Hey yall,
Weird to be back here after four years! But I have returned to bowyery to capture an old dream of mine. I considered making two posts--one for a review of my old bows and another for ERC aspirations-- but I decided to put them both here since the ERC thing isn't much content by itself.
Regarding my old board bowsFour years ago, I made two bows from boards that I am still comfortable shooting. One is an ash flatbow and the other is a hickory longbow (shallow D profile). You can see for yourself below hopefully, but these are by no means top craftsmanship--the tiller is where I suffered the most, mostly because I was afraid to remove wood from the last 1/3rd of each limb. Always felt like I would make the nocks too weak.
However, they have lived to this day! Granted I haven't shot them a ton, but they certainly lasted longer than the ERC bows I'll mention below... I credit their length, unexcessive draw weight and resilient materials for this. The ash flatbow is the ugly one--the lower limb is horrifiying--but I feel no real fear of it breaking since I don't like it so much
I still have a residual pride for the hickory longbow, but it bends too much in the middle for its own good.
The Beginner Bowyer's Bible (Vol. 1 I believe) has some great information on board bows if you want to get started. Definitely way quicker and easier for us cityfolk.
Regarding my ERC aspirationsIn short, I love the English Longbow and love woods with major heartwood/sapwood distinction, but I'm fighting an uphill battle living in the desert
Only ERC has that lovely heartwood/sapwood distinction at my local lumber store. Thus I have tried and failed with three ERC-heartwood hickory-backed bows. Normally get them working beautifully for 50-100 shots and then they explode
But I blame myself for this, and with four more years of maturity now inside me, Ima carefully make another ERC bow out of a board and see how that goes. Attempt number four! Today I picked up six new ERC boards and read up on ERC from past posts.
I think the past failures were mostly tiller issues, each bow having much too much bend in the middle and not enough in the tips--the same issue as the Hickory longbow mentioned above. It was just too much for that poor heartwood to handle.
For the first few attempts. I think I'm gonna try making an ERC bow that's mostly sapwood. I hear the sapwood is a bit less fragile and I don't mind only having the creamy white at first. I'll work my way to something prettier once I've gotten an ERC that will survive more than a hundred shots. Also gives me a chance to practice tiller on a bow that won't break my heart when it explodes
Here are some pictures of ye olde bows. I don't remember what the ERC bow pulled, but the Ash flatbow pulls around 30#, Hickory longbow about 40#. Will have to double-check that tomorrow.
Cheers everybody!
