Step 4: ‘Laying out the Bow’
As Pip told me recently: ‘the reason there are no drawings is that almost every bow is different in width, thickness and length.’ From the bits and pieces of information that I’ve turned up—this is very true. Pip has also said that ‘you can’t build a Mary Rose bow by numbers.’ So, in laying out the bow, we have to be careful not to take anything for granted. Here are a few general statements on the elusive ‘average Mary Rose bow.’
1. The average Mary Rose bow is about 77.952” long. Most are about 76-79” with one as short as 73.622”, and a bow as long as 83.020”. (Source
http://www.maryrose.org/ship/bows2.htm )
2. Bows were widest in the handle (of course) and measured about 38-40mm (roughly 1 31/64-1 9/16”) in width, with one bow only 30mm wide and others scattered in-between.
3. War bows were laid out like all English longbows—with the top of the handle about an inch above the center.
4. Width tapered very little for the first 20” out from center.
5. Tips were all almost exactly 12mm (about 31/64ths”) and completely round.
6. Taper was rapid over the last 10-14” of the bow tips, with the remaining space between this point and mid-limb being negotiable.
(Limb depth and section will be covered later)
I’ve included in the pictures a stave that I’m laying out, and my current bow that’s nearly finished. The dark lay-out on the stave shows a safe starting point. The bow, shows how the mass is placed on a typical war bow width taper. You can easily see in the pictures how the bow tapers very little in the middle 40+” and then tapers to very thin tips. Looking closely you’ll get an idea of how this width taper should look. A straight taper from the handle to the tips would not replicate the originals which were beefy to the mid-limb and then tapered rapidly toward the relatively light tips.
For comparisons, I'm 6' 2".
This pic shows the bow from about the handle out to the tip:
A couple things I did:
Start by laying out the handle--find the center of the stave and mark as shown:
To be on the safe side, I chose to lay out the tips about 3/4” wide to reduce the risk of a bandsaw accident.
After the outline was done I worked the tips down to just over 1/2” (later to just under 1/2”).
At mid-limb you bow should be just under the handle width (maybe an 1/8” under).
Be very careful around character. The knot in the pic was avoided in the bow, but created a bump in the stave that will be left a tiny bit wide for safety.
Feel free to ask questions if I’ve been guilty of being vague on anything. Take care.
J. D. Duff