OT: Hey Kevin, Longbow pics

Sylvrfalcn

Sylvrfalcn

Joined
Jun 4, 2002
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3,930
Here's some pics for Kevin the Grey, and any of the rest of y'all that are interested in traditional archery and longbows.

Pic 1: Our bowrack in the big hall. Best way to store wooden bows is horizontally like this. Not all the bows on the rack were made by me, three or four were made by friends/students. My two favorite longbows are at the bottom.

Pic 2: Shooting my 50 lb. draw, six foot, medieval English style longbow, made from a 6 1/2 dollar board of red oak from Lowe's. Good bow, perfect tiller, real sweet shooter.

Pic 3: Shooting my 60 lb. draw, American target style, hickory longbow, made from a 30 dollar, "floor tillered", stave from www.rudderbows.com

Pic 4: Quite obviously a Heineken and a smoke (18th century tavern pipe made of white clay) in honor of Uncle Bill :)

As much fun as the shooting aspect of archery is, for me that's only half of it. In addition to making my own bows, I also make bowstrings, arrows, quivers, bracers, and any other odd and ends I need, making it a very rich, diverse, and rewarding hobby. Perhaps I'll even take my first whitetail with an entirely home made rig this year. It don't get much better than that. :D

Sarge
 
Nice looking bows and a nice web site as well . I have to say that my daughters 28 pound hickory bow rivals performance of my much heavier ash bow . It has a snap to it that really launches those arrows downrange . Self bows and glass backed which is not that far from being a self bow have a classic traditional look to them .
 
That's a great setup. You've put in quite a bit of work and practice. It's inspiring me to get back in touch with the Toronto archery scene.
 
Kevin the grey said:
my daughters 28 pound hickory bow.......
Click to expand...

Started teaching my own daughter to shoot from around age nine. Nowadays between college and work, she probably doesn't have time to practice as much as she'd like to, but the times we've spent together on the range are among her most treasured memories. There is much for a father to teach a child, not least among them is a love of the outdoors, a respect for nature, and an appreciation of our ancestors. Sorry if I sound a bit mushy just now, but seeing you mention your daughter's bow warmed my heart and made me smile. :)

Sarge
 
I have read it somewhere that ole english long bows (King Edward's time) were made with yew...........

With heartwood and sapwood together............

The sapwood would be on outside of bow and heartwood inside...........

the theory is that with the sapwood ,(which has very good tensile properties), and heartwood (which provides the compressive strength) working harmoniously together to provide an excellent snap which propels the arrow a longer distance than other type of homogenious wood..........
 
Astrodada said:
I thought ole English long bows were made with yews ?

:o
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Indeed, yew was, and still is the wood of preference for traditional English longbows. However, with the relative scarcity of suitable yew, a very large number of longbows in the period were made from such woods as ash, elm, oak, and others. While considered by some to be greatly inferior to yew, I've found these woods make very serviceable, durable bows, that shoot sweet and hit hard.

Yew is fine and good, but my "holy grail" would be a clean, straight, stave of well seasoned Osage Orange, IMHO the king of bow woods.

Sarge
 
Love the pipe. I have a Peterson's churchwarden that I got at the shop in Dublin. I break it out once in a while, usually special occasions. What kind of tobacco do you like? I usually go with Captain Black Gold.
 
Bob,
We keep the terbakky jar stocked with a blend called "24 Carat" from a local smoke shop. Good stuff, very smooth. I've got meershaum pipes from Turkey, and briar wood pipes from Czechoslovakia, but that long stemmed tavern pipe smokes the best of any of them. Guess them old timey dudes knew what they were up to. :D

Sarge
 
We have a lot of osage orange cut into 8' lengths for fence posts. Most is too crooked & knotty for bows, but we have a lot of very straight pieces from trees that grew among taller trees. We also have one big log of osage 3' or 4' in diameter, that was too heavy to lift with our loader tractor. Because of its age and size, the wood should be rather straight and knot free in the trunk. We can't do anything with it on the farm, but I've thought about splitting it for bows and axe/tomahawk handles after it's seasoned a couple more years.
 
the possum said:
We have a lot of osage orange cut into 8' lengths for fence posts. Most is too crooked & knotty for bows, but we have a lot of very straight pieces from trees that grew among taller trees. We also have one big log of osage 3' or 4' in diameter, that was too heavy to lift with our loader tractor. Because of its age and size, the wood should be rather straight and knot free in the trunk. We can't do anything with it on the farm, but I've thought about splitting it for bows and axe/tomahawk handles after it's seasoned a couple more years.
Click to expand...

You really know how to hurt a guy Possum :mad: :D :cool:

Make sure and treat the wood with some type of insecticide so it doesn't suffer insect damage while you're seasoning it. That would just about break my heart. :(

Sarge
 
I also must throw in my compliments about the bow and pipe. When I was little, I always made miniature composite bows from bamboo shishkabob sticks. Arrows were made from the same sticks with turkey tail feather fletching & steel broadheads. That little bow would shoot them arrows over 100 yards! I made another one from hedgewood (osage orange) and found that it had to be much longer to get the same power. I keep thinking about making a medieval style crossbow with steel limbs. Someday...

I have a bunch of pipes, mostly passed down from my Grandfather. I like the meerschaum one, and a 3/4 bent briar. I also have one of the long stemmed clay pipes (ordered from Dixie Gun Works for like $6). The small bowl was perfect for my favorite Indonesian clove tobacco- "Filtra" from Djarum. I used to have a featherweight 3/4 bent briar that was also just perfect, but I broke it. :(
 
Sarge-

I can't promise anything, but if I ever do get around to it a few years in the future, I'll probably offer staves of the wood here and on a couple other boards. There's just too much for me to ever use, and I also hate seeing such fine & rare wood go to waste.
 
If you can find a copy of The Crossbow by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey. it has scale plans for several authentic Medieval crossbows, as well as siege engines, composite Turkish bow, etc. Great book, worth the price if you're into this stuff.
 
Making a crossbow is a fairly simple proposition for folks that are handy with tools. Crossbows don't require the physical strength/conditioning, and constant practicing that long bows demand to achieve accuracy, so one can become fairly deadly with a crossbow in a relatively short time. Besides, crossbows are just plain sexy. ;) When I get to old to shoot my longbow well, I'll have a crossbow waiting in the wings somewhere.

Sarge
 
Sylvrfalcn said:
Started teaching my own daughter to shoot from around age nine. Nowadays between college and work, she probably doesn't have time to practice as much as she'd like to, but the times we've spent together on the range are among her most treasured memories. There is much for a father to teach a child, not least among them is a love of the outdoors, a respect for nature, and an appreciation of our ancestors. Sorry if I sound a bit mushy just now, but seeing you mention your daughter's bow warmed my heart and made me smile. :)

Sarge
Click to expand...
My daughter is also of the age where college and a social life start to take precedence and in a way I guess they should . With the care a Father puts into showing a lifestyle that is down to earth and sustainable I know that she will do well at whatever she does and will return to her roots with time .One way or another most of us do .
 
Sarge, I just found Rudderbows website about a week ago! What a coinkydink that you should post a pic of one of their products :) Their prices look very reasonable for someone just starting out. I really would like to get started in archery and don't know what the benefits of say a recurve vs longbow vs reflex vs reflex/deflex vs turkish style would be for a newbie? I would use it for target shooting and if I got ambitious rabbits, blacktail deer and feral hogs (which I currently hunt with a rifle). Thanks for any opinions, facts or insights any of you folks can bestow on this lughead.

stevo
 
Steve I m bowyer by trade. If you are just starting, english longbow made of ash, slightly overbuilt and longer is easiest way to go. When properly done it will do well on range and put food on the table too.
U.S. are biased against longer bow as they "are inpractical in bush", but english longbow is forresters weapon and it was used for hunting deer and men long before mayflower anchored on american coast.

Make it 72´´ for 28´´ of draw and 75´´ for 30´´ and full 78´´ for 32´´ of draw , slightly wider and shallow than such as made of yew.


Jaroslav
 
That beginner's longbow kit is very enticing... I wonder how hard it would be to shape an osage riser block on it.
 
Hawkwind, thank you for the advice! Why ash and not another wood? How is the longbow better for a beginner? I don't even know if I'm asking the right questions! :confused: And reflex? Deflex? Reflex/deflex(dual personality just like me :D )? So, if I understand what you suggested so far, just a plain old self longbow, like what the English used to use?

Thanks again!

Stevo
 
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