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Author Topic: Elm longbow  (Read 7077 times)

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Offline Scallorn

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Elm longbow
« on: June 24, 2013, 01:05:01 pm »
I recently completed an elm longbow. It's 65 inches long, and pulls around 50-55#. I modeled it after the Powhatan bows in Allely and Hamm's encyclopedia. This is my first bow, so the the tiller isn't perfect but it shoots and hasn't broken ;D. Makes me happy to have finaly completed one. I'll get some pic'sup as soon as I can.
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Offline toomanyknots

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2013, 08:59:04 pm »
Sounds good, elms a nice wood, :).
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"The way of heaven is like the bending of a bow-
 the upper part is pressed down,
 the lower part is raised up,
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Offline Thesquirrelslinger

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2013, 11:23:04 pm »
Elm is good stuff(plus its really forgiving, I know my tillering isn't as good as I think it is)...
Thats pretty cool.  powhatan bows... hm... (what on earth are those?)
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Offline Scallorn

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #3 on: June 24, 2013, 11:59:36 pm »
Here is the bow. Pic's aren't that great , sorry :(. The outer limb tips are a bit stiffer than what I wanted, but I figured I would quit while I was ahead.
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Offline Scallorn

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2013, 12:10:00 am »
These are the bows I modeled it after. They were collected from the Powhatan tribe in Virginia in 1665. These are made of mulberry, but other woods like elm and hickory were commonly used. The bows are now kept in a museum in England, so I haven't seen the "real thing", only pictures. The Powhatans weren't the only tribes to use bows like this, most early NA tribes in the eastern US used longbows like this. The second pic' is a Choctaw bow made of hickory that is a similar design. Another bow made of osage orange was found in the spiro mounds site in OK, just north of where I live, it was made of osage.
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Offline Thesquirrelslinger

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #5 on: June 25, 2013, 12:23:43 am »
Cool. You could rasp the outer limbs a bit to help tiller... but you already know that.
 hows it shoot? I bet it has some handshock. Maybe narrow the tips? It would do 3 things- help the tiller, reduce handshock, make the bow shoot signifigantly faster(if its like 1" wide to 3/8).

Simple D bows look cool IMO.
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"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"

Offline Scallorn

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2013, 01:01:05 am »
Yeah I might take a rasp to it later. It shoots pretty good, a lot less hand shock than I would've thought. I like D bows too, I make them because that is the most common design throughout the world IMO. This bow was more of a prototype, I have a great piece of hickory roughed out right now, it's 70 inches long. I'm working out all of the bugs on this one, then I'll finish the hickory one and hopefully use it next deer season.
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Offline Pappy

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #7 on: June 25, 2013, 07:33:24 am »
Looks good to me, :) just how I like um,outer limb a little stiff. I do most that way intentionally.  :) Elm is tough wood. :)
   Pappy
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Offline burn em up chuck

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #8 on: June 25, 2013, 07:43:50 am »
  thank you for the documentation, I had read somewhere about the similarity to english longbows, but had never seen any pictures. very nice bow, tiller looks good

                                                                                  chuck
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Offline Dvshunter

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #9 on: June 25, 2013, 12:04:04 pm »
Congrats on your first bow.  8)
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Offline Zion

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #10 on: June 25, 2013, 02:27:31 pm »
Nice, elm is an amazing bow wood. Sorry if u mentioned this but do u know what kind of elm it is?
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Offline Scallorn

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #11 on: June 25, 2013, 02:42:53 pm »
I know its elm, but I'm not sure exctly what species. I know it isn't winged elm because there were      no wings :D maybe slippery elm, but again I'm not sure. I live in NE texs close to the red river if that helps any.
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Offline SLIMBOB

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #12 on: June 25, 2013, 04:07:01 pm »
In Texas, our 2 most common Elms are Cedar Elm (Ulmus Crassifolia) and American Elm which is a White Elm (Ulmus Americana).  American Elm makes a fine bow wood.  I have never made one from Cedar Elm, but I would think it would make a fine bow as well.  Cedar Elm has been on my list of woods to try.
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Offline Scallorn

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #13 on: June 25, 2013, 05:10:13 pm »
I looked it up, and the tree was american elm. I was very impressed at the tought interlocking grain of the wood, it took me a few hours to hammer a blade through to split it.
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Offline Joec123able

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Re: Elm longbow
« Reply #14 on: June 25, 2013, 05:14:43 pm »
Not bad at all nice job
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I like osage
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