Bowmaking materials.

[alick]

A yew selfbow (made from one piece, with the sapwood on the front to take tension and heartwood on the back - towards the archer - to take compression) can be one odd lumpy piece of kit but fascinating to see. I have a slightly blurry photograph that shows this very well but nowhere to post it. PM me if you'd like to see this. They're incidentally very dear to buy and dent easily too because the wood is soft.

During an open competition I shot last weekend I walked the course with a guy using a handmade maple bow with rawhide backing. Not pretty but certainly worked.

An interesing comment passed by another competitor was that some folk are making temselves bows from the tanelised timber sold as timber decking. Costs peanuts but supposedly it's easy to find lengths with nice straight grain. I don't know what the wood is, but it would be a cheap source to experiment with.

You can buy a longbow kit from http://www.eagleclassicarchery.co.uk/long.htm with prelaminated bowstave or selected staves from Richard Head at http://www.english-longbow.co.uk/cat20.htm#materialls. I haven't dealt with eagle but can recommend the boyton pine arrowshafts from Richard Head.

Cheers, Alick

 

[Spacemonkey]

I have a stave of yew that is about 3-4inches diameter, and 7-8ft long. It is almost perfectly straight with no knots in it as it had no branches and only a handfull of leafy shoots coming off the sides. I have sealed the ends and stored it in the roof of my dads old garage where it is dry. It is from the variety that generally grows long and straight, and seems ideal. I'm going on the bowmaking course to learn the basics and then practicing on plenty of others before tackling the yew, as I don't want to waste it without much experience. Maybe I'll get an experienced bowyer to tackle the job. I was going to get John of the Woodcraft school to have a go, but it is difficult to get it there at a mutually convenient time....

 

[Skippy]

i have a copy of a book called the bent stick which was given to me by a friend in the archery club i belong to...brilliant reading covers not only the history of bow making but gives step by step info on making bows from selecting the stick to the finished product, and everything in between

 

[C_Claycomb]

The Bent Stick by Paul Comstock. My mum was going to get that for me. For reasons that are beyond me she actually contacted Paul and asked what was in the book. He said that it predated his contribution to the Bowyer's Bible, and that since I already had that, the Bent Stick wouldn't add all that much.

Judging by his writing in the TBB, I bet that the Bent Stick is a good read with lots of useful information.

 

[Bardster]

Another good book to look out for is Hilary Greenland's Traditional Archers Handbook - its pretty much my bible - much better than the boyyers bibles. Also Pip Bickerstaff's book is a good read. Will bring my copies along this weekend if anyone wants a look see.

 

[shanec]

I make longbows from ash boards from my local woodyard. Just select those with a good straightish grain. The benefit of ash is you dont have to worry too much about following the grain and an ash board can be had for about £10 - enough for 2 or 3 bows. I shall be bringing my tools and some billets to the may meet if any one is interested. I can also show string making.

i'm deffinatley interested in that