Main Discussion Area > HowTo's and Build-a-longs
Mary Rose Replica Bow Build-Along--An Entrance into the World of War Bows
thimosabbv:
Very, very well done.
I too have not yet fallen for yew being superior, but I've never tried it yet. I took my inspiration 1st off from reading about the Welsh archers and they were said to have used elm. So I too used elm and have been very happy with it. One day I'll get and try yew and compare the results. Anyways just fantastic how you went about this.
Keenan:
Outstanding buildalong JD. That is one of the finest yew bows that I ever seen,Your workmanship and skills as a master bowyer are shinning through on that one. I agree with Pat, This thread should be archived for all to see. Thanks for all your time and dedication to share the journey. Keenan
duffontap:
Sumpitan,
Tim Baker said that in 'Bows of the World' in his coverage of the English war bow. I haven't tried Alder, Aspen or Poplar for arrows but I'm very familiar with their properties and you're tests confirm my suspicion. My Oak shafts were 1,000 grains and I think Ash may go even heavier. I don't know what a short and light bodkin would weigh but I would think around 300 grains minimum? Long chainmale bodkins would have to weigh 500.
Thimosabbv,
When you work with Yew there is an immediate understanding of why it has been so popular throughout archery history. The performance is good, but it's especially easy to work (important with primitive tools). But, your Elm bows prove that white woods are more than capable of being made into good war bows. The fact that the English used Elm make is a legitimate material for replication. A great bow is a great bow.
Keenan,
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. It's late deer season and I haven't seen so much as a slug in three days. Hunting hard tomorrow.
J. D. Duff
More on arrows today....
duffontap:
Medieval War Arrows: Nocks and Fletching
One of the amazing things about medieval war arrows is how much time was put into something that would, in many cases, be shot only one time. Of course, practice arrows would be used until they were lost or broken, but think of the thousands of sky-blackening arrows that were loosed once and never recovered. After the time I spent building five of these arrows—the thought sickens me. Well, I guess war has never been cheap.
Fletching:
If you saw the picture at the end of yesterdays post and wondered what the two bundles of arrows were—I’ll tell you. That’s an artist’s rendering of what the recovered arrows looked like, and what they may have looked like originally. On the 3,500+ arrows that were recovered, only fragments of the quills from the feathers remained with bits of thread fibers.
What we have learned from these is that the feathers (goose or swan) were all about 7 1/2” long, and they were wrapped with red silk thread. A question that should come up immediately is—why were the feathers that long? Pip suggests that the feathers were cut to a very low ‘hogsback’ profile for flight distance. Others think the fletchings were triangular. Most war bow shooters use a shorter, triangular fletching. I’ve done the fletchings both ways and greatly prefer the ease of doing the shorter feathers that fit in my fletching jig. I made a jig that will do feathers up to 8” but it’s not as nice to use as a Jo-Jan.
In the case of the fletchings, I didn’t strive for perfect recreation but rather for utility. I used super glue to get the feathers on, and then wrapped them with nylon upholstery thread—which I couldn’t find in red. I used turkey feathers because that’s what I had on hand and I love the look and quality.
Nocks:
The Nocks of the arrows were reinforced with a 2” wedge of horn. They were about 1/8” wide and 5/16” deep. Some sort of reinforcement is necessary and my first war bow shots with a dense, hardwood shaft (Ipe) split the nock.
Finished arrows--ready for bodkins!
Bodkins Thursday!
ragi:
Hey JD cpl tips about your arras.
If you wrap farther up the shaft towards the nock you avoid a lot of splitting. I have made Hexshaft self nocks which is gonna be inherently weaker than ash and then wrapped right under the nock yet they have no problems and when you hit the nock with another arrow the wood splits only until the wrapping. Ergo wrapped nocks are good, even with the horn reinforcing slit, wrapping is good.
I notice that you did not extend the feather quills out past the end of the feather and wrapped over. This weakens the wrap job a lot. I leave 1/4 inch front and back so that I can wrap over the quill. And if you cut the projecting quill to 45 degrees along the long axis, it wraps much nicer.
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