Elm?????????

[ozark caveman]

I have a very large piece of elm I'd like to try a warbow with. Will it work?

[SimonUK]

I think the answer is yes although I've never done it myself.  It's supposed to be better than ash, but not quite as good as yew.

[ozark caveman]

 It's a little higher crowned than I would like so I was wondering if I could go ahead and do a narrower Mary Rose design and still maintain a high draw weight with acceptable string follow? Thanks!

[bootboy]

I was going to run an experiement with Hickory, I think it Will work man, but you just need to make the profile/tiller whatever its called square and flat bottomed then a ovoid /round beelied ywe profile PROFILE! thats the word.

[joren1993]

im a bit late, maybe you found it out already for yourself.
but elm needs to be backed with something like ash or hickory.
In some cases you can make a elm selfbow, but then you'll need
very little grow rings pr inch.

[Nick]

Hey Joren haven't heard from you for a long time. Anyway i do have a peice of low ring per inch elm which is good as i want a self bow.

[joren1993]

Hey Joren haven't heard from you for a long time. Anyway i do have a peice of low ring per inch elm which is good as i want a self bow.

Hi nick,

I strongly sugest you dont make a self bow from elm. According to my teacher a elm self bow is possible
but only with low grow rings per inch(which isnt suitable for warbows) find yourself a niece piece of ash/hickory
to back it. really dont waste your elm on that(I can know I got a self elm bow with a crack of 15inches).

[youngbowyer]

The welsh used elm bows, i dont see why you couldn't do it if our forefathers did

[Loki]

You can use Elm to make a Bow what the Welsh used but it wouldnt look anything like a English WarBow,they were different you know?

[youngbowyer]

owh i didn't know that. But i once read in a book(not sure if that was historically right) that the english used either yew, ash, or elm. so....

[alanesq]

I am just in the middle of making a self wych elm bow
so any advice on profile etc. would be much appreciated

[outcaste]

You can use Elm to make a Bow what the Welsh used but it wouldnt look anything like a English WarBow,they were different you know?

How so? A friend of mine made a good wych elm bow (112lbs@32, I think) and the profile was similar to some MR patterns, squarish,flatish section. I would be interested on what you thought were the differences between a Welsh and English Warbow though.
Cheers,
Alistair

[alanesq]

Hi :-)

Do you know what the dimensions of the 112lb bow were?

I am hoping for 130lb but I dont know how feasible this goal is?
I have just about managed 120 from ash so am hoping this will go that bit further?

[Far East Archer]

Hey Joren haven't heard from you for a long time. Anyway i do have a peice of low ring per inch elm which is good as i want a self bow.

Hi nick,

I strongly sugest you dont make a self bow from elm. According to my teacher a elm self bow is possible
but only with low grow rings per inch(which isnt suitable for warbows) find yourself a niece piece of ash/hickory
to back it. really dont waste your elm on that(I can know I got a self elm bow with a crack of 15inches).

Heya

May I question your teacher's thoughts? Elm is very proven selfbow wood, it needs no backing at all and even used for backing other wood. Only elm that would need backing wood maybe be from a board with bad grain or damaged back. Very strong in the tensile strength and the grain is much interlocked, making a even tougher wood. I only can think of one elm that not so good for bow and that is Siberian elm, maybe it has lower density.

You may find many elm selfbow here on forum and elsewhere.
For warbow, Thimosabv has created quite a bit of heavy warbows with round bellies from the elm wood, most had no set at all and being in the 100+ draw weight range. His elm had high ring count per inch as well, grew very slowly and produced a very dense wood.

[Loki]

I would be interested on what you thought were the differences between a Welsh and English Warbow though

I thought the consensus was that the Welsh Bow's were flat Bows...?