Nydam yew longbow buildalong

[radius]

Kviljo, is that where you live?  Looks great!

Bow seems pretty stiff in the center...shoot good?  Shame about the spike...that would've been cool to see.


Scott

[Kviljo]

It's at the local museum where I held a bowmakers course this weekend. It's got a reflex-kink at the center, so it looks a little stiff at the center, although the wood bends less at the center than at the tips, like all longbows should.

Hoping to make a spiked one some day when I get the time

[uwe]

Among the finds of Nydam were lots of bos, about 200 I think, weapons, 3 ships, 1 has survived. There were well shaped bows, as well as very poor worked bows. Arrows from Top 10 down to as poor as can be. Grains running out in the middle and very amateurish repaired shafts. In have somewhere pics made of it, wanna put them in when I find them.

[Dane]

Ivar, I recall this bow, and am not disappointed at all. Beautiful as always. I do recall not being able to find much info on the bows, and the keepers of that ship museum never returned my emails. Any info on dimensions for this bow?

Uwe, if I recall, there were all sacrificial goods? If so, does that explain some less than steller equipment?

Dane

[Kviljo]

I got hold of the catalogue that Jaro mentioned, and there are remains of 23 complete bows and 6 nearly complete. There might be more bows, but those must be only fragments.
I'd love to see pictures Uwe! That would be awesome

I didn't measure the bow at the center, but most of the Nydams are 2,75 cm wide and 2,6 cm thick at the center according to Clark (1963). This one is a bit larger.

The stuff is probably what was left of the losing side in a battle, although I haven't studied the find closely

[uwe]

It has been a sacricied gift to the gods. You find parts of roman armour as well as clothings. If you make an idea of endlish longbows, you`ll have dimensions.
This eve. I`ll search for the pics.

[The Burnt Hill Archer]

very nice, looks good from here!

Phil

[uwe]

I have been searching, searching.... What I`ve found were 2 books of the Nydam Moor, but the best pics I send to german "Traditionell Bogenschiessen" magazine with a report about the items found there. So I`ve scanned some pages of the book. You can make an idea of what there was discovered. May be your able to learn a little german by the way.
I have made a little mistake: there were only found 40 bows, which were made from yew, 378 lances and 344 spears. If you would like to have some more info about how the arrows were made for example, please let me know.

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[Kviljo]

Nice! I have to get hold of that magazine! Which issue and year is it from?

[uwe]

I`ll give you info when it comes. I hope they`ll bring it in AUtumn or Winter issue. I made it already 5 years ago, but some differences in the text and no returning info to me stretched the time.

[bow-toxo]

  Nydam yew longbow buildalong
« on: July 13, 2007, 10:13:25 AM »   

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I started on a 77" long yew stave today. I'm making it for a friend who wanted a Nydam replica of 50-60 pounds.

It's going to have the metal spike and all, so I'm on the lookout for some measurements or photos of the original Nydam bows. I know they were quite narrow and not that heavy from some center-measuremen So my first question is: does anyone here know of any litterature that shows these bows, and perhaps also with some measurements?
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If you have a problem with the iron spike , you coulld make a copy of the antler spike which is very similar. When I visited Denmark, a curator at the National Museum kindly gave me photocopies of several pages of descriptions of the bows with measurements. I made one up. The tips are very slender and it is obvious why the nock was only on one side. You may not have left the tips long enough. If you are still interested I can email you some of the information. It is in German which I speak.
 

[Kviljo]

The guy who has the bow now didn't want the spike anyway, and that's the reason But I've set of a few yew staves for Nydam bows, so I'm hoping to make both the antler and steel version. I'd love to have some better documentation than the original from 1865! German ist kein problem

Uwe, great having the author here Looking very much forward to reading the article!

[uwe]

The spikes in antler or even the iron spikes were for hand- to- hand- fight. There is even a nail on the upper limb working as a stringkeeper.
@ bow- toxo. would you like to mail the info? uwe.karstens@web.de
Thanks already!

[uwe]

Kviljo, now you you owe me a Nydam bow replica!
My wife and I took a Sundaytrip to Schleswig for a museumsvist.
The bows are about 1,80m long and have a width of about 28- 30mm at the widest part (grip section) as we could see through the glass. Some are round shaped, one looks as like as a Holmegaard.
The arrows are thinned out at the end and had feathers of about 120mm length, which wcame from seaeagles. I even made some pics of the ship. May be of interest for shipfriends among PA- folks.
If you have any questions, please ask. I`ll try to answer.
Enjoy the photos.
Regards Uwe

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[uwe]

And the rest.

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