Wednesday 6 July 2016

BBY Collected & a Flight Bow?

My mate Lawrance came over to collect the bamboo backed Yew this afternoon. The pic makes the upper limb look a bit long, but that's due to the bow being canted over a bit and the camera being at eye level. I should have known to kneel to get the camera at the same height as the centre of the bow..
The lower limb tip still isn't completely uncoiling but it's not far off and once the bow and archer are more used to each other it may settle down.
It's arguable if it actually qualifies as an English Longbow (NFAS deffinition), but it's hard to know how much reflex will stay in when gluing up and during tillering. It may get a little adjustment later, but Lawrance isn't really that fussed as he isn't seriously into competition anyway he can always shrug and say "call it whatever you like!"

I've got a Yew longbow roughed out, it's to be 60# @ 28", I've been filling a couple of knots, but it's already flexing on the tiller.

Meanwhile there's good news  and bad news on the flight shooting front. The good news is, the field has been mowed, the bad news is, I haven't made a flight bow....
So I pulled out a big length of Hickory that my bowyer friend Matt had given me, it's a tad odd as it has heart & sapwood running through it, but there's supposed to be no difference anyway. I might be able to make it into a Yew lookalike longbow, but I figured there's enough to cut out a flight bow based on my Yew backed Cherry one from last year that was pretty good.
I'm making it with the growth rings running from belly to back. Many Hickory backing strips are cut this way. I offered it up to the bandsaw, but the fine tooth blade didn't like it. Swapping to the 3 tpi blade and letting it go at it's own pace went through fine.
I'm aiming at about 70# at 24", that's scaled from 90# at 31" which I know I can pull. That should hopefully give me a decent distance... if it doesn't explode!
I was going to go a hint longer on the levers, but forgot that as I drew round the original bow! Having allowed a bit extra all round should give me some wriggle room. There is plenty of width on the timber and it will have the sapwood strip running down one side.
Note, I won't be shaping the grip, as I may make it centre shot, or shoot through a hole or have a false grip on an extension out the front, that allows the archer to bring the back muscles into play more and effectively do a 24" draw but by pulling back to a normal 28" anchor.
Should be interesting... watch this space!

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