Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => English Warbow => Topic started by: Del the cat on January 21, 2012, 08:25:33 am
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This is made to approx dimensions of one of the shorter Mary Rose Bows. It's 90# at 28", but it's been taken to just over 29" (see the pic of it on the tiller)
74" ntn 76.5" overall.
I don't want to take it too far due to some serious knot filling work I've done on it. The Yew was cut from an English country estate by a tree surgeon November 2010.
I've been training up for about 2 weeks and can get it to full draw now, I hope to get a pic of me at full draw tomorrow
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/skysalute90.jpg)
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/bowat29.jpg)
Below is the worst filled knot, a big squarish void, filled with yew dust/epoxy mix to provide a stable foundation to drill and peg with 4 pegs of Yew.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/filledknot90.jpg)
Below shows a similar knot on the other limb, these knots go from the centre of the belly out to the side, they never appeared on the back at all, lower right of the knot you can see a small pinch, this seems stable and doesn't worry me too much as it's on the belly. The great thing about this bow is the clean back, with just the one big pimple left proud, see last two pics.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/pinch90.jpg)
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/pimple90.jpg)
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/pimple290.jpg)
The full build story is on my blog (google 'bowyers diary' to find it)
Del
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Good to hear you have managed to get a warbow out of English yew, most ELB bowyers I know say it isn't suitable.
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Beautiful Del. I'm afraid either of those knots would have caused me to fold. Clearly I have lots to learn about yew. You are a master at it. Been watching carefully before attempting the nice stave I have. :)
George
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Good to hear you have managed to get a warbow out of English yew, most ELB bowyers I know say it isn't suitable.
IMO, Those who say it isn't suitable have never tried it, or haven't the patience to find a good bit.
All my Yew longbows so far have been English Yew, (and there are a few on mywebsite, google 'Delsbows' to find it) although I may have a couple of Oregon billets coming my way later in the year so I'll have something for comparison.
Del
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Beautiful Del. I'm afraid either of those knots would have caused me to fold. Clearly I have lots to learn about yew. You are a master at it. Been watching carefully before attempting the nice stave I have. :)
George
Cheers George, I must admit that it's ability to withstand some pretty awful knots does amaze me. I think if you treat it with care and respect it will be very forgiving.
I've learned to excavate any knots with even a trace of black around them and get backdown to clean timber. In fact I recon I could probably find a new career in dentisty now! ;)
I love the pinkish red blusk around the knots, I think the knots were branches which had been cut or broken off and had then grown over. It was quite a mystery at first as I could only see the clean circular bit of the knot on the belly. The rot was only exposed as I reduced the width.
Here's the pretty? side of the bow. It shows the two big knots and the slight set (it had a tad of deflex on the original stave)
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/MRunstrung.jpg) There's a row of pin knots right on the edge of that lower limb too, look a bit like a row of stitches. Always tricky deciding, do I work down that edge a tad and loose 'em or leave 'em be?
Del
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Nice save on those knots to get another sweet looking bow. Beautiful full draw and really like the white horn knocks over the black. I dont think there is a more visually appealing wood than yew. good looking bow Mr Cat.
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Craig was asking about the ring count on another thread, I've just found the off cut from the end of the stave and polished it up.
I've made two marks 1" appart for those with keen eysight who want to count. (Having got my best glasses and some decent light I think it's about 38 rpi, some rings are very fine and close).
The real point is that there is a band of tight rings near the centre of the stave, then they spread out wide just below the sapwood and then they go tight again in the sapwood (doesn't show as it's so white).
So the belly is tight and the back is tight, who cares about the bit in the middle? :)
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/endgrain.jpg)
Del
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Lovely bow. That tint around the knots reminds me of the juniper that grows here. Very pretty stuff.
George
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Lovely bow Del. Well done on the knot saves. If definately makes sense to plug em and get a solid bow.
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I followed this bow on your blog waiting for the eventual "grenade" posting and I was sadly disappointed to see it survived nonetheless. >:D
The appearance of the rotted out knot would have caused me to fold even faster then ol Texas Hold'em Gstoneberg, a sick man with a sick love of sicker wood. Your trick of filling the void with sawdust in a binding matrix, then drilling and filling with yew plugs was very clever indeed. For some reason the overlapping dowels in cross section remind me of bubbles. I'm afraid I would chose a less than dignified name for this bow such as "Mr. Bubbles".
If you ever get stateside, I have a very nice bottle of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo waiting for you and Mrs. the Cat.
Your most obedient servant in the colonies,
John Halverson
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Grenade posting... :laugh:
Hey JW, that's my dream of one day doing a big road trip right up through the states taking in some of the wonderous scenery and meetin' some of you great guys. I think mrs Cat would get all bowed out pretty quick tho' ::).
It saddens me slightly that some people over here don't set their sights higher than Disneyland >:( when there are so many natural wonders to see.
Maybe one day...
Or if any of you guys get over here I'll stand you fish and chips and take you down to Portsmouth to the Mary Rose museum (loads of other good stuff down in 'pompey' (as it's know locally) too).
Cheers
Del
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amazing bow, this makes me motivated to go work on mine ;D, and if you do take a road trip be sure to stop by and see me ;D
great bow
noel ;D
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I can just see Del and fishhead911 double-teaming a poor stave! What a pair!
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Here's another pic, it's the excavated knot.
Note the piece of special Bowyer's carpet ::) on the vice protecting the bow.
The tool for digging out the rot is an old needle file ground down to a chisel point, works like a dream... well like a very small chisel really ;)
You can see from the shape why it needed 4 plugs.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/excavatedknot.jpg)
Del
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Nicely done Del, I have to say I never go to the trouble to fill a knot just leave it a little bigger. But then I haven't used Englsih yew yet.
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Ewww! Gross! That's like looking at photos of tumor surgery!
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Nicely done Del, I have to say I never go to the trouble to fill a knot just leave it a little bigger. But then I haven't used Englsih yew yet.
Yeah, if a knot is sound wood, that's what I'd do.
With this one, I just couldn't figure out where the other end of the knot was, which is why I was cautious.
As I worked away reducing the side of the stave it exposed the rot, it was pretty soft, black and manky.
This shows how it looked just before it was exposed... it looks fine!
Just goes to show, you can't always be sure what lies beneath the surface. If you can see just one end of a knot it begs the question where is the other end!
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/knotbefore.jpg)
You can sort of see how the knot ended suddenly and the wood had grown over it with a nice bulge and continuous sapwood.
Del
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If you can see just one end of a knot it begs the question where is the other end!
Del
There is a lotta wisdom in that statement.
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Hi Del,
Great post and thanks for the additional info, according to the MR archaeologists your bow is "course grained" having 40 or less rings per inch, while the original 80A608 was "fine grained" and therefore had more than 60 RPI. I wonder what difference that really makes?
Regards
Craig.
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It would be interesting to cut two strips from that Yew off cut, one from the tight grain section and one from the coarse and do comparitive tests.
However I expect it would be difficult to cut and test them accurately without machining facilities, even then it would prob' be foolhardy to draw conclusions.
The one good thing about the idea is that we would know the wood was same genetically, which would be one less variable.
A test like that (repeated with enough different samples) would be a good way to determine any corellation between rpi and stiffness/density etc.
Hmm, Maybe I'll have a go if I get the time, a simple deflection test might suffice... simple is good.
Del
PS, I'm still toying with adding a discreet arrow plate (I won't put a leather grip on it), maybe when I do that, I'll measure up the other limb.
In WoW some of the dimensions are a tad difficult to interpret, or they have two dimensions and an asterisk, for which you can't then find the explanation E.G Two different length figures for the same bow... overall and ntn?
Also the dimensions at the 'nock', do they mean the nock groove? I daresay the info is in there somewhere, but theres such a huge amount to plough through and with a finished bow you can't measure at the nock groove once it's covered with horn
(I'm not complaining you understand, it's a great source of info)
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It would be interesting to cut two strips from that Yew off cut, one from the tight grain section and one from the coarse and do comparitive tests.
However I expect it would be difficult to cut and test them accurately without machining facilities, even then it would prob' be foolhardy to draw conclusions.
The one good thing about the idea is that we would know the wood was same genetically, which would be one less variable.
A test like that (repeated with enough different samples) would be a good way to determine any corellation between rpi and stiffness/density etc.
Hmm, Maybe I'll have a go if I get the time, a simple deflection test might suffice... simple is good.
Del
PS, I'm still toying with adding a discreet arrow plate (I won't put a leather grip on it), maybe when I do that, I'll measure up the other limb.
In WoW some of the dimensions are a tad difficult to interpret, or they have two dimensions and an asterisk, for which you can't then find the explanation E.G Two different length figures for the same bow... overall and ntn?
Also the dimensions at the 'nock', do they mean the nock groove? I daresay the info is in there somewhere, but theres such a huge amount to plough through and with a finished bow you can't measure at the nock groove once it's covered with horn
(I'm not complaining you understand, it's a great source of info)
Hi Del,
IMO an arrow plate would be out of place on a bow such as you have shown, why not demark the arrow pass with an incised pattern, (a smiling cat maybe?) but thats my opinion, you as bowyer should do as you wish.
Re the two different lengths for the bows, they have
1, measured along the back of the bow, and;
2, measured directly knock to nock.
If the bow was perfectly straight then the two measurments would be the same but if the bow has any reflex or deflex then the measurments would be different. The measurment along the back of the bow are the ones that would give you the actual length of the bow.
I have assumed that the measurments "at the nock" are taken at the discolouration which indicates the location of the end of the horn, the dimensions seem to agree with my assumption as they tend to be about 12 mm, ranging from 11 to 14 as I recall, as well as agreeing if the dims are taken at the point I believe then we have the location of them as we are given the length of the stain.
Regards
Craig.
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I shot it again at the club, much better draw this time, here's a pic (taken from video so the quality isn't great).
It makes the lower limb look a tad stiff, but that could be an artefact of the video scan plus my movement. V difficult to get a decent still as I can't hold full draw for long yet.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/90fdcrop.jpg)
Here's a link to the video.
http://s411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/websitevideos/?action=view¤t=MRcopyvid.mp4
Del
(PS Thanks for the dimensional clarification Craig :))
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Its funny how the tiller can change so much when its drawn, are you going to remove a little from that lower limb or keep her as she is.
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Del The bow looks great the way you filled the knots shows patience that I think a lot of us should aspire to My self included. Ronnie
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Its funny how the tiller can change so much when its drawn, are you going to remove a little from that lower limb or keep her as she is.
Here's a still pic of full draw, top limb to the right.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/MRFD.jpg)
The video capture pic looks worse for several reasons, the scan of the camera is reacting with the downward movement of the bow as I bring it down onto the target (or maybe even the actual loose) and the lighter background of the sky is also distorting the image. The previous frame looks fine.
In the still you can see the lower limb is a tad stif in the third nearest the grip, but that is where the knot with the pinch is, so I must take care.
The bow is actually 92# at 28" so I make take off a couple of scrapes either side of the pinch without making it under weight.
I shall do plenty of thinking about it before doing anything.
Stills captured from video can be very distorted and it would be a big mistake to adjust the tiller on that basis.
The purpose of the still from the video was to show that I'd actually got back to a decent draw length rather than to show the tiller.
Here's a frame or two earlier. The top nock is just in front of the tree trunk as I havn't started bringing it down onto target and the bow doesn't look so distorted, the extra half inch draw isn't going to make much difference, it's the slow scan of the capture and the movement of the bow that causes the distortion. I've seen a photo of an arrow leaving the bow taken with a regular digital camera which happened to catch the moment by chance. The string looked completely slack and wobbly, there was all sorts of esoteric dicussion about string oscillation until it was pointed out that it was just an 'artefact' of the camera.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/MRFD2.jpg)
Del
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hey del,that is a great bow..i seen it on your blog...i didnt read all through this topic...but, i do have a question for you or some one who might know...what causes the purple color in yew..i have seen this in yew before but never found out why...thanks john
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hey del,that is a great bow..i seen it on your blog...i didnt read all through this topic...but, i do have a question for you or some one who might know...what causes the purple color in yew..i have seen this in yew before but never found out why...thanks john
I don't know, but it seems to be round the knots which have formed from dead branches on this Yew.
Del
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Wonderful work Del - as ever. Hope we might see the bow at one of the events this spring/summer. Stan
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Wonderful work Del - as ever. Hope we might see the bow at one of the events this spring/summer. Stan
Cheers,
The guy I built it for is coming to collect it this afternoon, so I may never see it again Bwahhhhh :'(.
But on the other hand, once it warms up a bit I'll get on with the next bow.
Del
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Congratulations on making a replica MR bow. Edward lll sent his bowyer to find some English yew for bows, but everyone considered it to be not the best and the mountain yew from dry areas was used when they could get it. The measurement of MR bows at the point the horn starts is 12 mm often enough to be considered standardization.. Rather than a discreet arrow plate, why not do the mediaeval and Tudor thing with a one inch buckskin strip glued around the bow at the arrow pass? You can see where one was on one of the MR bows. That would be more appropriate for a replica, but I guess its too late now. I see you are testing it with only the Victorian corner of the mouth draw. The tiller looks good enough and the bow is long enough for your customer to safely manage a 32 draw.
Erik
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@Bow toxo
The guy I built it for wanted 28" draw. I'm sure it would come back further. I tested it on the tiller to 29", with those two big bad knots I didn't want to risk it further unecessarilly.
I'm drawing it as far as I can! :'( I'm not a youngster anymore... >:(
Del
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@Bow toxo
The guy I built it for wanted 28" draw. I'm sure it would come back further. I tested it on the tiller to 29", with those two big bad knots I didn't want to risk it further unecessarilly.
I'm drawing it as far as I can! :'( I'm not a youngster anymore... >:(
Del
Del's memory may be hazy, but he has oft related when his mum held him in her arms as they waved from shore watching the Mary Rose set sail....
>:D
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@Bow toxo
The guy I built it for wanted 28" draw. I'm sure it would come back further. I tested it on the tiller to 29", with those two big bad knots I didn't want to risk it further unecessarilly.
I'm drawing it as far as I can! :'( I'm not a youngster anymore... >:(
Del
Del's memory may be hazy, but he has oft related when his mum held him in her arms as they waved from shore watching the Mary Rose set sail....
>:D
LMAO :laugh:
Del
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@Bow toxo
The guy I built it for wanted 28" draw. I'm sure it would come back further. I tested it on the tiller to 29", with those two big bad knots I didn't want to risk it further unecessarilly.
I'm drawing it as far as I can! :'( I'm not a youngster anymore... >:(
Del
I know what you mean. 90# at 29" would be too much for me these days. I posted before reading your other postings. I would not have thought that anyone wanting a Mary Rose replica would be doing Victorian shooting, but maybe he planned to make the shorter Mary Rose arrows which must have been shot oiut of the bows that were found.
Erik
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@Bow toxo
The guy I built it for wanted 28" draw. I'm sure it would come back further. I tested it on the tiller to 29", with those two big bad knots I didn't want to risk it further unecessarilly.
I'm drawing it as far as I can! :'( I'm not a youngster anymore... >:(
Del
I know what you mean. 90# at 29" would be too much for me these days. I posted before reading your other postings. I would not have thought that anyone wanting a Mary Rose replica would be doing Victorian shooting, but maybe he planned to make the shorter Mary Rose arrows which must have been shot oiut of the bows that were found.
Erik
A reasonable assumption unless the shorter arrows were fitted with long bodkin heads and the arrow drawn past the shoulder of the bodkin, as was demonstrated by Alanesq and is, I believe, mentioned on his site.
Craig.
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how much and where are thsoe oregon billets?
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Great bow Del! I am sure this bow could be drawn further.
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How is Yew to work? Is it soft, hard? stinky?
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How is Yew to work? Is it soft, hard? stinky?
It's more soft than hard. It is really beautiful to work with. a real pleasure. more so than any other woods I have tried. There is no stink, but the dust is said to be poisonous.
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How is Yew to work? Is it soft, hard? stinky?
The heartwood is crisp, but still pretty soft.
The sapwood is softer by comparison, say if you think of an apple with a nice piece of cheese the heart is the apple the sap the cheese.
Dmn, that's made me hungry now.
Del
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A reasonable assumption unless the shorter arrows were fitted with long bodkin heads and the arrow drawn past the shoulder of the bodkin, as was demonstrated by Alanesq and is, I believe, mentioned on his site.
Craig.
I'm trying to think why there would be very long bodkins fitted to the shorter shafts. I'm aware they were used for fire arrows but they couldn't be over-drawn. I know Alan and respect his analytical mind but never subscribed to his theory on this. Common sense, to me, would dictate that a longer shaft is a far easier and cheaper way to achieve a longer draw length if that was the aim. What are your thoughts on the theory?
Jeremy
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Question: What does a Yew Self bow such as this one run? I have no idea. I want to say I saw a price pushing 2K U.S. once.
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$1000 is not an unreasonable price for a warbow weight yew self bow.
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Price depends if the bowyer is doing it as a business with all the associated overheads or doing it for the love of it for a few people who take the trouble to visit using using materials sourced very cheaply (or free).
Del
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I'm trying to think why there would be very long bodkins fitted to the shorter shafts. I'm aware they were used for fire arrows but they couldn't be over-drawn. I know Alan and respect his analytical mind but never subscribed to his theory on this. Common sense, to me, would dictate that a longer shaft is a far easier and cheaper way to achieve a longer draw length if that was the aim. What are your thoughts on the theory?
Jeremy
Ascham said that the draw is to the barbs or the shoulder of the head. I think that the theory that the draw would be unnecessarily extended to the tapered socket is runaway speculation.
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Erik,
As I'm sure you will know Pip Bickerstaffe has a theory that the shorter shafts are for a target type draw for close quarters shooting. I'm not sure that that is the whole reason as it is possible to be accurate with a longer draw. However, this would certainly enable an archer to shoot more rapidly at short range when the ships drew up together. At a 28 draw you don't have to lay yourself in the bow as much and against un-armoured sailors amply powerful enough. Speed shooters take this to an extreme but a mid range draw length 28 still stores a lot of energy at these weights of bow.
I fully agree with you about the different heads enabling a longer draw theory is very speculative. I just can't see a good reason for it.
Jeremy
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I just don't see any point in putting a longer head on to increase potential draw length. Sure you could draw further but why not just make the shaft an inch or two longer? It would also likely mess with paradox to a small degree.
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Very beautiful bow dell, i would think that i would not be able to draw the weight at that length but i shure would enjoy looking at it ;)
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SWEETTTTTTTTTTT
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nice job on that knot!! beautiful bow
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This is made to approx dimensions of one of the shorter Mary Rose Bows. It's 90# at 28", but it's been taken to just over 29" (see the pic of it on the tiller)
74" ntn 76.5" overall.
I don't want to take it too far due to some serious knot filling work I've done on it. The Yew was cut from an English country estate by a tree surgeon November 2010.
I've been training up for about 2 weeks and can get it to full draw now, I hope to get a pic of me at full draw tomorrow
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/skysalute90.jpg)
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/bowat29.jpg)
Below is the worst filled knot, a big squarish void, filled with yew dust/epoxy mix to provide a stable foundation to drill and peg with 4 pegs of Yew.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/filledknot90.jpg)
Below shows a similar knot on the other limb, these knots go from the centre of the belly out to the side, they never appeared on the back at all, lower right of the knot you can see a small pinch, this seems stable and doesn't worry me too much as it's on the belly. The great thing about this bow is the clean back, with just the one big pimple left proud, see last two pics.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/pinch90.jpg)
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/pimple90.jpg)
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/pimple290.jpg)
The full build story is on my blog (google 'bowyers diary' to find it)
Del
No one can believe it when I show them pictures of huge knots like that in a bending bow, let alone such a heavy bending bow. Its a nice bow for sure. I'm jealous.
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[quote author=CraigMBeckett link=topic=30201.msg407851#msg407851 @Bow toxo
The guy I built it for wanted 28" draw. I'm sure it would come back further. I tested it on the tiller to 29", with those two big bad knots I didn't want to risk it further unecessarilly.
I'm drawing it as far as I can! :'( I'm not a youngster anymore... >:(
Del
[/A reasonable assumption unless the shorter arrows were fitted with long bodkin heads and the arrow drawn past the shoulder of the bodkin, as was demonstrated by Alanesq and is, I believe, mentioned on his site.
Craig.
[/quote]
Instructions of the period were to draw an arrow to the barbs, or the shouldering of the head, and such a counter intuitive act seems to me pointless to attempt.
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A reasonable assumption unless the shorter arrows were fitted with long bodkin heads and the arrow drawn past the shoulder of the bodkin, as was demonstrated by Alanesq and is, I believe, mentioned on his site.
Craig.
I'm trying to think why there would be very long bodkins fitted to the shorter shafts. I'm aware they were used for fire arrows but they couldn't be over-drawn. I know Alan and respect his analytical mind but never subscribed to his theory on this. Common sense, to me, would dictate that a longer shaft is a far easier and cheaper way to achieve a longer draw length if that was the aim. What are your thoughts on the theory?
Jeremy
Sorry not to have responded earlier Jeremy, but have not visited this site for a while, time spent on other things.
As for my thoughts on Allan's idea, I too have my doubts as to the idea but, ignoring anything to do with spine as it did not seem to enter into the medieval archers thoughts, I can think of at least one reason the idea and that is to maintain a "standard" length, so they could fit in arrow chests/barrels that large stocks were both stored and moved around in and also would fit within the "standard" arrow bag such as found on the Mary Rose.
Erik,
I believe you put far too much store into the few written documents that mention anything to do with archery especially as the few that there are were written for the aristocratic hunter who bought his own expensive equipment and was using it to hunt with, not the soldier who used what he was given. I would also suggest that far from being "counter intuitive" drawing an arrow to a set distance, one that ones muscle memory is familiar with is instinctive, drawing to any other distance is counter intuitive, so if presented with a arrow the shaft of which is short but the cylindrical shaped head of which is long enough to allow a full length draw the intuitive thing to do would be to pull it to full length.
On another tack has your book been published yet? Don't bother answering I see from Amazon it is ans that they only have a few copies left. Well Done.
Dell,
I think I have already congratulated you on this bow, if not I apologise for my tardiness and do so now.
Regards
Craig.
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A reasonable assumption unless the shorter arrows were fitted with long bodkin heads and the arrow drawn past the shoulder of the bodkin, as was demonstrated by Alanesq and is, I believe, mentioned on his site.
Craig.
I'm trying to think why there would be very long bodkins fitted to the shorter shafts. I'm aware they were used for fire arrows but they couldn't be over-drawn. I know Alan and respect his analytical mind but never subscribed to his theory on this. Common sense, to me, would dictate that a longer shaft is a far easier and cheaper way to achieve a longer draw length if that was the aim. What are your thoughts on the theory?
Jeremy
[
Erik,
I believe you put far too much store into the few written documents that mention anything to do with archery especially as the few that there are were written for the aristocratic hunter who bought his own expensive equipment and was using it to hunt with, not the soldier who used what he was given. I would also suggest that far from being "counter intuitive" drawing an arrow to a set distance, one that ones muscle memory is familiar with is instinctive, drawing to any other distance is counter intuitive, so if presented with a arrow the shaft of which is short but the cylindrical shaped head of which is long enough to allow a full length draw the intuitive thing to do would be to pull it to full length.
Regards
Craig.
I believe they were written to describe the archery of the period whoch was practised for war by virtually every man in England. Don't forget that aristocrats were still in combat forces in Tudor times and only barons or scholars were exempt. Intuitive has to cover tho distinct lengths of arrows, and ovedrawing a barbed arrow would not have been thought wise. Barbs were vertically up and down and draw was specified "to the barbs or the shouldering of the head"
Otherwise, thanks.
Erik
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Hi,
I have only just seen this topic and wanted to jump back to the start and concur with what Dell said about English Yew re: "Those who say it isn't suitable have never tried it, or haven't the patience to find a good bit" This myth about English yew not being any good for making longbow/warbows really is a bugbear of mine. I have made a good number of selfbows out of English yew, including heavy warbows and I have worked some great yew with ring counts up to 100rpi, and with ring counts quite often in the region of 60 rpi. From my own experience I can say that this myth is simply just that, a myth that is repeated by people that have not experienced in working with English/British yew.
I used to work as a forester and a tree surgeon, and have always taken an interesting in tree growth rates and how they vary in relation to a number of factors including low ground water, shallow infertile soils, restricted daylight, impacts due to regular cutting - coppicing/pollarding for example. Theses are all factors that will restrict the growth of yew (and other tree species) whether that be here in blighty or somewhere outside of the UK!
Cheers >>>-------------->
Iain
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Del, i am really interested in what you've done here! can you tell me how you got the bow so darn smooth and glassy please? I really like your bows!
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Del;
First , congratulations on a fine looking bow from a challenging piece of wood. I now know I need to dig a little deeper in the knots.
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Hi,
I have only just seen this topic and wanted to jump back to the start and concur with what Dell said about English Yew re: "Those who say it isn't suitable have never tried it, or haven't the patience to find a good bit" This myth about English yew not being any good for making longbow/warbows really is a bugbear of mine. I have made a good number of selfbows out of English yew, including heavy warbows and I have worked some great yew with ring counts up to 100rpi, and with ring counts quite often in the region of 60 rpi. From my own experience I can say that this myth is simply just that, a myth that is repeated by people that have not experienced in working with English/British yew.
I used to work as a forester and a tree surgeon, and have always taken an interesting in tree growth rates and how they vary in relation to a number of factors including low ground water, shallow infertile soils, restricted daylight, impacts due to regular cutting - coppicing/pollarding for example. Theses are all factors that will restrict the growth of yew (and other tree species) whether that be here in blighty or somewhere outside of the UK!
Cheers >>>-------------->
Iain
Iain, that is why lower elevation Yew is so much cheaper than upper elevation, high ring count Yew here in North America. Personnelly, I haven't found a bad piece of Yew.
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Del, i am really interested in what you've done here! can you tell me how you got the bow so darn smooth and glassy please? I really like your bows!
Cheers,
I get the finish with scraping and sanding, Danish oil and then a beeswax polish, it's just down to patience (or is that stubborness?).
I use wet or dry paper as it is tougher and longer lasting than sandpaper. I go from 80-120 down to 240 and then 400grit.
On the back I sometimes use a bit of wire wool moistened with white spirit on little concave areas, and also needle files to get into the nook and crannies.
Most of it is just down to perseverance.
I get a coat of Danish oil on quite early as it shows up the tool marks, then I sand them out and give it another wipe. Then I sand the next lot of imperfections and give it another wipe. Then I think the finish is good and I take it outside in the daylight to take sopme photos and I notice some more tool marks so I sand it down again and start over.
You know it's done when you find yourself peering hard at a tiny mark trying to decide if it's a file mark or the grain! ;D
When I was a kid I couldn't understand why you put on a coat of varnish/ paint etc and then rub it down... but then as a kid you don't have the experience and patience.
It's also the thing whereby lots of light coats are better than one thick one. Some guys use thck gloss spray on stuff, fine if you are really going to shoot in the rain, I prefer a more subtle sheen. When I've done wiping over Danish oil every night for a week, I'll give it a go with a soft beeswax polish and buff it up with a rag.
Sometimes I don't spend as much effort. Recently finished a maple flat bow wehich I left with some rasp marks in the belly which was about 2" wide, I didn't want to risk scraping those out and spoiling the tiller.
Del
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Hi Eddie,
Part of my point was that the wood does not have to come from high elevations for it have a high ring count. The factors I mentioned can all apply at low altitudes and are not only restricted to mountain area's. I have found very dense yew growing at altitudes close to sea level.
Great bow by the way Dell :)
Iain