Agincourt longbow?

[briarjumper12]

Fellow Bowyers,

I am seeking information on a build project that has been put before me.  I collegue of mine is wanting me to build a historically accurate longbow to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt.  I feel it would be both a great personal challenge and a great experiment.

So I would like to open a discussion with all the experienced bowyers that have produced such weapons and see if I gain the proper perspective on this endeavor so that I can give my collegue a definative answer on whether or not I think I can pull it off.

So far I have only built hunting weight American Flatbows from white woods. But I have been successful.  It would take some guidance from you all I am sure.

Here goes with a couple starter questions...

What are good sources to be looking at to gain the information needed to stay historically accurate?
What are some good resources to use to gain insight into building the english longbow design?

I look forward to what can be learned from the discussion.  And I encourage anybody with knowledge on the subject to blow this thread wide open.
John

[Japbow]

      Hey Jumper!

      You should definitely check out Del the Cat's site, Bowyer's Diary.
      He builds a lot of yew longbows and would be the resident expert.

      Good luck with your build!

      Japbow.

[WillS]

In terms of staying historically accurate, we have no real evidence for draw weight, or bow length from this period.  All we have are the Mary Rose bows from a hundred years later (roughly 100# to 150# draw weight and  between 74" and 80" long) but I think at the moment most people are counting those bows as fairly good estimates for the 100 Years War bows.

Is your colleague actually attending the Agincourt 2015 event?  If he is, he can use any weight bow he likes.  I think most warbow archers will be taking a couple of bows - a heavy one for the distance/flight shoot and a much lighter one for shooting at the clankies.

As for making them - get in touch with some of the guys who are "topping the charts" so to speak with warbows - people like Ian Sturgess on here, or Ian Coote if you have Facebook.  Both of them have made true warbow replicas that are setting global records for performance with military weight arrows, and are very generous and helpful if asked.

As a rough guide (and I'm just a novice so take this broadly) you want to be looking at a roughed out stave that's around 78" long.  40mm wide in the center, staying parallel for 20cm each side of center.  Mark out the tip at just over 25mm wide, and taper from 40mm to the tips.  Mark 35mm thick at the center and taper straight to the tips. 

This gives you a solid and predictable shape to start tillering.  Once it's bending fairly evenly you can reduce the tips - from about 10" from the tips, taper to just over 13mm wide.  That gives you the classic and accepted profile of the Mary Rose bows and if the bow was bending nicely should bring the tips round better and start to look close to finished shape.  The tiller shape can either be a perfect circle or for slightly better performance stiffer in the handle with gently whipped ends. 

As I said I'm a novice but that's how I've been taught and I believe that's how the top bowyers make theirs. 

Keep the sapwood thin, don't stay on the long string too much, brace as early as you can, drink lots of tea, get a stress ball, don't get yew from Medicine Bow Woods and you should be fine.

[briarjumper12]

Thank you gentleman.  I will be looking into these things as time allows.
JY

[Del the cat]

The book 'Weapons of Warre' (two volumes) gives the dimensions of many of the Mary Rose Bows and this is a good place to start if you want an accurate reproduction.
There is a complete build along on my blog of a 130# yew warbow which I did last year. Starts here:-
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/warbow-stave.html
Shortly after finishing that one I do a 110# warbow too. Those two should give you a good idea of how to proceed.
Getting a good stave is tricky.
Prior to the 13# Yew, I did a 100# Elm bow which is also all blogged up.
Del

[briarjumper12]

Thanks Del!  I'll be reading up on your blog.  A quick once over reveals too much info to absorb in one sitting LOL.  Added to my favorites.

[leehongyi]

In the battle of Agincourt, the narrow field restricted the mobility of french army and the heavy armors slowed the soldiers. the longbow men had enough time to shoot their enemy. but due to thick armors, only a few french were killed by arrow directly. most of who were hurt at exposure areas and then killed by melee weapon or captured. warbow is a great weapon, but this time its glory was based on the bad weather and environment, not as it used to be. its limited penetration against thick armor exposed.