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Light weight english longbows
Badger:
I have a friend who has been wanting me to build him an english longbow, he wanted it fairly long about 72" and light draw weight of 40#. I had been wracking my brain what wood to use on this as the standard bow woods are all a bit heavy for that length and just come out too narrow and squirely, outer limbs want to bend sideways. I decided to try a maple back on a piece of poplar I had. 1 1/8 wide 72" long. Turned out to be a great combination, I decided to build it at 45# at 28". At 28" the bow showed only about 1/4" set which quickly dissappeared when unbraced and was shooting very fast. I was going to put a little movement in the handle area which was still a bit stiff to get the other 5# off but decided first I would give the bow a try at 30" and 50#. Looked like the bow had some good potencial for flight shooting. The mass weight of the bow at this point was 14 1/2 oz, this suggested that I had allready reached my limits with a bendy handle but against my better judgement I went for the 30" draw and picked up two nasty chrysals on each limb. I like the design well enough that I will repeat it as it would have worked great with a slight flex in the handle. I will try to post some pics when my girlfriend gets up. Steve
Pappy:
Bad luck ,but sounds like you learned something,I guess that's what it is all about. :)Love to see
the pictures.
Pappy
DanaM:
Interesting that you are finding a use for poplar which most consider as non bow wood.
Would love to see some pics.
Badger:
Dana, I have made tons of bows from poplar, it wont give you much warning before it chrysals. Sometimes you just have to believe your experience and not push it. Here are a couple of pics, it has taken hinges and chyrsals in both bending areas, before the overdraw it was an exceptional shooter, you can see the stiff handle area, right outside that area is where it starts to hinge and chrsal for about 8" on each limb. I will repeat this same design but use a cherry board instaed which is similar weight to heavy poplar. I will also get it bending closer to the handle just a touch. I build a lot of bows and figure I will start posting the ones that dont work out so well maybe someone will get a lesson from it besides me LOL. Steve
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DanaM:
Steve when you say poplar do you mean balsalm poplar, or some type of aspen? Around here everyone calls em popple regardless of what it is.
What about a poplar as a stave make it longer and wider should work especially for a light poundage bow ie kids bow?
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