Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => English Warbow => Topic started by: WillS on March 07, 2017, 06:45:10 am
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This is a bow I finished late last year, but was finally able to get it shot at the recent Warbow Wales shoot in Chepstow on Sunday.
It's a dimensionally exact replica of the Mary Rose bow MR80A0451 in reasonable quality English yew, with cow horn sidenocks. I don't tiller or weigh my heavy bows past 28", so it was nice to see it at full draw finally! It was about 135lb or 140lb at 28" and when Joe shot a couple of arrows from it he said it was around 150lb at 30" which is more or less average for the MR bows. I imagine if it was made from really good European yew it would be a fair bit heavier still.
The sapwood is too thick in some places, but you can see the heartwood around both sides when looking directly at the back over most of the bow, so it's not far out.
There's a quick video of Joe shooting a 29" Westminster Abbey arrow out of it at the end.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8188/28828277800_de26224c90_k.jpg)
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8463/28496197473_304a74dd05.jpg)
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8029/28493192994_f24a8d1e6f_k.jpg)
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8247/29115112895_be8725d73e_k.jpg)
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8307/28496195993_a19dd638f3_z.jpg)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5_lMpfAVkM
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Very nice!!
Are these warbows at all handshocky? That one sounds very.. smooth..
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Depends how they're tillered I guess. Same with any bow - if the tips are heavy and stiff it'll give you shock unless the arrow is overly heavy.
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Nice to see English Yew, cool nocks.
Del
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Very nice WillS 8), great work, and again, nice to see some English yew get up there.
R.D.
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Nice work
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Cheers folks. I've got a vast amount of English yew of better quality than that stuff seasoning, so I'll make the exact same bow a few more times and see where the weights end up.
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Hi Will
Nice bow as usual.
When making replicas do you follow the dimensions and then tiller accordingly or do you leave the tiller as is if safe, thereby keeping the dimensions true to the original?
Stuart
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This was such a clean stave that I worked it down to final dimensions straight away, fitted the nocks and then checked the tiller. It needed virtually nothing doing to it save for a few adjustments at around 25".
If I'm making Mary Rose "style" bows, I use a set of measurements I averaged out from all the bows put together, add a few mm to everything and go from there.
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Very nice. Looks a bit whip tillered though ;)
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It should do at 29" ;)
The middle works more and more further into the draw. I need to get a shot of it at 31" or something as it comes round nicely there.
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Nice looking bow Will, can't wait to see the FD
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Looks like a beauty but how do you stop the tips working at 29" ;) ;)
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Fairy dust, and magic sidenocks :D
FWIW, I'm happy with the tiller. A video of it being shot a few inches from full draw at an angle isn't exactly the best way to judge the curve of a bow...
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Wow nice beast of a Bow 🏹 mate! I can't believe how easy Joe Gibbs makes the drawing of it look! :o
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He's brilliant. So generous as well, he'll shoot anything you make if you ask nicely :P
150lb is a walk in the park for him now - he was shooting 190lb on a days rove last year. Quite an achievement!
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He has lot of practice and had probably a gazillion of bows to work the weight up. No wonder really.
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Hi Will,
Good to see you and your new addition to the family the other day at the Warbow Wales meet at Wye Valley.
Joe shot your bow well and as you said he very kindly offered to shoot mine also. Thought it would be interesting to post the distances shot with a Westminster Abbey arrow and natural strings:
English Yew 150@30 - 237 yards
English Ash 115@30 - 237 yards
English Yew 120@30 - 230 yards
English Yew 110@30 - 186 yards
English Elder 120@32 - 171 yards
All the best,
Alistair
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Alder eh! Do you know the botanical name?
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Alder eh! Do you know the botanical name?
Sorry, the bow was Elder.
Alistair
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Nice to see the ash bows keeping up with the yew 8), that's quite impressive, I look forward to working the couple of ash staves I have in a few months time, I'm hoping for the same sort of draw weight too, if I'm capable that is :)
Could I ask what weight the Westminster Abbey replica arrows weigh in at? And the general opinion of wood the original was made of?
Thanks,
R.D.
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Hi Alistair,
Always fun shooting with you guys, even if we are knee deep in mud or peering through Welsh fog :D
I've got an English ash 145lb that I'm just getting on top of, so I'll shoot a Westminster through that next time, should be interesting. Then Joe can have a go and put an extra 50 yards on it...!
Darren - my Westminster arrows are smack on 45g if I use aspen, which I *think* the original was. As the WW guys wrote in their web article it's not actually known, but it doesn't look like ash. It could be something odd like willow or hazel or possibly birch, but aspen seems to do very well at the smaller diameter as it's so strong.
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Thanks WillS 8),
Crikey, that's light... That aspen sound ace stuff, does a light arrow like that pose a risk of damage to the bow?
R.D.
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I don't think so, to be honest! Most of my aspen Mary Rose arrows come out between 45g and 55g as well, and that's with a full half inch torpedo taper. I know that Joe's shot a Westminster arrow from a 170lb bow, so I wouldn't worry ;)
As an aside Alistair, have you got the distance the Livery went from the 150lb bow? I think it went further despite being heavier, so I'm not sure what happened with the WA shot!
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I'm surprised that the 115# bow shot the arrow as far as the 150# bow did. We're the arrows different weights? Did the different wood species play a factor? And I'm sure release form plays a large role in it too.
The bow looks great!! That's my goal weight to shoot someday. But at this point I can stand on the string and it'll just come to full draw.
Kyle
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Joe shot both the 115 and the 150 for those recorded distances, so the release would be the same theoretically. I did tell him that the bow had never been past 28", so perhaps he was being gentle ;)
Good ash will shoot as well as yew (sometimes further) of the same weight, as will elm, plum etc but there should be a bigger gap between the two considering the weight difference. Alistair is a far better bowyer than I however, so it could just be that!
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Alder eh! Do you know the botanical name?
Sorry, the bow was Elder.
Alistair
Elder is sambucus nigra (or at least most of the stuff in the UK is). Alder is alnus glutinosa and by all accounts is no good for bows but is better than elm at resisting rot - the Rialto Bridge in Venice is built on alder piles - and its charcoal apparently makes the best gunpowder.
Interesting that a 120lb yew bow (20% lighter) only lost 7 yards (3%) against the 150lb yew. Do you have comparative specs for them and were they shot by the same person with the same arrow?
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Looks good, the lower limb does seem to bend a tad too much but that could just be camera angle
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Could always flip it the other way round I suppose! It'll only get worse as it beds in, otherwise.
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Elder is really cool wood, I throw one stave away after I discovered it has rot, even though shape, length and diameter was enough to produce any bow I wanted.
Jaro says in his "lesser known bow woods" that you can make really heavy bows from it. I believe it, even though at first glance one would not expect such feat from a soft wood.
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As an aside Alistair, have you got the distance the Livery went from the 150lb bow? I think it went further despite being heavier, so I'm not sure what happened with the WA shot!
Hi Will,
Sorry it was slightly less - 227 yards.
Alistair
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Rats! Oh well!
Very odd. I blame the weather :D
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Rats! Oh well!
Very odd. I blame the weather :D
Yeah, my ash bow was down, it shot 219 yards with a WW Livery, but I wasn't helping matters by using over 70g arrows at a tad under 30ins! My Westminster arrow on the day was 51g, but you are correct that somewhere in the 40's could be expected if using Pop.
Alistair
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I’ve got quite a few yew staves seasoning, I’m hoping to make some Mary Rose replicas... where do you get the dimensions? I’ve looked around but to no avail