I've been busy over the last week refubishing the back door to my garage as it had been flapping about in the high wind. There was a lot of rot along the bottom and it turned into a major job.It still needs a drip edge adding to the bottom and another coat of paint, but at least I can shut and lock it now and it keep it a bit warmer in there.
A chap called Robin came over today to discus his longbow and have a look at my stuff. He was worried that his Yew longbow was warped a bit.
We'd made contact via the Archery Interchange website where he'd posted a question about his bow.
It was a nice enough bow which he'd bought second hand, however he'd been missinformed about the wood! It was laminated Hickory and another wood (Lemonwood?). Once he'd seen my Yew bows he could see the difference.
We popped the bow up on the tiller and took it back to a nice safe 26" (He draws about 29) There was the slightest hint of a sideways bend in one limb over the last third of the limb, but barely perceptible and certainly in acceptable limits. The string was sitting slightly to one side where the bowyers knot was and it sat slightly skewed on the other nock.
I said it was fine and that if I'd been making it, I'd maybe spend a minute with a needle file on the nock, but that was all.
We shot a variety of my bows and I shot a few arrows from his, which performed fine.
After much talk of bow woods and such like we went over to the local wood to see some wood in it's raw state, as luck would have it there was a 'camp' made by the kids which had a nice straight bit of Hazel built into it.
It was too good to pass over so we took it home and hacked the back off to help it season a bit quicker. I gave Robin a few bits of Waterbuffalo horn to make an arrow plate for his bow and some Dacron which unfortunately got left on the bench!
Robin gave me two bottles of wine for which was a most welcomed and very generous.
He can pick up the Dacron some other time when the Hazel has had time to season and he's back from Uni' again.
We'd made contact via the Archery Interchange website where he'd posted a question about his bow.
It was a nice enough bow which he'd bought second hand, however he'd been missinformed about the wood! It was laminated Hickory and another wood (Lemonwood?). Once he'd seen my Yew bows he could see the difference.
We popped the bow up on the tiller and took it back to a nice safe 26" (He draws about 29) There was the slightest hint of a sideways bend in one limb over the last third of the limb, but barely perceptible and certainly in acceptable limits. The string was sitting slightly to one side where the bowyers knot was and it sat slightly skewed on the other nock.
I said it was fine and that if I'd been making it, I'd maybe spend a minute with a needle file on the nock, but that was all.
We shot a variety of my bows and I shot a few arrows from his, which performed fine.
After much talk of bow woods and such like we went over to the local wood to see some wood in it's raw state, as luck would have it there was a 'camp' made by the kids which had a nice straight bit of Hazel built into it.
It was too good to pass over so we took it home and hacked the back off to help it season a bit quicker. I gave Robin a few bits of Waterbuffalo horn to make an arrow plate for his bow and some Dacron which unfortunately got left on the bench!
Robin gave me two bottles of wine for which was a most welcomed and very generous.
He can pick up the Dacron some other time when the Hazel has had time to season and he's back from Uni' again.
So that's about it for this year.
Seasons greetings to one and all, see you in the new year.
Derek
Seasons greetings to one and all, see you in the new year.
Derek
Hi Del,
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed reading your blogs over the last year or so and who knows, some of it may have sunk in.
I bought my eldest grandaughter a horse bow a few months ago so the need to build a longbow is gone but the "want to" is still lurking in the background.
Have a good Christmas and an even better new year.
Phil