question aboute warr bow...

[duffontap]

John R.

I think you have some good points but I would say they had more than an 'opportunity to search the countryside for the perfect stave.'  Warbows were the essential military technology in medieval England.  I question the assumption that medieval bowyers would just pound out flatbows so they could use inferior staves.  It's surely possible--but not necessarily true.  Most of the little empirical evidence we have of medieval bows comes from the MR bows (I know you know this--just stating it for beginners who might be reading along), which showed a selectiveness in staves that is unrivaled today by any bowyer.  Why would the English go to Italy, climb to 10,000 feet (TEN THOUSAND FEET!) and carefully tend stands of Yew trees for hundreds of years so they could become war-winning bows if they could just punch flatbows out of inferior staves.  It seems obvious to me that they were in it for the best wood they could get and with the King's money--they could get it.  I love good bow wood but I will never take a trip to another country to get a good stave--they did it for hundreds of years.  It was a different time with a different standard so why wouldn't they cultivate groves of high-density Ash for building bows?


                  J. D. Duff

[Loki]

John R what you say is all well and good but what you said earlier in the thread implied there was no point making heavy Bow's,not untill Deer start wearing Brigandine's.
?

So true Badger. Until deer start wearing armor, a bow that heavy only serves itself. Just casue ya can do something doesn't mean ya should, eh?

[heavybow]

 marlon

[El Destructo]

Fight Nice Children...evryone is entitled to their Opinions....until we can go back into History and see for Ourselves exactly how Hoh Yew Warbows were manufactured....there will always be speculation........and everyone will have just try to build one and see....

But when you try to get 140-160 pounds out of Hardwoods.....and they blow in your face because of Compression Fractures....dont say that you werent warned....I have seen what happens to Red Oak when you try to make a Bow over 75 pounds by ELB Standards....and it want pretty...Thats Just My Opinion ....I Could Be Wrong!!

[alanesq]

I have been trying to make a heavy bow from ash for a while but I have found 110lb at 32" to be  about the limit whatever shape I make it
(although I am using kiln dried wood and I am not a very experienced "bowyer")

[akila]

Hi again...i wass gone from town a fiew days and i just got home and find your replays to me..thks a lot for all your help ....your opinion its verry important to me ,...this is why i asked you first iff its posibile to make such a bow from ash...i have to say that i wass pretty sure that its all most imposibil to make an 160# bow from ash stave..but i wanted to be sure...maybe this friend of mine will accept an 100# bow..if not...this is it...aniway thks.so much for your help....you know i just realise that wi also have Yew here in Romania, but i have to say that this wood is protected here by the law....and iff you get caught cutting a tree like that from the wood you go to jail 100%.. ....

[Yeomanbowman]

So true Badger. Until deer start wearing armor, a bow that heavy only serves itself. Just casue ya can do something doesn't mean ya should, eh?

I don't know if read the section title but it's called 'English Warbow'.  If that's too cryptic for you but it's about English Warbows.  English warbows were used in the medieval and Tudor period for war, and they were also very heavy, just so you know.  Can you shoot a heavy bow?  I strongly suspect not otherwise you would not be making fatuous statements like the above. 

[akila]

Hello again...plz guys dont fight over this topic.....now im feeling a little guilty ...

[stevesjem]

But when you try to get 140-160 pounds out of Hardwoods.....and they blow in your face because of Compression Fractures....dont say that you werent warned....I have seen what happens to Red Oak when you try to make a Bow over 75 pounds by ELB Standards....and it want pretty...Thats Just My Opinion ....I Could Be Wrong!!

Could be wrong....you are wrong, i make loads of heavy draw weight bows from hardwoods and maybe only get 3% or so which blow up. Don't make sweeping statements like that, all it does is upset people.

[Rod]

Bear in mind that the BLBS rule on cross sectional dimensions was intended to preserve the use of the post medieval target bow in lawn archery and should not be taken as a rigid definition of a war bow, particularly one in a secondary wood.
If a bowyer wanted to make an efficient heavy bow out of such a wood the smarter bowyer would make the necessary dimensional adjustments though he might well stop short of making an out and out flatbow.
Although a flat or semi flatbow was common enough in earlier times in NW Europe.
I certainly would not even consider drawing a heavy self bow in oak given that woods propensity for exploding in lethal splinters.
Yew was the preferred wood for good reasons, though there are relatively safe alternatives each depending for durability and efficiency upon appropriate adjustment of the assumed yew bow model dimensions.
Rod.

[akila]

Hi....i know yew is the best wood for making an ELB  with that D tipical cross section....but  this is not an option for me...becose its to expensive to buy , and here in my country its ilegal to cut yew from the wood...and its realy verry dificult to find such wood in the forest...this is why is protected by the law.I wass thinking that maybe i can make this tipe of bow, by using a diferent cross section, and maybe make the bow a little more longer,  and wider thenn a clasis yew Elb....after all this friend of mine its interested more in the force of the bow , and not how it looks or whatt design it is....and maybe iff im using a diferent type of cross section i will be able to make such a bow from wite ash....