Production rates?

[stuckinthemud]

Quick question, anyone have any idea how many bows a medieval (for arguments sake let’s say 15th century) bowyer would be required to produce? Would be nice to know.

[Hamish]

I'd say a copy of Toxophilus by Ascham, would be the best place to start. Its a Renaissance / Tudor age book, but it details what was required to be a bowyer etc. My copy is in storage, otherwise I'd dig it out and have a look for you.

[stuckinthemud]

Thank you, I’ll try and get hold of a copy

[Badger]

Quick question, anyone have any idea how many bows a medieval (for arguments sake let’s say 15th century) bowyer would be required to produce? Would be nice to know.

  When I am in good working shape I can do about 2 in a day. Not sure how that would compare. I once did 28 reproduction in 3 days but I used a bandsaw .

[WhistlingBadger]

When I'm really crankin' I do about two a year.     Need to get some lessons from Badger.

[Wyrda]

I'd say a copy of Toxophilus by Ascham, would be the best place to start. Its a Renaissance / Tudor age book, but it details what was required to be a bowyer etc. My copy is in storage, otherwise I'd dig it out and have a look for you.

I'm not sure how much help that would be as Toxophilus is about archery rather than bowyery. Though it does have some very interesting details regarding the construction of good bows.

[medicinewheel]

I'm quite sure medieval English bowyery was sort of industialized. Means one guy roughed out blanks, another tillered the bow. The family name Fletcher for instance hints that someones profession was fletching arrows. I even know a German guy who's last name is Tillermann.
@badger: question would be how many ELBs could you - or someone else of your caliber - finish in a workday if you were handed perfectly floor-tillered blanks one after another.

[Badger]

I'm quite sure medieval English bowyery was sort of industialized. Means one guy roughed out blanks, another tillered the bow. The family name Fletcher for instance hints that someones profession was fletching arrows. I even know a German guy who's last name is Tillermann.
@badger: question would be how many ELBs could you - or someone else of your caliber - finish in a workday if you were handed perfectly floor-tillered blanks one after another.

    To finish the tillering would be very quick at that point, maybe 30 minutes. Making the horn nocks was a slow process, perhaps taking a couple of hours. Then, fine sanding and finishing to a customer-ready state would require another couple of hours. I would say out the door, the better part of the day. The detailed work took me a long time because I never really perfected a system for that. When building longbows I would imagine myself to be a production line bowyer that had to put out 2 unfinished bows a day. Floor tillering will usually get you to somewhere between 22" and 24" draw. An experienced bowyer can take a bow to floor tiller and go right to a full brace height and finish tillering. I would brace the bow, even up the tiller at brace, mark my arrow pass area and then go to the tillering rack to start pulling it and adjust the weight and limb balances. I think about 8 man-hours to a fully finished bow was pretty close to how they were manufactured but different processes were likely done by different people.

[Del the cat]

I agree with Badger, except horn nocks are pretty quick to do once you've done a few! I used to hate doing them, but I enjoy it now. The big mistake is starting off with a massive chunk of horn! I reckon 15 minutes will do a horn nock 30 at the outside if using only hand tools.
Del