Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
a wet spring.
briarbrow:
Hi Simon, JD.
That might be ok Simon, but what are the conditions? I know I'm not the man for the job. :)
That's a good point JD. I wish I had some experience with yew, but I'd rather rely on the wood than the coating.
My point has been that replicating the size of MR bows may not give an accurate picture of their performance without consideration of their operational environment. It could well be that a combination of diligent care and wise material selection, somewhat brief excursions negate the effects of damp environment.
or it may be that MRBs are somewhat oversize to compensate as well as possible for marine use. which is where I place my bet.
duffontap:
If a stave has high moisture content it will follow the string considerably. The MRBs don't show much set and sometimes none or backset. The bowyers supposedly air-dried their staves for 7 years so they had an understanding of the affect of moisture content. It is most likely that bows were kept in human environments where they would stay suitably warm and dry. A day marching in the rain won't hurt a greased-up bow at all and a night by the fire will have it as dry as ever. Most primitive cultures seem to be savvy about moisture content, so I don't think there is any reason to believe that the MRBs had to be significantly overbuilt to allow them to be soaking wet. Also, historical accounts tell us that the archers were very in-tuned to the affects of moisture (i.e. removing and protecting their strings at Crecy when it rained).
J. D. Duff
SimonUK:
I often wondered whether submersion in water would straighten out a bow with string follow. But Apparently the Meare Heath bow has string follow despite being in a bog for a few thousand years.
Kviljo:
JD, weren't most of the MR-bows unused? - so no wonder they didn't have stringfollow ;)
Very interesting discussion by the way :)
briarbrow:
--- Quote from: SimonUK on May 12, 2007, 06:12:33 pm ---I often wondered whether submersion in water would straighten out a bow with string follow. But Apparently the Meare Heath bow has string follow despite being in a bog for a few thousand years.
--- End quote ---
Hi Simon,
if you were to soak wood and dry it "straight" it would basically stay that way.
I'm less sure that the bow would keep its shape once sent back to work.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version