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Making hedeby "Viking" bow?

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FilipT:
Accuracy doesn't matter really, after all bow will have fast flight string haha. I am more interested in the design of the bow and replicating it with available wood. Although I could use hazel instead black locust, no problem there really. Elm and yew are not growing here.

TorstenT:
Does this help you? There are no dimensions, though. But you can see, that it has an almost round cross section all over the bow. I doubt that Hazel would work, since it has a tendency to chrysal and will probably take a lot of set. My first ELB is made from Hazel, but only as with 40# @ 30”. I was very lucky and it didn’t chrysal, but took almost 4” of set. It’s really lame actually...  :D
My father lives a few miles away from Hadeby, which is Haithabu today. I saw this bow several times in the museum. Weylin’s version is awesome, but a tad too short for this type of bow at a 30” draw. The original finds were at least 71” long.

Strichev:
I think that Jürgen Junkmanns has some info on the bow in his book "Pfeil und Bogen: Von der Altsteinzeit bis zum Mittelalter". Not sure though. You could also try to dig up 'Pfeil und Bogen in Haithabu'. In Geibig, A. and Paulsen, H. (1999) paper. I tried but couldn't find it anywhere online.

Weylin:

--- Quote from: TorstenT on May 29, 2018, 09:47:01 am ---Weylin’s version is awesome, but a tad too short for this type of bow at a 30” draw. The original finds were at least 71” long.

--- End quote ---

I made my first version at around 71" long and it shot slower than I would have liked and had a bit of hand shock. The original bow was pretty heavy in draw weight. The length made sense for that draw weight and length. The reason my first one didn't preform that well was because it was only 55#, it was over built. The 68" bow that I made shot so much better. It felt more proportional. So it wasn't an exact replica, but it felt like the right dimensions for what I was asking of the stave.

TorstenT:
Yeah - sounds reasonable... ...I wasn’t considering the lower draw weight. A couple of years ago I met Harm Paulsen, the author of ‘Pfeil und Bogen in Haithabu’ in Hedeby. He carried an almost exact reconstruction of this bow with a draw weight of around 80#. He said, that the original is estimated to have just under 100# at 75” ttt.
His bow was beautifully crafted and had a linen string. Armed with this bow, I’d say “Stay out of Harm’s way!”  :D

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