Main Discussion Area > English Warbow

Authentic middle age finish on bows

(1/5) > >>

Ifrit617:
I have an English longbow that I am finishing up and want to use an authentic finish as used in the middle ages. I assume so type of grease or wax was used, but does anyone know exactly what was used? Any input would be awesome. Thanks.

Jon

adb:
I think they used beeswax and rubbed it in.

WillS:
This may be rubbish, so take it with a pinch of salt, but I believe that a large number of medieval bows were painted with various ingredients.  To them, the look of the bow was far less important than the resilience to weather conditions such as intense sunshine or rain, so they wouldn't have cared whether or not they could see the wood grain and so on.  Lots of the Mary Rose bows were definitely painted, some with a black mixture I assume was soot mixed in with various oils and waxes.

I think, personally, if you're going to "go medieval" you should theoretically paint the entire thing with a soot and wax compound.  However, to modern eyes that seems a shameful cover-up of what is usually a beautiful piece of craftsmanship, so maybe a slightly less genuine finish of beeswax as Adam said.

I've found that making up your own paste from pure beeswax, boiled linseed oil and some form of spirit works very well in all weathers, leaves a stunning rich patina and also dries to form a hard clear coat, unlike only using beeswax which can end up getting a tad mucky!

Del the cat:

--- Quote from: WillS on September 08, 2013, 04:34:13 am ---... Lots of the Mary Rose bows were definitely painted...

--- End quote ---
I don't think I've seen any reference to this.
Some of 'em are pretty dark but I'm not sure there is any actual surface layer that's been applied.
To me they all looked like natural wood.
Is it mentioned in Weapons of Warre?... I can't be bothered to wade through my copy at the mo' ?
I'd have thought all the commonly available materials at the time could have been used to wipe over it, but I'd guess beeswax/animal fat as the most readilly available. Plenty of soot about of course, but I'm not sure what soot brings to the party other than getting absolutely everywhere and making a heck of a mess.
Any surface finish would need to be flexible...
Del

WillS:
When I was at the MR the first time I didn't handle any that appeared to be painted, however the last time I went I was chatting to the curator and he pointed out quite a few that had a tinted finish on, that he personally believed to be a paint of some sort.

Trouble is of course, they were all a bit wet for a while, so we can't really tell!  Like I said, it may be total rubbish.  I don't think it's in Weapons of Warre, and it's def. not in Secrets Of The English War Bow so I could be completely wrong.

I do however think that if you're making thousands of issued weapons, putting something on them that is hardy enough to withstand transportation, weather and the damage of battle in general makes sense, and beeswax alone, or oil alone probably wouldn't do much. 

I dunno.  Probably should have double checked before mentioning it, but it was just a thought.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page