Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
What is "Warbow"
D. Tiller:
I'm still of the opinnion that you should build and use what you like. If you are trying to exactly duplicate a warbow of the erra then you need to use one of the woods used back then. If you just want a bow to shoot then make it of any material you like and have fun. In my book if it follows that same design of a warbow from the erra its a warbow but not an exact replica of the originals.
Have fun with it and enjoy the sport!
David T
ChrisD:
Well, with regards to the short lifespan of a yew bow - there are several skeins of 'evidence' to draw on.
The first is simply to look at the sheer numbers of yew staves imported to England during the period.There are details of quite literally millions of staves imported by a single Hanse merchant family over a twenty year period. When you consider that the bow using population wasn't exactly that big and that there were incredible numbers of staves being imported, it tends to lead to the conclusion that they didn't last all that long.
Secondly, bows having a short life makes perfect sense in the context of fixing the price of bows at very affordable levels. If they lasted ages, it woyldn't have been deemed so necessary. If people needed to replace them often - especially being poorer folk, you'd have to fix the price.
Finally, I own a couple of these things. One of them starts the day at 86lb at 30 inches and very quickly loses weight after a few shots. Given the nature of softwoods, that can be expected to be the pattern with any self yew bow of high draw weight after a fairly short time. I know it offends the egos of those who use very high weight bows, but the fact is that most will have lost a good percentage of weight at the end of a days shooting and that tendency will worsen as weight goes up and the wood is stressed more and also as the age of the bow goes up.
Yes I do think that archers discarded bows in the hand to hand phase, and maybe tied a dagger to them to improvise a pig sticker. But thats only guessing.
J.D. - yes indeed - what was a warbow? For example, I've never heard of anyone using a hemp or linen string of 1/8in diameter in a 110lb plus bow - but then I'm one of those sceptics who reckons that they were a lot lighter than some think.
ChrisD
duffontap:
Chris,
Some very good points. One thing you have to deal with on the 'lower weight' position is that bows like mine are made from inferior Yew and are smaller than the Mary Rose bows and yet have draw weights of 110#s or more. I haven't yet seen a war bow made similar to the Mary Rose specs out of quality Yew that hasn't come out well over 100#s.
As for the 'natural strings are too weak' theory that Pip proposes, there are people right now using linen strings on 120# bows without problems. A 1/8" string is larger than it needs to be for adequate strength from what I've been hearing. Pip put out a book saying natural strings weren't strong enough for bows much over 100#s and all of a sudden people start testing his theory and finding linen plenty strong enough for heavy bows.
As for a bow droping weight, I weigh my bows after they've been warmed up. All wood bows will draw a little heavier cold so we expect that. If your bow lost a pound of draw weight every time you shot it--that would be a problem but I haven't experienced that with any of my yew bows.
J. D. Duff
Yeomanbowman:
--- Quote from: ChrisD on May 23, 2007, 06:24:30 pm ---Secondly, bows having a short life makes perfect sense in the context of fixing the price of bows at very affordable levels. If they lasted ages, it woyldn't have been deemed so necessary. If people needed to replace them often - especially being poorer folk, you'd have to fix the price.
--- End quote ---
Yew bows were expendable, yes. Back then, so were bowmen.
I don't think they were as widely spread and easy to come by as all that. The crown stockpiled huge numbers for military use. However, as you know, there were also edicts issued to preserve a precious resource. At times bowyers were commanded to make more whitewood bows than those of yew and youths (unless noble born) were also prohibited from having yew bows.
J
D. Tiller:
JD- Those bow strings of linnen and hemp where they made from reverse twist all the way like a rope or like a modern flemish string with one loop on one end and then the strands twisted tight?
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