.two edges get sharpened at a time. Like all heads the trick is to get the blade angle flat. the whiffen bodkin sharpens the best as its outer blade is single thickness.

Ahhhh.... 125 grain Bodkins on Kittridge Hunter Cedar Arrows, out of a 45# Kodiak Hunter.... My weapon of choice for woodchucks in upstate New York, during the Nixon Administration.

Thanks for the nostalgic blast from the past....

Guys, if you would sharpen them Like Rick Barbee does the vpa's I promise ypu there is no easier way to get a three blade sharp. I know cause I just raded for 18 brand new MA-3's and installed them on some wood arrows. I used a 12 inch mill file to get the blades beveled in then switched to a 8 inch file to finish them off. All will shave and all were made that way in less than 2 minutes a piece. Next time since the bevels are established, it will take about 30 seconds to get them razor sharp. God Bless

lonfitz -

There were twp types of Bodkins, one a blue gun steel and the other more of a brass. They shot extremely well, and I usually just "file" sharpened them. There where however a one shot-one kill kinda a broad head, since a miss or hitting any other than flesh would deform the tip. You could straighten them out, and grind them down a bit, but the picture tells the story (far left head). All in all I liked them, but really favored the Bear Razor heads, when I was hunting.

Viper out.

Runner, Why odd? The Bodkin point was used in the middle ages. It was indeed an arrow head, and was long, squared and thin to penetrate mail armor. It has quite a history in the archery genre. They were also easy to make, as they needed them by the hundreds of thousands. They were as important to European history in the middle ages as the Minie ball was to American history.

Runner, I'm not sure how much you pay attention to names, but here is how I look at it: The Bodkin is/was an arrow head. Around 1945'ish, a company made a broadhead and was seeking a name. They took a name that was old, and revered as an historic arrow head...the Bodkin head. I has nothing to do with shape, anymore than a Chevy Impala looks look like a real Impala, or a Dodge Ram, looking like a sheep.

I don't know what to tell you except there is no oxymoron there; an oxymoron would be something like the term "Congressional Intelligence." Sometimes you need to look at the entire context rather than a single aspect.

To review: A bodkin was an arrow point. A Bodkin broadhead is an arrow point. The name show an historic connection. Absolutely correct and not controversial....even to my aging mind.

Viper; the blue heads are Hi-Precision.The gold colored(not brass material) heads are Whiffen Bodkins(capital "B"-brand name)

I can remember buying them for about a buck apiece, guess those days are gone.

rag -

I know, but the design (dimensions) were basically the same, and the term was used pretty interchangeably. Tks.

Viper out.

OK Vip,

r.grider: I was buying MA-3 for 34cents each. Wood shafts for about 10cents each. For many years I never shot a field point as I had a sod bunker in the yard that I could shoot broadheads into.

Runner...you are easily amused, and that is good. 8^)). I was never a Bodkin fan, but I do like the MA-3 for some reason. Can a kitchen knife be used in the garage? Like the name, BTW. ))

I remember an old article written by Jim Dougherty for Archery World, or perhaps Bow & Arrow magazine, about how to glue injector razor blades to the Bodkin...for a "really lethal broadhead". Now, that's going back a ways !!

I've used the MA-3 with good results but like George, I was never a fan of the brass colored Bodkin that are shown in viper's photo.. They just never gave good arrow flight, in fact it was horrible.. for me. plus they didn't sharpen well enough to suit my hunting requirements.

Yep, glued injector-razor blades to a number of broad-heads. I suppose that's why razor-blade broad heads became popular..

woodsman

I have three sizes of Whiffen Bodkins -- different lengths, widths and weights. There are probably more. I don't collect them; just accumulated these over the years. Used one to kill a turkey two years ago. No more difficult to get sharp than any other three blade. A bit easier in my opinion, because the metal is softer than most 3-blades today. Tips do have a tendency to turn if you hit something hard with them. Good head, though. Still lots of them on vintage arrows sold on the auction sites.

Dan - there were a number of different brand broadheads that used Schick Injector blades as their cutting edge,...Little Shaver and Wasp come to mind as early examples.

The Wasp came out in 1971 and used an altered or modified Schick blade. This was actually held in place in a slot on the ferrule by a couple of small spring steel rings. Dick Maleski from Connecticut came up with the design idea and this pretty well started the great movement amongst broadhead designers to go to a razor blade insert style broadhead. The Bo 'N Arrer and the Ja_lea were also razor style broadheads but from the 1950s...the design just didn't catch on then and it wasn't until later that the design idea really came into it's own and started becoming popular.

According to the ABCC, there are 26 variations of the Bod-Kins, but some of the differences are so minor, it's hard to tell.

George, nice post, you know your history,,,, I still have some, nice head, and still in use by many

Exactly BC - those were made in a glue-on or a screw-in ferrule design model. The glue-ons featured either a tapered or a parallel ferrule design. They could be had in 3, 4, or as you know, 6 blade version.

Fun to talk about old broadheads & learn their history. You can trace a lot of bowhunting history and the advancements in archery techonology through the evolution of broadhead design. A lot of collectors have amassed outstanding collections!

If you have already registered, please

sign in now

For new registrations

Click Here