A few bowmaking & general archery questions...

[Draven]

Howdy folks!

Question 1 (well, more the first set of questions...):
While I was browsing for a cow horn to make a Drinking Horn, I found the following site:
http://www.english-longbow.co.uk/cat20.htm

If you scroll down past the longbows and arrows, under "Longbow Making Materials" they sell Lemonwood staves...

Personally, I've not heard anything about the bowmaking qualities of Lemonwood, everywhere I've went seems to focus on Yew, Osage and Hickory - can anyone vouch for lemonwood staves?
They sell a few Lemonwood bows, though they don't mention poundages. I know they say that:

Lemonwood has for many years found favour as a bow making timber because of its excellent cast and reliability

But yknow, I just wanna make sure.

Also, if it is a good bow wood, should I or should I not back it with something? I'm not looking to make anything too powerful, just in the region of 50lbs @ 28" (though I'd really need a longer draw length, long arms and all that).


And question 2...

What exactly defines a flatbow? Most of the flatbows that i've seen seem to be not only made out of a wide and thin piece of wood, but also have little flex in the arms. So is it a flatbow because the wood in the arms are actually flat, or because the arms are still relatively straight when the string is pulled back?

Cheers folks!

 

[Ogri the trog]

Question 1 I can answer, but not 2,
I have at least two lemonwood bows, both backed with hickory (one might have a purpleheart layer in it as well) so they do make good bows. One is by Richard Head, the other unknown origin, but both tillered by Ron Bickerstaff. The heaviest is about 65lb at 32 inches - so it is more than capable of becoming a suitable bow for you. I'm suprised that you counted Yew in the same sentence as Osage etc as the price (when I was looking some years ago) puts a lot of people off

Any way over to someone else for the flatbow definition.

Ogri the trog

 

[stovie]

Howdy folks!

And question 2...

What exactly defines a flatbow? .......So is it a flatbow because the wood in the arms are actually flat, or because the arms are still relatively straight when the string is pulled back?

Cheers folks!

Nothing EXACTLY defines a flatbow. but as the name suggests, the limbs of the bow are "flat" (rectangular) in profile as opposed to the traditional D profile of an ELB.

as for limbs being relatively straight when drawn, i'd question the tiller not being as good as it should be, or you may be fooled into thinking that they are not drawing into a curve because the mid section and handle will probably be quite stiff, with most curve occurring beyond the mid third...

 

[Snufkin]

You don't need to back lemonwood but it is advisable as it is much stronger in compression than tension. It is usually backed with hickory as this is the strongest wood in tension. It tends to take some set, which some target shooters feel is benificial to a smooth draw and release and why it is popular for victorian style butt bows, the bows most commonly sold as english longbows.
A flat bow is a bow that is wide across the back with a rectangular limb cross section and has a narrowed, stiff handle section, where a longbow is widest at the handle and has a D shaped cross section. There are further differences in tiller (how the bow bends) but those are really just performance tweaks for the particular style as there are several styles of longbow and many variations of the flatbow.

 

[Snufkin]

Stovie, you're a faster typist than me

as for limbs being relatively straight when drawn, i'd question the tiller not being as good as it should be, or you may be fooled into thinking that they are not drawing into a curve because the mid section and handle will probably be quite stiff, with most curve occurring beyond the mid third...

As for the stiff looking limbs, severely reflexed/deflexed fibreglass flatbows can appear to be stiff at full draw, when in fact, they are bending correctly.

 

[Draven]

Nice one, cheers folks

And one more - would lemonwood be better for flatbows, or longbows? Does it matter as long as the thinner wood of a flatbow is compensated with added width?

I'm suprised that you counted Yew in the same sentence as Osage etc as the price (when I was looking some years ago) puts a lot of people off

Well, the price has always been too much for me to even bother looking at Osage OR yew (still a student, y'know ) - and I've heard Osage is a really difficult wood to work with. really swirly grain or something. Still, I'd love to have an Osage bow when I'm a multi-millionaire with lots of spare time and plenty of acres to shoot on

 

[bent-stick]

I've used lemonwood for both. For a longbow I'd back it with something like hickory or bamboo.

The really nice thing about it is that it works well with planes and spokeshaves and you don't have to be too picky with grain.