Hi all, here is my latest bow, a stretched replica of a bow found in the Swiss alps, dated to apr. 5000 years ago. A number of yew bows was found in the region which show a very familiar feature. The HLD, or hollow limb design! This stone age HLD, or semi-HLD eventually died out. Maybe it was a trend and people in the end thought, nah lets just keep it simple, it isnīt worth it..
Anyways, the HLD is found on both longbows and flat limbs-narrow handle bows with a propeller shape front profile.
I do find it interesting and am making some replicas and adaptations with the help of Jürgen Junkmanns great book "Pfeilen und Bogen" which in great detail describes all old bows with measurements and photos.
The concavity on this bow isnīt that exaggerated. On some bows itīs quite pronounced, on others just a few mm.
Original was around 160 cm. My interpretation is 169, otherwise I have tried to follow the measurements to +/- a couple mm.
#45@27"
I am quite interested to hear from others who have experimented with the HLD at what point of hollowing you begin to see a positive effect, and what possible advantages this not so extreme hollowing could give?
On this bow the concavity ends halfway out the limbs and translates into flat belly outerlimbs, but on others it went right through the nocks.
Another very odd feature of these early stone age bows is that they worked the sides on the sapling, rounding them off to create an exaggerated very high round back crown, only leaving a thin ( a few mm) strip of untouched outer ring on top the crown along the length of the bow.
The bow mainly bends where I hollowed it out with relatively stiff outer limbs and there is a certain amount of give in the handle.
Any thoughts on this design welcome!
Aksel
