They're dipped in oil. The oil burns vigorously. The oil burns brightly. The oil burns.

When I was a kid I used to make bows and arrows, and so obviously lit arrows on fire.

You for sure need an accelerant. I recall personally using gas line antifreeze. Otherwise yeah they'll extinguish pretty much instantly.

I can't really remember if the flaming arrows "flamed" the whole flight, or if they extinguished in flight but because of the accelerant were able to reignite once they stopped.

Oil burn so good. It really is just that effective

Because they're not just some cotton doused in a flammable liquid.

Tod has some good videos exploring this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xNCU4WndtYk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EAAYhIJIOjg.

Interesting question..

Putting grooves in the sides of the arrow, to protect some of the flame from being blown-out, might be a useful improvement..

The people identifying that oil/petrochemicals burn are right, but you want to have the viscosity of the fuel be such that it'll burn easily ( low-viscosity, vaporizes easily ) and it won't be blown-off ( high viscosity, doesn't burn easily ), so then you have to solve your airspeed, to optimize the fuel for that airspeed..

So, a fuel which may work well on a 20lbs bow might not work well on a 60lbs draw bow..

Bullets apparently just use white phosphorous in their tails ( tracers ).

_ /\ _

The friction caused by the Arrowhead across the air particles constantly reignites the flame