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Flatbows found on the Mary Rose?

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markinengland:
I can't see any reason to keep it under wraps, but it did seem it was admitted to at the London lecture with some reluctance. Various books talk about the use of warbows that are not yew, though yew does seem to have been seen as the best. I think it is Ascham who makes reference to bows of Brazil wood, and it's a bit too late to keep him quiet!

The current PA magazine has a good article by Marc St Louis on an elm warbow. Might be worth getting this issues if you're particulalry interested. 100lb at something like 30 inches puts it into warbow territory, and it is a D section D tiller bow as well.

JW_Halverson:

--- Quote from: markinengland on December 10, 2010, 02:18:26 pm --- I think it is Ascham who makes reference to bows of Brazil wood, and it's a bit too late to keep him quiet!

--- End quote ---

Oh yeah?  Heard anything new from him lately???? 

I envy those of you that have been able to see the museum, go to the lectures, or get close to those wonderful artifacts.  Artifacts such as those in  extraordinary condition make history REAL and go a long way to dispelling myths that seem to get passed on as fact. 

bow-toxo:

--- Quote from: youngbowyer on December 07, 2010, 11:05:35 pm ---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.

--- End quote ---
  Some of the MR bows were of rectangular section, not really flatbows, and have been described as being longer than most of the bows. Where does your comment about Welsh flat bows come from ? It is news to me that there is any non-fiction information about them other than that they were made of “forest elm”. That wouldn’t include black locust.

                                                 Erik

Jaro:
Mark -I dont know who put up that lecture but none MR bow is reported of other wood than yew. I think that nobody at the moment has better ties to MR trust than EWBS or people like Hugh Soar and nobody respectable in the buissnes thinks anymore than all the bows are something else than yew. The information about one bow being something else is somehow outdated.

Erik - none of published crossesctions can be with clear mind described as "rectangular". Its pretty clear from account of the technology, that the bowyers started with "chipped" - that is squared and tappered stave. The bows differ in how much of the wood has been taken off the square during the shaping process, but even the big ones have round belly. I make this type of bow relativelly often and if you start with tapered squared stave and round the back corners and then take off the facette of belly wood on each side away and then just work very quickly from edge of the facete to another rounding the stave along with scraper, small plane or spokeshave, the small flat areas on sides of the stave emerge by themselves. That off course is not rectangular. There is few odd shapes like prominent "galeon" with ridge running down mid off the belly, but they are far and few and I would be interested in seeing if the bows in question have such a profile for the whole of their lenght, or just where there was not enough wood to work round.

Tom - flat belly does not flatbow make as we all know. Neither does it look like welsh were using "flatbows". Frankly, if you take ash or elm sappling, hatchet or knife, strip the bark and just trim the sides and belly by chopping you will end up with longbow, rather than flatbow.  I would think in terms of technology rather than fashion.
Now, if you have black locust, you might or might not be sucessfull in making heavy longbow of it as it does not likes the round belly much. It would be beneficial to make the bow longer (around 80") and from piece of wood with crowned back and then after working teh tapers  round the belly somehow less than back.  That would give you "lentil" profile, somehow closer to viking bows than MR, but more relaxed in terms of compression.

Jaro

adb:
The larger 'square' profile yew bows at the MRM where referred to as slab-sided bows, and as Jaro mentioned, they still had a rounded belly. I believe Steve Stratton made a yew warbow of this type, with a 160# draw weight. It's posted on this forum... 'MR Replica but just a little longer'

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