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Flatbows found on the Mary Rose?
youngbowyer:
Hi,
I was wondering if any flatbows were found on the Mary Rose and if there were could someone give me some dimensions.
(or any infortmation about the flatbows that the welsh used right before the "english" warbow came along. Because i cut some black locust today about 8 inches in diamter but it doesnt have enough heartwood for an english warbow design and i i like to keep my bows
looking as much as bows found on the Mary Rose and just plain English Warbows.
Thanks,Tom.
Pat B:
Tom, if handled properly you could leave a few layers of sapwood on the locust and almost get the look of a war bow. At 8" in diameter I'd think you had a few war bows in that locust log...maybe without the sapwood left on. If you are not certain about the sapwood add a rawhide backing to it.
markinengland:
There were some presumably whitewood bows found on the Mary Rose that weren't of yew. The "experts" keep very quiet about these though and I have never seen any information. by the time of the wreck of the Mary Rose tropical woods called "Brazil" wood was also in use. As far as I can tell this is what we now call Pernambuca, used for the making of violin bows.
I attended a lecture on the bows found on the Mary Rose. During the question session I asked about these bows. Reluctantly they two experts admitted that not all the bows were yew but I could not get them to provide any further detail. Interest and research has been concentrated on the yew bows.
A friend of mine has made a square section Ash warbow of about 90lbs, heat treated belly that seemed to work quite well so maybe the whitewood bows weren't exactly flatbows after all.
The talk about the Welsh bows presumed to be Wych Elm predates the Mary Rose in 1545 predates talk of the welsh bows in connection with the Welsh Wars around 1130 so they are seperated by 400 years of archery development and history.
Yeomanbowman:
That's really interesting Mark. I suspect they (MR Trust) want to keep the data tight so as not to pre-empt a book that will be released, hopefully soonish. As you will know, Ascham mentions bows of this material.
adb:
I've been to the Mary Rose Museum and spoken with the staff regarding the bows recovered from it, and there is certainly no mention of any bows made from any wood except yew. All those on display are, of course, yew. I'm wondering why it would be kept 'secret' to have recovered bows of other material?
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