Light weight english longbows

[Badger]

I have a friend who has been wanting me to build him an english longbow, he wanted it fairly long about 72" and light draw weight of 40#. I had been wracking my brain what wood to use on this as the standard bow woods are all a bit heavy for that length and just come out too narrow and squirely, outer limbs want to bend sideways. I decided to try a maple back on a piece of poplar I had. 1 1/8 wide 72" long. Turned out to be a great combination, I decided to build it at 45# at 28". At 28" the bow showed only about 1/4" set which quickly dissappeared when unbraced and was shooting very fast. I was going to put a little movement in the handle area which was still a bit stiff to get the other 5# off but decided first I would give the bow a try at 30" and 50#. Looked like the bow had some good potencial for flight shooting. The mass weight of the bow at this point was 14 1/2 oz, this suggested that I had allready reached my limits with a bendy handle but against my better judgement I went for the 30" draw and picked up two nasty chrysals on each limb. I like the design well enough that I will repeat it as it would have worked great with a slight flex in the handle. I will try to post some pics when my girlfriend gets up. Steve

[Pappy]

Bad luck ,but sounds like you learned something,I guess that's what it is all about. :)Love to see
the pictures.
   Pappy

[DanaM]

Interesting that you are finding a use for poplar which most consider as non bow wood.
Would love to see some pics.

[Badger]

Dana, I have made tons of bows from poplar, it wont give you much warning before it chrysals. Sometimes you just have to believe your experience and not push it. Here are a couple of pics, it has taken hinges and chyrsals in both bending areas, before the overdraw it was an exceptional shooter, you can see the stiff handle area, right outside that area is where it starts to hinge and chrsal for about 8" on each limb. I will repeat this same design but use a cherry board instaed which is similar weight to heavy poplar. I will also get it bending closer to the handle just a touch. I build a lot of bows and figure I will start posting the ones that dont work out so well maybe someone will get a lesson from it besides me LOL. Steve

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[DanaM]

Steve when you say poplar do you mean balsalm poplar, or some type of aspen? Around here everyone calls em popple regardless of what it is.
What about a poplar as a stave make it longer and wider should work especially for a light poundage bow ie kids bow?

[Badger]

Dana, I have made polar bows as high as 75#, about 2 1/2 wide pyramid design, you need dense poplar to do this as some is so light it just wont work. I don't recomend poplar as a bow wood but I can see how in certain applications as in light bows especially it might be useful. Most poplar bows are more of a novelty than anything else.

I am going to cut 1/4" off the belly of this one and glue on a maple strip and retiller just to see what happens, I think it will save it.  Steve

[D. Tiller]

Nice looking bow badger. Only comment I could make is that it looks a bit stiff in the outer limbs. You may be able to get a few more fps. getting them to bend a bit more.

David T

[Badger]

Dana, the bow took some hinges when it chyrsaled this is the after photo, the tiller changed pretty drasticaly. I do agree that longer bows need the outside bending a bit more. Steve

[Hillbilly]

Dana, a lot of the "poplar" lumber in the trade is tuliptree or tulip poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera, which is actually in the magnolia family. Around here it's just called "poplar", or yellow poplar, because of the yellowish heartwood.

[adb]

Hey, Steve
Nice looking bow... I've not tried poplar myself. I have made several ELBs using hickory backed Ipe. 72'', 1" wide narrowing to 1/2" tips, bendy handle type profile. Set under 50# is usually negligible.

[adb]

Steve,
Your tiller looks OK... you might want to get the tips coming around more. You're bending a lot right out of the fades. If you want a bendy handle ELB, get it to bend in a completely circular arc. A big C, right through the handle.

[Dan Perry]

Steve,

Can you get your hands on some eastern red cedar?  You can make a light longbow wide enough and thick enough to be stable. it is thick enough that it makes tillering easier. I back it with hickory about 1/16 thick or a few 1/1000" more.  Sweet bows!  Use all heart wood, and a nice white hickory back.  They are B E A utiful!

Dan

[Badger]

ab, read the above posts, Ther bow has allready failed in that photo, I was just showing why it failed, I kept the handle stiff intentionaly trying to push it a bit. Maybe I shouldnt post the failed experiemnts anymore LOL. Lots of times I like to post stuff that doesnt work out and then talk about why it didn't work. If all the posts aren't read it just looks like a badly tillered bow being posted. This bow was actually a very fast very good shooter until pushed past its limits where it chrysaled and hinged the limbs. If I were to have gotten the center wood working more it might not have been quite as fast but it wouldnt have chysaled either. or I could have made it a tad wider and just got it working a little closer to the handle, it basically missed its target draw length by 2". So any number of small changes could have corrected that. Steve

[Justin Snyder]

Nice looking bow badger. Only comment I could make is that it looks a bit stiff in the outer limbs. You may be able to get a few more fps. getting them to bend a bit more.

David T

David, Did you read it before you posted.  He told you there were frets and hinges in the inside limbs?  That is why the outside is bending less.

Steve, Please continue to post the ones that don't work out.  I think they serve two major purposes.
1 They teach. Like you said, not only you can learn from them.
2 It eliminates the misconception that new guys get that they are the only ones that have problems.  Sometimes the best bowyers have bows that don't work out.  Justin

[D. Tiller]

Chill Justin! 

Looking at the failure can tell you why it failed. In this case it could be attributed to the tiller. A bit more bending in the outer limbs would relieve the stresses on the inner limbs. ELB's that bend throughout their length in Compass rose safly store energy with this narrow width to depth dimension by bending in a full arc where a stiff handle would not at longer draw lengths of 30 or more inches. I ran into the same problems with some of the composite experiments I ran myself. I think the stiff handle section is great for draw lengths up to 28" in Victorian style ELB but when you get to longer draw lengths of 30 or more inches the best bet is a Warbow design in compass rose fashion to keep it from failing.

David T.