Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: SeanStuart on July 20, 2014, 08:54:43 pm

Title: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: SeanStuart on July 20, 2014, 08:54:43 pm
This is a colorized pic, from 1860. The bows are pretty crazy long! It seems like they would not have any draw weight? Any thoughts on this.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: PatM on July 20, 2014, 09:37:11 pm
Japanese bows. The draw weight would be deceptive. By that I mean the bows are drawn about 8 inches farther than typical.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: J05H on July 20, 2014, 10:07:25 pm
I believe they are called Yumi, though I don't know much about them. It seems to me that the limiting factor for a reasonably high draw weight would be the short lower limb.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: PatM on July 20, 2014, 10:49:07 pm
Yumi bow are known to also have high draw weights, the shorter lower limb has no bearing on limiting draw weight.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: J05H on July 20, 2014, 10:52:00 pm
I stand corrected. :) Like I said, I don't know much about them.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: coyote1956 on July 20, 2014, 11:04:50 pm
There is a man named  Yumi   "Nacht Wacht"  may have mispelled his name there, he builds thes and other exotic bows puts on clinics at bow shows , "Drapenmeyer"  spelling again...  is his last name he frequents these web sights i know he is on leatherwall at times,  Im sure if he sees this he can explain , looks crazy though, the one far left looks to have arrow nocked pretty low ?   I guess they know what they are doing, And they bare bow arm to show manliness!  Yumi is the style of Bow.
A Kyudo shoot or ceremony. It is a Martial art in Japan. So says the book.
thats all I know, there is a good book Traditional archey from 6  continents good info, and intersting. Ken 
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: PatM on July 20, 2014, 11:12:40 pm
"Jaap Koppedrayer"
 The bare arm is also because the bowstring is in no danger of slapping the arm but you still wouldn't want it catching on a billowing sleeve.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: coyote1956 on July 20, 2014, 11:15:47 pm
PatM got his name right !   He is good guy to talk with and interesting. 
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: mikekeswick on July 21, 2014, 02:48:21 am
What I find crazy are the guy on the left's shoes!
The way they shoot these bows is (to me at least) pretty nuts. Have a look on youtube for some examples 'yumi/ kyudo archery' should get you there.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: WillS on July 21, 2014, 03:52:13 am
They're not shoes, they're "Pattens" - designed to keep hand stitched delicate shoes out of the dirt.  You'd find exactly the same thing in medieval England, but nobody talks about them cos they look bonkers.

The bows are nice.

 ::)
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: mullet on July 21, 2014, 03:03:30 pm
And once you get the hang of it they are quite comfortable to walk in. Jaap lives in Southern Georgia.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: Pat B on July 21, 2014, 03:34:13 pm
Google Yumi Bows. That should give you Jaap's website.
 You don't want to be on the receiving end of one of those arrows. I'd bet they rarely miss their mark.
 I think one reason for the shorter lower limb was for horse archery.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: Buckeye Guy on July 21, 2014, 04:35:56 pm
Here I thought the short bottom limb was for you short folk !!! >:D :laugh:

Jaap and Kay are good people for sure , I was glad they made it to Marshall this year ,we had not seen them in awhile
That reminds me I owe Kay something , I better get a hold of her before she sends the hounds after me!
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: PatM on July 21, 2014, 06:07:07 pm
The short lower limb is also for kneeling style shooting which features prominently in Kyudo.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: Scallorn on July 21, 2014, 06:18:32 pm
Very interesting bows. I have studied them quite a bit. Most info thus far has been pretty accurate, they are called "yumi" longbows. They were used almost exclusively in Japan. The earlier types were constructed out of hardwoods like maple and mulberry, same as regular selfbows. They actually became longer over the course of time that they were in use. They are built highly reflexed, and over the years when lamination techniques were perfected, they were  built out of composite materials, hardwood, bamboo, animal glue, ect'. Towards the end of their era of use they were made out of bamboo only. And as seen in the pic' above, they were asymetrical with the top limb longer than the bottom limb. Hope this helps. Arrows were almost always made of bamboo. They were very long, and were drawn significantly farther than the average draw today, often several inches pat the ear.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: Marc St Louis on July 21, 2014, 07:10:55 pm
Looks like they were fond of Wild Turkey fletching
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: mullet on July 21, 2014, 10:43:12 pm
Yumi bows were shot a lot from kneeling, or seise, as Pat said, while practicing Kyudo. There was shorter bows used from horse back.
Title: Re: Late 1800s chinese bow
Post by: Pat B on July 21, 2014, 11:46:36 pm
I believe I read that these bows were tillered as three separate bows.
Also, in one of the TBB series is an ancient drawing of two guys bracing a Yumi bow on a bow bracing bench.