Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
72" yew war bow
duffontap:
Jaro/Yeomanbowman,
Do the Mary Rose bows show parallel growth rings on the back (like they were intentionally 'crowned') or were they made from crowned staves to begin with?
Also, Pip has described some of the bows as having a fairly classic D-section. Were there no such bows? My Mary-Rose bow has a section slightly more rectangular than:
My most recent war bow as a narrow version of this:
J. D. Duff
Yeomanbowman:
Hello J. D,
I recall Roy king talks of the Mary Rose 'edge' caused by this process and there are so many styles that I'm sure some must have been a Victorian type 'D'. However, all of the bows I have seen on display in Portsmouth 'in the flesh' have backs that are no more crowned than the unworked staves. The bows seem to be from relatively small diameter staves. I think that most of the bows still have some cambium left across most of the back. I understand that the 2 heaviest bows are rectangular sectioned.
Have a llok at these images I took.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q280/yeomanbowman/DSCF0016.jpg
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q280/yeomanbowman/DSCF0012.jpg
Cheers,
Jeremy
D. Tiller:
Jeremy, those are cool picks! Next time your there do you think you can get some picks of the sapwood vs heartwood?
When they were making these bows did they aim first to get a rectangular shape and then round off the edges on the Mary Rose bows?
David T
Yeomanbowman:
Hello David,
The answer is I'm not sure, sorry. There were so many bowyers (bowyers marks) I believe that there may well have been many processes. Chris Boyton has a theory that some sort of planing jig was used to rough out the bow's width quickly. On a batch produced item it would seem to make a lot of sense. One thing I have done in the past is to use a more D than rectangular section if the stave was a bit too triangular when split. Wasted staves = lost profit, I suppose. I'm sure by steaming and the fact that side nocks/double timber hitchs allow bent bows to be centred, very little wood was unusable.
Cheers,
Jeremy
duffontap:
Thanks for posting those great images Jeremy. Man I want to get my hands on those bows. I feel like I need to see and hold them for a while so I can understand a little more about how they were made. Thanks for the great information.
J. D. Duff
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