Long Bow Maker Wanted

[pupper]

yah it could very well be mahogany but it seems more pinkish than the mahogany ive seen.

[greybark]

yah it could very well be mahogany but it seems more pinkish than the mahogany ive seen.

Hey Pupper could it be bleached or faded?

[Hans]

Here is some info for what it's worth.

The longbow IS NOT an English thing. While they refined it for the woods that were native to the area a longbow is just that, a long bow. Had the French had Turkish, or some of the other asiatic bows, the English would have been destoyed. The English used the long bow style as it is easy to make and anybody could build one. Recurves, reflex, deflex take more effort and smarts to make. The English archers were not the most educated as they were mainly the peasants and lower class and they had to be able to maintain their own equipment. A noble wouldn't be caught dead as an archer. The archers were also fodder and were not very well treated by the nobility of the time. When it got to hand to hand, archers were dessimated, very little armour of any kind and virtually no other weapons training.

The reason the English used a longer bow is the weights in which their warbows came to 80-140lbs. The reason they used a longer stave of wood is something called wood stacking. It feels like hitting a wall on a compound bow. The wood can only bend so far before you start crysallising the cells. At that point the bow breaks, or you lose poundage that never comes back. The longer the stave, the more weight of the bow as it doesn't need to flex as much, though the stave is thicker or wider. And the big momma warbows were up in the #200 range and shot by sitting down and using their feet on the bow with two hands on the strings, they were "a man and and a half " long, say seven to eight feet.
.
English bows used two main styles "D" and flat. But they didn't discover or invent them. While they did use yew, there were many other woods used. Had the enviroment been condusive, they would have probably backed them, but the times led to hide glue which doesn't stay together very well in a humid enviroment.

Any wood can be used for a bow, you just have to make sure the bow is designed for the wood used. For some goofy reason people seem to think you can only make a bow out of Yew or Osage orange.

I've built 25-30 bows using many woods, styles and techniques. Built one out of a Home Depot 2x4 for someone that said it wouldn't work. He used it, and got a nice 6 point deer with it. It ended up being #47 at 28", if I remember right, it ended up being about 75 inches long. He liked it so much I never saw it again, except when we shot together and he brought it with him.

The old Turkish flight bows were composites and were comparable to modern day composite bows. Old art, and takes FOREVER to build one.

If you want to build a bow, I'd suggest going to stickbow.com. You can also look at traditional archery magazine or Primitive Archery Magazine. There are others, but these would be good starts.

For supplies I used 3riversarchery.com, expensive, but good stuff.

Drop me an email and I'll send you a couple of step by step directions for building a selfbow and a takedown. Tell me what wood you have, the weight you want and draw length and I'll give you a general idea of the dimensions you will need. Also, are you making a flat bow, or one like the "D" style that are in the Robin Hood movies? By the way, draw leangth for traditional equipment can very likely be different from compound stuff.

If you want to get into building bows "The Bowyer's Bible" is indispensible. I think there are 4 volumes now.

Do a search for Paul Comstock, Tim Baker, Jim Hamm, Jay St. Charles, Jeff Schmidt, and Jay Massey, a few of the Gods of traditional archery IMO

[OOBuck]

talk about a hijacked thread eh? this has turned into an argument of who invented the first longbow, which is an unwinable argument by the way.

I invented it, take that..

The circus left town you clowns, this thread is about BOW MAKERS... not the F!&#&ing English long bow or the Canadian long bow or cupids bow for that matter... Go argue somewhere else.

[OOBuck]

Hey Pupper

Here's one for you, how hard would it be to cut eastern maple into 1/8" strips, seeing how you work at a mill and all???

[islandboy]

Hey Pupper

Here's one for you, how hard would it be to cut eastern maple into 1/8" strips, seeing how you work at a mill and all???

I am building a set of cabinets out of eastern maple and find the wood dulls your tools (saws/planers) really quickly. Hence its nickname "rock maple". Working on a couple of board bows out of it as well.

Oh and regarding your (OOBuck's) signature - remember you would have to claim it as income and they will tax you twice!

[Grantmac]

Hard Maple isn't what I'd call the best lumber for bow building. Moreover gluing-up many laminations of the same wood dosn't get you much in the way of performance.
Every glue-line is added weight that stores no energy. If you want a fairly exotic shape then you want to do it with as few laminations as possible and you want to use different woods for their different qualities.
Hickory or Bamboo on the back is good because it's very strong in tension, Ipe, Juniper or Osage on the compression side.
Cheers,
Grant

[OOBuck]

I am building a set of cabinets out of eastern maple and find the wood dulls your tools (saws/planers) really quickly. Hence its nickname "rock maple". Working on a couple of board bows out of it as well.

Oh and regarding your (OOBuck's) signature - remember you would have to claim it as income and they will tax you twice!

I checked out a really cool sight last night bowstick.com, check it out!!

[Monashee]

Nakusp yew bowyer , http://www.thewoodenbow.com/about_us.html