Scottish Meet Up!! - Archive

[troy]

'150 yew bowstaves. If they fetch say £100 each for good ones'

I have made bows out of a variety of scottish hardwoods, including yew and quite frankly I'd rather spend that sort of money on foreign wood like osage orange or lemonwood. making bows has given me a more intimate apprechiation of what each species is capable of and ash is my favourite, yew unfortunatly is very low down the list. Say that, it is mostly associated with the narrow war bows, where as I concentrate more on hunting flat bows.

I may feel the same about the two foreign woods (getting soon), i.e my expectations of them coming from many other peoples reviews. Time will tell.

As mentioned tho, if you sold them on ebay along with a woodlore/ray mears refferance, the idiots would probably give you double that amount!!

 

[Doc]

I know nowt about making bows (I have a laminated Bear recurve - maple and glass fibre with zebrawood riser) but I have heard that it is very difficult to make a good yew self bow these days. A lot of 'traditional' longbows are actually laminates of two woods, yet medieval longbows were (as far as I know) all made from a single piece of wood.

I suppose having draw weights of over 100 lb made them stronger.

 

[Oakleaf]

Troy - got PM thank you - just back in and will reply asap.

On the subject of bows, dropped on a work called The Archers Craft by Adrian Eliot Hodgkin. It is a 1995 reprint of the original 1951 work, little bit rough on presentation - but full of very practical info.

Critically - lots in there to prevent ( or at least minimise ) the TBBT ( tears before bedtime ) of having 14 moths work go 'snap' on first test.

ISBN is 1 897853 80 7.

I got mine from the nice folks at J E Yeadon in Elgin ( handy for Troy ), but dont think its a usual stock item.

It is very practical, but be warned, prose is very stiff upper lip ( and not in the toxolophical sense )!

Hope helps.

 

[troy]

'Stiff upper lip' if its any thing like the local club who did'nt like any body there who did not have a bow costing over £1,000, then I probably won't get on with it, but saying that I have four books on the shelf about bows and haven't really looked at them yet (looked at the photos), bit more of a doer who gets carrried away, rather then a reader.

As for the TBBT's or SNH's (sore nuts and head) , if you don't get them once in a while, then your not learning - thats my excuse any way. My last worse one was a yew bow, don't get on with them at all.

 

[Oakleaf]

No the SUL more in the style of prose - very egalitarian content.

Very much there are archers and then theres the rest of the world!

Just written in very thirties style - complete with section on the equipment he made in anticipation of repelling German parachutists! Unarguably useful I think you'll agree - they are a positive menace in Moray!

That aside, packed with practical stuff - right down to selecting appropriate branches/ trees, seasoning etc with notes on what worked and more importantly what didnt for him.

PM finally sent.

 

[troy]

could be interesting then - quicks sell it, so i may order it when I next need points etc. cheers mate

To bring this back to the meet subject - does any body want me to bring some of the different wood bows I have, just to try out and see what they prefer?

 

[JohnC]

Okay, sounding good People, site & lots of things to do.

The idea of a communal meal sounds good too.
...I anyone on a particular diet, either from choice or necessity?

I suspect that it's me that's going to be the fussy bitch on this, I'm vegetarian and I'm allergic to fish. That said, I'm easy to feed and anti-histamines work on the fish problem.
.. I don't mind it being preped and cooked, just keep my food away from it and I'm fine.

cheers,
Toddy

I'm afraid I'm another vegetarian, but I don't mind preparing and cooking meat for others (as long as they don't mind it charred)

 

[JFW]

I assumed that we would all bring our own food and cook it by a communal fire. It might be an idea to have a bar-b-q at the fire on the saturday. I'm up for eating anything, will try anything once.

Cheers

JFW

 

[leon-1]

Hi guys, I have just been on the Dartmoor Meet and the communal meal is a very good idea, we had one there and it worked very well. All the best with your meet, Leon

 

[Graham_S]

out of interest, can anyone play the digeriedoo? odd question i know but i was looking for a few tips......

 

[JFW]

Sorry Graham,

can't play the digeriedoo, but bring it along if you can. I will bring my bodhran and am willing to teach anyone to play it. I will stop playing it for a wee malt.... will bring my tin whistle and my moothie - will also stop playing these for a wee malt.
Any real musicians in the group?

Cheers

JFW

 

[MagiKelly]

I will bring my bodhran and am willing to teach anyone to play it. I will stop playing it for a wee malt.... will bring my tin whistle and my moothie - will also stop playing these for a wee malt.

So anyone wanting sleep............................. remember to bring a malt.

 

[Eric_Methven]

I'll bring my guitar and recorder. I'd love to learn how to play the bodrahan properly. I'll bring along a bottle of malt too!

Eric

 

[jason01]

Foodwise Im easy, will eat anything - vegetarian, meat, fish or whatever and if I havent eaten it before all the better. I do try to avoid synthetic ingredients, procesed food and e numbers, but dont always suceed

I dont play any musical instruments but I can make a fair old din with a hammer and anvil, Im afraid its not going to be practical for me to bring a forge along this time though, but I'll bring some firesteels for people to play with and a blade or two.

I'd love to have a go with a longbow and learn to make one in any kind of wood and I'm sure I have a bottle of single malt stashed away somewhere

 

[sandbender]

I will supply a healthy amount of malt whisky to anyone who promises not to play a musical instrument

Have just spent two days in the forests at and around Oliverburn, still no midges however my hayfever kicked in for the first time in ten years, bring whatever hayfever remedies you need.

 

[JFW]

I'd love to learn how to play the bodrahan properly.

So would I......... Who else is comming ?

No problem Eric I'll do my best to teach you.

Cheers

JFW

 

[JohnC]

The essentials appear to be hayfever remedies and malt whisky...

 

[Toddy]

I am sooo looking forward to this weekend. I'm exhausted. It's been a three month non stop whirlwind and I need some serious chill out. I got caught for *four* hours in a traffic jam on the M8 yesterday coming home from Balloch Castle; guys got out of vans and played football in the middle of the road, the girl with the horsebox behind us fed and watered her horses and me and Trish broke out the hot chocolate and seriously considered the plantlife of motorway verges......masses of tansy, pignut and yarrow. Vetch, ladies mantle and red campion. A really weird mix. We were about to collect tansy for dyes when the traffic began to inch. I think Trish may come with me to Oliversburn, if we can bribe a baby sitter. Finally found alder buckthorn...growing at the motorway plantings.....now I've just got to figure out *how* to get to it without causing another traffic jam

I like the idea of a potage that suits everybody and allows carnivores and vegetarians to contribute their own elements to the meals. Might be an idea to do a group buy in of things like vegetables, flour, sugar, milk and eggs. It's not a light weight weekend, it's a try lots of things weekend, and that includes things like fire breads and biscuits too.

Malt? hmmm and I'll remember the hayfever stuff too.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Doc]

I've had surgeries full of hayfever sufferers for the past ten days, and I get it myself too.

Hopefully we'll have a low pollen count for the meet.

 

[Graham_S]

i find if you have enough malt hayfever becomes less of a problem