How to make a lower poundage, yet full size English longbow?

[Sammakesbows]

Most war bow weight longbows I've seen are small enough to fit completely in your hand. That would mean that making a lower poundage bow (Like 50 pounds) Would have to be slender. Would using a lower RPI stave be able to yield me a full size, yet lower poundage bow? After all, I might be able to get the stave for cheaper, if not free.

[Mikkolaht]

Deflexing the stave might help? But it gives bad cast with low poundage...

Make the limbs wider and use some soft species of wood.
I think willow/goat willow would make a big bow, maybe poplar/aspen too.

Just speculations.

[Pat B]

Balsa

[bownarra]

a 50# yew longbow will still be 1 inch square (ish) in the handle.
Don't over think it just make one
Rough out dimensions for a yew longbow 50#@28 would be 1 !/8 wide for the center 12 inches. Then taper to 3/42 wide 12 inches form the nocks then into 1/2 at the nocks.

[Pat B]

Are you talking about an English war bow or an English Victorian long bow?

[willie]

Sam, do you know for sure how much you can pull? How tall are you?
if you want to make a bow that works, sorta like a warbow, you might be able to find some something at the lumberyard easy.

[Sammakesbows]

Sam, do you know for sure how much you can pull? How tall are you?
if you want to make a bow that works, sorta like a warbow, you might be able to find some something at the lumberyard easy.

Im just under 5'7"

Im pretty sure i could use maple or something and heat treat the belly. My questions was just hypothetical.

[Del the cat]

I don't think it can be done!
If you take a specific Mary Rose bow as the size and shape you want and make it from different woods, rather than simply being lighter, the belly will probably chrysal, take a load of set and possibly break whilst still being quite a high draw weight.
One problem is you don't define your terms... what do you mean by lower poundage? 50# 40# ?
I must admit I'd like to see Pat B's suggestion of a MR bow made of balsa to see what it did 
Del

[Badger]

   I used to make a lot of ELBs from cherry backed with white or red oak. Attractive and dimensions are pretty decent at 1 1/4 wide for 50# bow around 70" long.

[Marc St Louis]

ERC will make a physically larger bow for a given draw weight

[Hamish]

+ 1 for ERC as Marc mentioned. Plenty of massive looking bows, that would be in the 120-150lbs range if made from yew, but draw about 70-80lbs from ERC.

[Jurinko]

I just finished #50@28, 71 inch long, 1 1/4 wide, >3/4 thick in handle following the 5/8 rule through the whole limbs from European? hard maple. Heavily rounded edges, belly more rounded than back. Set after unbracing 1,5", concentrated in outer limbs, tiller ellipsoid like Victorian ELBs (stiffer central part) since the poundage is medium-low and efficiency will be better due to virtually shorter limbs. So it is pretty much doable.

I made an European oak longbow before, #44@28, 69" 1 1/4" wide with flat belly and slightly rounded back with front profile of Saxton Pope's Old Horrible. It is flatter and better design for white wood than rounded ELB, having almost no set at all, but I needed to try that oval crosscut.

Tillering is tricky as it must be braced when very strong, otherwise it reaches the final draw surprisingly quickly, compared to flatbows. I will post final pics in a week.

Jurinko

[RyanY]

I agree that ERC is your best bet. If you make it long with an elliptical tiller that’ll help with keeping the handle thick. The thickness is the most difficult part to maintain with harder woods and length is the only thing that will really help.

[meanewood]

I think the best way to answer your question is to start with a fact.

Bow no 81A3977 recovered from the 'Mary Rose' warship is 1956mm long and 33.5mm wide and 30.5mm deep at the center and is made from Yew. It probably was one of the lightest draw weight bows found, but there are 4 or 5 others around the same dimensions.

My guess is that this bow would have been around 70-90 lbs draw weight.

This bow is obviously a 'Warbow', because it was part of the compliment of bows on board this Warship!

So to answer your question, if 70 - 90lbs is too much, then you could do as Marc suggested and use ERC and replicate those dimensions.

ERC does look like yew after the unique colour of ERC's heartwood is exposed to light and changes to a colour very much like Yew.

I know Marc has made Warbows from ERC that have a rounded belly, but I would keep it a little flatter to help avoid crystals developing.

At these dimensions the bow may well be as little as 50-60lbs but that's just a guess.

Of course, you could use a 'light' piece of Yew or one of the other authentic woods used to make bows back then such as Elm, Ash and Hazel.

So it's not hard to make a bow that looks like a 'Warbow' that only draws 50-60lbs but there will be plenty of people who tell you that it needs to have a higher draw weight to be 'classed' as that.

[Gimlis Ghost]

Saxton Pope built a replica of a Mary Rose Long Bow that was 6' 4 3/4" long. He used Oregon Yew wood with 3/8" of sapwood.
He was very disappointed to find it drew only 52# at 28".
He then experimented by shortening the bow to 6' even he found it drew  62 # at 28 inches. Maximum range improved a bit.
Apparently the longer the bow the lighter the pull everything else being equal.
It also suggested that the wood used made a difference.
If I read his further comments properly the sapwood only serves to prevent the bow from breaking so reducing the amount of heart wood compared to sapwood might also reduce the pull.
In any case you'd be making a deliberately inferior bow, though it might be more durable in the long run.

PS
The Mary Rose bow he used as a pattern was one of two salvaged from the wreck when first discovered. They later determined that these were unfinished bow staves not yet customized for the end user. Apparently all roughed out bows of this type were fired using very heavy arrows to break them in and uncover any problems then the bow was sent to a skilled craftsman who shortened the stave and  finished the bow out to best suit the owner. So Pope was actually doing exactly what was required to create a good bow.