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dimensions for a Viking bow replica?
duffontap:
Perhaps I'll shoot for around a 80-100# then. Man, you're right about those tips. Three times bigger than they need to be. These bows are very primitive compared to the English war bows. One thing I do like is that they were made from bough wood. I have some third-rate boughs I've been wondering what to do with. This is a perfect project for making use of knotty limbs.
J. D. Duff
sagitarius boemoru:
The wood on big bow is actually quite decent. I have seen it myself. They are not made from bough, but likelly from sapplings and the ringcount on these isnt bad, because the sapwood is really thin (3-5 mm). If its baltic yew such as from Polland or some stuff from north sea shore it can have good density...
Also consider that if you start with small diameter material you have much stiffer beam to wrok with. Two bows of same dimensions and wood, one from large and another small diameter stuff - small diameter can be as much as 20percent stiffer.
I have good theory where the thick tips appeared on these bows, or why and I have other early medieval bows examples with the same approach.
But enough spoilers, you got to wait for TTBB4
:D
Jaro
duffontap:
I'm looking forward to your chapter Jaro. Thanks for the info on wood quality. From the pictures it's obvious that the staves aren't 'super clean' and that's all I was talking about. The boughs I have will run over 100 rings per inch up to 150-200 in some cases so density is no issue. They just aren't going to make clean-lined English long bows.
How do you think these heavy bows were braced? They have a side nock that was tied to right?
J. D. Duff
sagitarius boemoru:
I think they used sort of step-in method for bracing. The nocks on originals are simple cut in gooves, without any reinforcements like sinew patch under nock to avoid splitting as we see on modern replicas. The nocks are on opposite sides naturally. :)
The big bow is from only 4 cm diameter stock, the marrow chanell runs actually whole lenght in and only comes out on one end in the nock area.
The lower part of the tree is upper part of the bow, if this helps.
I dont think yew it is made of has 100 rings/inch, but it can be around 60 which is decent for european yew, which is stiffer than pacific.
The rings on big bow are not visible and the line marking the sapwood is relativelly faint.
But! I dont think they actually chased rings down on staves. They found a yew sapling on prefered soil type, which they knew will have sapwood thin (means also high ringcount), cut it down and made into bow. The back is perfectly smooth, the belly is scraped and has toolmarks.
I think that the big bow with its 191 cm of lenght and some 180 cm of effective could work well for draw of 30´´. (Or better could be tilered there). They have width taper similar to later english warbows, which makes them circular in shape.
So as I made me recently 69´´ longbow, which is 90#/30´´ from second rate yew with lots of sapwood on it, I think its doable 100# + range.
http://sweb.cz/hawkwind/myyewbow.JPG
Jaro
duffontap:
Jaro,
That's a heck of a bow. Your stave doesn't look that bad at all. Did you say it was pacific yew? You should post that on the Englishwarbow.com.
Thanks for your help. I'll probably ask you more questions as I get into the project.
J. D. Duff
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