Main Discussion Area > Bows
Benefits of a lenticular crossection for white wood bows?
Aksel:
--- Quote from: willie on March 27, 2024, 01:15:47 am ---flat bellies stress the back more.
reliability trumps performance and a soft shooter works better than a broken back.
consider a whitewood bow that may get back dings and dried out over a fire sometimes.
--- End quote ---
Almost all these bows are made from elm which can handle stressed backs well, and some of them did have perfectly flat bellies. They obviously thought about peak performance with some of those extreme lever tipped bows - but made them with lenticular shaped bellies. Between this bow illustrated (Hjärnö) with rounded belly, and the older holmegaard bow with perfectly flat belly, there is apr. 5000 years! Makes you wonder...
Aksel:
--- Quote from: WhistlingBadger on March 26, 2024, 06:31:18 pm ---I've wondered about this too. Chuck Loeffer, following Native American design, uses a lenticular cross-section in his juniper-sinew bows too, and I've never quite understood why.
--- End quote ---
I don´t know much about native american bows, even less of sinew backed bows. But I have worked with juniper, it´s nice and sof and easy to work. Maybe did they go for lenticular cross section because juniper is less tension strong?
Kidder:
Ever notice how we all build different styles of bows? I can see a certain bow and tell you which member made it (some of the time). Maybe it’s the same throughout history with different builders having different design preferences. And then there are the bows built in a certain style because that was what the wood gave us. I imagine two bowyers sitting around a fire thousands of years ago having this same debate.
Aksel:
Haha yes that has of course some truth to it, but I don´t think, over thousands of years, the tried and tested designs they came up with has as much to do with taste as with functionality since they depended on those weapons. In Switzerland they made yew bows with concave bellies instead, which also must have had to do with performance and not taste.
willie:
a question about the Hjarno a little off topic if you dont mind.
do you have or can point to any pics of a hjarno style that show handle details or crossections?
thanks
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