Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Del the cat on November 12, 2014, 06:19:58 am

Title: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Del the cat on November 12, 2014, 06:19:58 am
This is in the style of the Hedeby bow, it's a sort of scaled down version being 68" tip to tip and 60"ntn.
47# @28"
The Yew is from a churchyard, but it's ancient Yew not the decorative stuff.(One of the skinny bits in the pic).
One problem is when people want low weight versions of big bows but expect it to look right.
"I want a Mary Rose Warbow but 30#" It just isn't going to happen.
A bit of deflex in the stave helps to give a fat bow at a low weight.
You can see the deflex and the waggle in the upper limb in the unstrung shot, which is still visible in the FD shot.
I was very sceptical about the excess tip weight, but it seems to shoot like all my other Yew bows, pretty smooth and fast. I have a sneaking suspicion that the lady who wants it may back out ::), if she does, I'll measure the speed, then take off the handles, slim the tips and see what difference it makes.
Enough chat, here's the pics. More on my blog of course.
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/hedeby-bow-detail-full-draw.html (http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/hedeby-bow-detail-full-draw.html)
The original bow in the museum has a strange iron peg/nail in the back below the top nock. This stave had a convenient knot there, so I left that protruding as a peg, which acts as a string keeper.
Del
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Bearded bowyer on November 12, 2014, 06:27:09 am
Gorgeous Del. :)
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Holten101 on November 12, 2014, 06:56:27 am
Crazy bend:-)

Nice one....wish I had quality yew like that

Cheers
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: blackhawk on November 12, 2014, 07:57:54 am
Do ya know the reasoning,or theory behind why they made it with such  long tips past the nocks? I can't remember if I ever read anything anywhere on that? Hopefully she backs out and you can chop those hideous things off and tiddy them tips up ;)  :laugh: .... other than that nice job del ;)
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Del the cat on November 12, 2014, 08:49:40 am
Do ya know the reasoning,or theory behind why they made it with such  long tips past the nocks? I can't remember if I ever read anything anywhere on that? Hopefully she backs out and you can chop those hideous things off and tiddy them tips up ;)  :laugh: .... other than that nice job del ;)
One theory is they are handles so it can be used as a ski pole... dunno, seems daft to me.
I quite like the string retainer peg tho'
Del
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Parnell on November 12, 2014, 09:29:16 am
Do ya know the reasoning,or theory behind why they made it with such  long tips past the nocks? I can't remember if I ever read anything anywhere on that? Hopefully she backs out and you can chop those hideous things off and tiddy them tips up ;)  :laugh: .... other than that nice job del ;)
One theory is they are handles so it can be used as a ski pole... dunno, seems daft to me.
I quite like the string retainer peg tho'
Del

Sounds sensible.  Replica bows are always fun to check out.  Very cool, Del.  Like the bend.
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Buckeye Guy on November 12, 2014, 09:57:16 am
Nice bend Dell !
You may want to reduce the tips a we bit !  ;) >:D :laugh:
Looks like you had fun!
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Del the cat on November 12, 2014, 10:29:34 am
BTW,
It would be no good for hunting the side nocks creak alarmingly as the string moves up the side of the limb opposite the groove.
It would spook anything for 1/4mile and it sure scared the heck out me first time I drew it!
Del
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Carson (CMB) on November 12, 2014, 12:30:26 pm
Very cool Del. I recently say that in the book, Archery: Bow Builders Guide European style Longbows Wood Crafting & Arrows and thought that was an odd design, and would be fun to recreate someday.  Glad to see it done by you Del.  That is a beautiful piece of yew.
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Aaron H on November 12, 2014, 12:42:42 pm
Sweet bend Del
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: wizardgoat on November 12, 2014, 02:05:06 pm
Cool piece of wood and nice bend
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Hrothgar on November 12, 2014, 03:51:27 pm
Nice job reproducing a strange looking duck, Del. That looks to be a perfect tiller too.
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: RBLusthaus on November 12, 2014, 04:11:44 pm
Real sweet bend.  Love the look of yew. 
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: burn em up chuck on November 12, 2014, 08:58:44 pm
    very very cool, still enchanted w/your horn knocks

                                                   chuck

               
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: SLIMBOB on November 12, 2014, 09:35:27 pm
Sweet looking profile.  The tips on the original are puzzling.  Nice work sir.
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: mikekeswick on November 13, 2014, 01:21:55 am
It sure is a strange one. My money is on something ceremonial.
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Jodocus on November 13, 2014, 04:38:19 am
Nice!  8)

After some reasoning I came to the conclusion that the tips have three purposes:

To keep the string out of the dirt, since it was not plastic and would rot. And it sure was dirty in the nord.

To feel and look very norse and fearsome

To get that cool creak when pulling, as in the movies, and be even more fearsome.



Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Del the cat on November 13, 2014, 04:44:08 am
It sure is a strange one. My money is on something ceremonial.
Good theory.
I'm very wary of jumping to conclusions about one off bows, that's what is so great about about the MR bows, enough to draw sensible conclusions (although there is still plenty of argument).
Maybe this was the only one ever made with long extension over the nocks... who knows?

Olaf made it and his friends did mock him sorely, one of them said it was only good as a coat rack and hammered a nail into the back :o.
In a fit of rage Olaf threw it in the bog and thus it survived.

Just a theory of course :laugh:
Del
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Holten101 on November 13, 2014, 06:21:39 am
It sure is a strange one. My money is on something ceremonial.
Good theory.
I'm very wary of jumping to conclusions about one off bows, that's what is so great about about the MR bows, enough to draw sensible conclusions (although there is still plenty of argument).
Maybe this was the only one ever made with long extension over the nocks... who knows?

Olaf made it and his friends did mock him sorely, one of them said it was only good as a coat rack and hammered a nail into the back :o.
In a fit of rage Olaf threw it in the bog and thus it survived.

Just a theory of course :laugh:
Del


Ill buy that;-)

It leaves us with a bit of a problem though...the chance of a ditched failed bow to survive seems higher than that of sound workhorse bows. The Holmegaard bows were found in a kitchen midden, The Muldbjerg bow was fractured and used in a fish trap etc.

There is a slight chance that we go about replicating failures;-)

(Not a thought I truely subscribe to)

cheers
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: dueb on November 13, 2014, 10:48:39 am
Very nice! and very interesting! Great work! ;)
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Onebowonder on November 13, 2014, 04:55:11 pm
It sure is a strange one. My money is on something ceremonial.
Good theory.
I'm very wary of jumping to conclusions about one off bows, that's what is so great about about the MR bows, enough to draw sensible conclusions (although there is still plenty of argument).
Maybe this was the only one ever made with long extension over the nocks... who knows?

Olaf made it and his friends did mock him sorely, one of them said it was only good as a coat rack and hammered a nail into the back :o.
In a fit of rage Olaf threw it in the bog and thus it survived.

Just a theory of course :laugh:
Del

Most of that story is correct, but here's the REST OF THE STORY...

Yes Olaf was vexed that his bowyer peers had mocked his prototype long tips bow, but he didn't throw the oddball bow in the bog.  He actually just went to the corner pub and drowned his sorrows in a tankard of salted sour mead.  While he was in thus indisposed, his shop wench failed to keep a proper watchful eye on her four year old son, Nevel, who loved to play with the tools in the bowyers shop.  Young master Nevel applied a small nail he found in the straw and shavings covered floors with a hammer he found sitting on Olaf's StaveMaster bench.  He hammered it soundly into the newly tillered limb before his mother managed to notice his misdeed.  By the time she noticed, the damage was done! <gasp>  Thinking quickly, she hid Olaf's ruined prototype long tips bow under her skirts and cloak and scooped up young Nevel and scurried out of the shop walking stiff-leggedly to the edge of town.  Once she made the edge of the bog, she pulled out the bow, wrapped it in muslin and tied three heavy cobble stones to it to assure it would sink and stay at the bottom. 

Olaf never spoke to two of his Bowyer guildmates again for three years as they had scorned his craftsmanship over the long tipped bow.  He always assumed they had stolen it to taunt him.  Young master Nevel grew up in the bow shop and eventually become both famous and infamous for the development of a three limbed bow, a suspension system for wheeled carts based on a series of stacked bow limbs, and some the first examples of compound bows, though it was quite some years before any of his ideas ever managed to be proven commercially viable.
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Del the cat on November 13, 2014, 05:35:55 pm
Ah! it all makes sense now.
Oddly enough, I was musing over a three limbed bow only the other day, but I couldn't figure out a string arrangement (yes seriously).
She must have been a very tall wench to hide that bow under her skirts :o
Del
(Nice to know there are others as daft as me :laugh:)
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Hrothgar on November 13, 2014, 07:47:55 pm
I confused, who is Olaf  ???  "but he didn't throw the oddball bow in the bog", " and drowned his sorrows in a tankard of salted sour mead", nice alliterations   ;D
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Marc St Louis on November 13, 2014, 08:10:54 pm
Nice bow, not terribly fond of the overly long tips though.  Did she back out?
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: mikekeswick on November 14, 2014, 02:33:38 am
Holten101 - I hear what you are saying but I flat out refuse to believe the Holmguaard bows were failures! Holmguaards are pretty much the best designed flatbows ever in my eyes. They shoot very fast and with no shock at all and are deadly quiet...if that is a failure I want to know what wasn't!! >:D >:D
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Del the cat on November 14, 2014, 03:30:01 am
Nice bow, not terribly fond of the overly long tips though.  Did she back out?
I e-mailed a week ago, no reply yet, but she's been slow replying to 'em all.
I'm in no rush, got a funeral next week and plenty of other stuff to do. Maybe she's got family to attend to.
I'll give it a decent length of time and then do some speed tests, lop off the tips and repeat the tests, sort of hoping I do get to do the test.
There's another lady waiting on a Yew longbow of that weight who is local to me, she'll be happy to take it.
Del
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Holten101 on November 14, 2014, 03:43:01 am
Holten101 - I hear what you are saying but I flat out refuse to believe the Holmguaard bows were failures! Holmguaards are pretty much the best designed flatbows ever in my eyes. They shoot very fast and with no shock at all and are deadly quiet...if that is a failure I want to know what wasn't!! >:D >:D

Mike I agree 100%;-)....and I have made it my life goal do disprove anyone who says they are failures!

Cheers
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: OTDEAN on November 14, 2014, 08:46:23 am
Nice looking bow Del  8) 8) 8) Them Vikings must have sunk a few meads when coming up with that design for the tips!

Dean
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: scp on November 14, 2014, 04:50:53 pm
I have a nagging suspicion that vikings were so macho as to mistake hand shock as the evidence of powerfulness. They must have been using their bows in a way that the efficiency does not matter much, probably because they were shooting rather heavy arrows at short range targets. Just a guess, but quite possibly falsifiable.
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: IdahoMatt on November 14, 2014, 05:18:20 pm
That's a crazy looking bow del.  I like it.
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Arrowind on November 15, 2014, 06:04:09 pm
Nice work.  Very beautiful.  Hoping you get to chop the tips off.  Would be interesting to hear about the test results.
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: simson on November 17, 2014, 02:21:15 pm
Awesome bow Del, that bend is stunning. :o
Wish we had that good stuff yew here in my region.
Never made a viking bow, now seeing yours - it is definitely on my list!
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: bushboy on November 17, 2014, 06:48:44 pm
Very nice!interesting design!
Title: Re: Del's Hedeby Viking Bow
Post by: Will H on November 17, 2014, 07:07:38 pm
Really cool bow there buddy!