Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
Evidence OTHER than MR Bows of 120+ bows?
toomanyknots:
--- Quote from: WillS on November 24, 2013, 04:25:04 pm ---Well I do know that a lot of Steve's bows that he made as exact replicas of the MR bows were actually made 2-3 inches longer so they could withstand constant shooting without breaking, and most of his (using the same wood with the same ring count and dimensions of course) came out around 160-190lbs. Factor in the poundage gained by shortening and 200lbs doesn't seem far fetched!
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Course than again if the historical draw length was not a full 32" (or at the least varied, judging by the arrows found on the mary rose) than we are right back to 160 - 190, :). That's crazy that his replicas were longer. Maybe some of the bigger dimensioned bows were just made of not that great wood, and had bigger dimensions to meet the typical weight the bowyer wanted. Do we know what the ring count of the wood used was on any of the bows, or have they been so effected by time and decay that it is not possible to know? I guess a bow would have to be cut up though to find out.
Bearded bowyer:
--- Quote from: WillS on November 23, 2013, 06:25:05 pm ---Pfffftttsssh. The "modern lifestyle" argument doesn't fly with me. We as a generation are soft, spoiled, pampered and weedy compared to our medieval ancestors who fought to survive, worked outside every day, had no chemically modified food, tvs, computers etc and yet we can shoot 150+ bows after a couple years of training. The idea that medieval man would have struggled even slightly is daft using that line of debate.
Debate is why we're all here. If the conversation doesn't appeal, there's not a huge amount of point taking the time to post "stop arguing" is there? Just don't read/reply. It's like the YouTube comments such as "this music is crap" - just skip it, not hard.
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I apologise for being old and grumpy ::) But I does seem incredible that there were thousands of people out there who used to be able to shoot 180-200lbs bow.........( what a truly terrifying prospect!)
Just to add my own experience, I'm now shooting 100lbs@28" target style. I can hold it at full draw for several seconds comfortably. But I admit I'm not a great shot, even with a 30lb bow.
My personal aim is to see just how high I can go with target style draw rather than warbow draw. It will be interesting to see just how far I can go.
And in the defence of my generation, we didn't have computer, didn't watch much T.V, didn't eat junk food. And I personally work a 12-14 hour day most days......we aren't all soft ! ;)
I did read some very interesting studies into nutrition and development back when I was at med school, It basically stated that the upper and middle classes mostly reached full maturity by their early twenties, but the working classes quite often didn't reach full physical maturity until nearly 30!
There figures were probably based on the industrial age, so I'm not sure how this would equate to medieval times though......
The physiology of strength development is fairly straight forward though. progressive training with sufficient amino acids/ protein to allow the strengthening of the muscles ligaments and tendons.
Does anyone out there know what sort of diet was available back then?
Grumpy Matt ;)
WillS:
Daniel, there are quite a few excellent cross section photos of Mary rose bows, and the wood quality is SUPERB. I'll try and find some and post them here. Steve has inspected them all by hand, so he knows the quality and is able to make replicas closer than most, especially considering his ability to get hold of Italian yew from the same area.
The reason the bowyers guilds imported yew from so far away was to get premium quality. They were only using the absolute best of the best!
WillS:
Here ya go, one cross section! This shows just why Italian yew is so highly treasured - you won't get density like this on English yew!
(Well, maybe you do but I've not found any this good yet!)
toomanyknots:
--- Quote from: WillS on November 24, 2013, 06:04:14 pm ---Here ya go, one cross section! This shows just why Italian yew is so highly treasured - you won't get density like this on English yew!
(Well, maybe you do but I've not found any this good yet!)
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Woah! Wow! Those are some tight rings right there! Thank you for the info and the picture. That's some slow growing wood.
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