White Wood ENGLISH Long Bow Challenge

[Minuteman]

All I know about persimmon is if you cut it and split it it will twist up on ya, Its best to halve the log and let it dry for a year or two before you mess with it. Never seen such perfectly straight wood twist like persimmon will. Maybe if the log is 12" or bigger you could quarter it and be all right but its terrible to see your beautiful staves turn into corkscrews.

[ricochet]

MAY I ASK A STUPID QUESTION? WHAT DOES ERC MEAN? I AM NEW TO THE FORUM AND TO PRIMITIVE ARCHERY, SO PLEASE BE GENTAL

[Skeaterbait]

ERC = Eastern Red Cedar

[bow-toxo]

Yes there are rectangular cross-sections on even some of the Mary-Rose bows, corners rounded of-course. I've made both deep rounded and flatter-squarish-rounded and like them equally. It's really about what the stave has to say in my opinion.

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Right you are ! The "5/8 rule" does not seem to have been used in the Mary Rose bows. People studying them found the 1-1.1 rule would fit the reality better. Besides the rounded rectangular section that was thought best for short range shooting, the well known D section, the oval section to almost round. Of course the British Longbow Society does not consider most of these to be longbows. I leave it to archers to decide if they agree about that.

[D. Tiller]

I agree! The stave dictates how the bow will be built. Maybe it has to do wit how large the tree was that it came out of. I've made bows using the 1 - 1.1 dimensions and they work really well and are stable to shoo and do not want to twist out of the string at the nocks. It also seems easier to tiller too.

[Jaro]

Actually, the 1.1 ratio is about correct if you measure it at median line, if you go further to the limbs they get flatter and flatter, particullary in charracter areas.

J.

[D. Tiller]

Jaro do you mean toward the tips or the handle? I find that it gets almost flat at the handle and more rounded towards the tips and nocks.

[sagitarius boemoru]

By median line I mean "the handle". It is natural result of laying the  bow with low width taper, to get more circular bend.

Jaro

[bow-toxo]

By median line I mean "the handle". It is natural result of laying the  bow with low width taper, to get more circular bend.

Jaro

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You can get a perfect circular [arc] bend with a width taper straight to the tips. The bend dependss much more on the thickness reduction than on the width.

[D. Tiller]

So, do you mean the belly wood is not reduced from handle to tips but just the width?

[Kegan]

So, do you mean the belly wood is not reduced from handle to tips but just the width?

No, I think he means that any width tapering will do, but the tiller depends on the evenness of the belly taper. I've tried pyramid D bows, you can't taper them enough to prevent them bending too much at the grip.

[bow-toxo]

So, do you mean the belly wood is not reduced from handle to tips but just the width?

No, I think he means that any width tapering will do, but the tiller depends on the evenness of the belly taper. I've tried pyramid D bows, you can't taper them enough to prevent them bending too much at the grip.

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Thanks. That is exactly what I meant.

[Jaro]

Which is not how they did it. Mary rose bows have width taper which is aimed for wide tips first to get the bend AND weight. Consequent narrowing of the tips makes the width taper look like grass leaf, where thickness taper is more or less straight.
They get flatter, the further the limbs until the point where second taper starts.

J.

[D. Tiller]

Do you have a picture Jaro? I'm having a hard time visualizing this.

[Marc St Louis]

Which is not how they did it. Mary rose bows have width taper which is aimed for wide tips first to get the bend AND weight. Consequent narrowing of the tips makes the width taper look like grass leaf, where thickness taper is more or less straight.
They get flatter, the further the limbs until the point where second taper starts.

J.

Perhaps some of them did but not all of them