Non Bow Related Activity

The roof of the Pergola/Pagoda thingy in the garden was falling down and in need of repair.
When I built it I'd wanted to clad the roof in Copper, but that was too expensive and it got left as treated softwood boards which have now rotted. I built it partly just for the fun of working with green Oak.

 It's totally overgrown with Ivy and Roses, but once I got in and started cutting out the dead stuff and the Ivy it didn't take too long to clear. the main Oak structure is still pretty sound so I've re-boarded the roof and I'm going to cover it with rubber sheet. I may do a decorative trim of Copper on the front edge.

The decking beneath it needs replacing too as that has rotted through. I'll be interested to see what is under the decking as I suspect a variety of small mammals and maybe crocodiles have been nesting under there.

I'll wait for a nice dry day before gluing on the rubber. Then I'll work on the deck, one of the Oak verticals is a bit rotted at the bottom, but probably only on the surface... pretty tough stuff Oak.

There are about 3 main stems of rose still going across it and I've been careful to leave those as they run up into the Yew tree and give a nice show of white roses, they run up next door's Rowan tree too, giving us both the benefit of a nice display.
It grieves me a bit when some people decimate their gardens of trees and rely on their neighbours to provide the shade, blossom and view. Our neighbours on that side are very good and have some lovely trees, notably a huge Hornbeam. They also have a big pond which brings in the Ducks.

All has been approved by the inspector of works! :-)

Plenty Going On

I've done the son of Il Bastardo, pretty much roughed out to the same dimensions with about an inch and a half extra length, Yew heartwood with a quarter sawn Ash backing.

The backing was cut from a 1/4 Ash log that I was given years ago, it had been felled by Chris Boyton for a bow making course he was doing in a Hertfordshire woodland and was surplus to requirement. I couldn't decide on Ash (cut following a ring) or Hickory for a backing, so I asked on the Primitive Archer, I'm never afraid to ask advice, but only from those who I know to have genuine experience. Anyhow, 1/4 sawn Ash was suggested by Marc StLouis (one of the top bowyers). It's not something I'd tried as a back, so I ran it through the bandsaw. It was a bit of a battle, I had to set the bandsaw to slow speed.
Even with a guide it took a lot of concentration to get a reasonable strip (about 1/4"). With some planing and sanding, this was reduced to give clean flat strip of  about 3/16" with only one slight waggle in the grain (and that is at the grip).
The heartwood belly was sawn to rough tapered limbs rectangular in section. It was glued up on a former with a tiny bit of reflex and a hint of deflex in the centre due to it being thicker at the grip but pulled down flat. Hopefully the diagram at the top of the post shows what I mean.

I took a video of it on the tiller getting close to completion, since then I've fitted the horn nocks and had it to 90# @27".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrF8nE6bBsY

I've been doing a bit to the crossbow project too, I've made some string catchers/buffers from rubber doorstops supported on turned Aluminium pillars. The Aluminium is decent quality aerospace grade alloy (7075) which machines much nicer than the bog standard stuff. (Note one limb is still covered in masking tape).

I've also re- tillered an reduced bow for a friend, taking about 20# off it and straightening out the sideways bend a bit! I replaced the hideous nocks too. I don't really know how people have the nerve to sell bows with nocks like that?

Il Bastardo es Muerto!

We went over to Now Strike archery near Chelmsford to test some warbows with heavy "standard" and "military"arrows and to give il Bastardo another try out with 28" flight arrows.
The heavy arrows flew well from JT's regular bows, and we could see which bow performed best, shooting those warmed him up for il Bastardo.
He flexed it a bit them pulled it back... I thought... Wow, that's coming back a long..BANG!
Previously he'd been an inch maybe and inch and a half short of full draw, but this time he was really getting into it. The bang was huge and it brought over the other archers from the adjacent field to see what had exploded.
It had a short but worthwhile life having won last year's Mary Rose flight shoot. It will be much missed by family and friends.
At least we have time before the next shoot to shorten and re-tiller some other bows for flight use. I'm also going to make a Hickory backed Yew so we can find which shoots best.

As it exploded it took JT's head clean off his shoulders, but we put his head back on, and having found the bow string, put one loop over his ear and threaded the string down under one armpit round behind his shoulders up under the other armpit and tied it off round the other ear. By the time he'd had a pint of Guinness and we'd shared a bowl of chips his head was growing back on nicely.

But seriously ... fortunately no one was hurt, and it could have been a lot worse... I could have been shooting it! ;-)

I've kept the pieces so I can take some measurements, as I think it was pretty much optimum..... but for a 27" draw!
It looks like the break propagated from the upper limb, but it's a very high quality break ;-) as it has smashed pretty evenly along the whole bow.

I expect JT is currently sitting in a darkened room with a large glass of red wine :-)

Funny Old Weather

We had one scorching hot day last week, so I put up the awning that I ordered last year, it's just a decent quality tarpaulin really, the stuff they use for the side of big lorries. The proper fancy awnings like you see in fancy hotels in sunny climes cost a small fortune. It worked really well and kept it pleasantly cool and shady indoors. Next day the weather turned so I had to take it down, which doesn't take long.
It's now been really miserable for a couple of days, and I really notice how dark it is in the garage compared with when I have the big up-and-over door open (you can't beat natural daylight from the North).
I'd been sitting with my mug of tea and the Toolstation catalogue and I saw a 600mm x 600mm LED panel light which looked like it would provide some good extra illumination over the work bench and give me something to tinker with on a wet afternoon. I also bought a couple of LED bulbs for my benchlight (the fluorescents take an age to get to full brightness and are a tad yellow).
The led panel comes with it's own slim transformer and the whole lot is very light...the down side is, it's doesn't come with any fixings as it is designed to drop into a suspended ceiling. Ha, but that just gives me something else to fiddle with. 4 wooden blocks screwed into the ceiling joists and some little aluminium clips did the job. It wasn't quite that easy, as I had to move one of the fluorescent tubes a bit to create space.

Why am I blethering on about all this? Well, I though it was about time I posted on here and I wanted to take some pics of a pair of longbows I've just finished. It's too wet to take the pics outside, but with the new lighting, maybe a pic on the garage floor might suffice.
The bows are two of the prototype flight bows I'd made earlier, suitable fiddled fettled and adjusted to become roving/field bows. They are both left handed and one has been worked down to 35# @ 27" . The are for the couple who run the ILAA, they'd asked me to make bows for them, but I'm not that keen on making laminates, so finishing up the flight bows seemed like a win-win solution especially as they wanted good cast.
The ladies bow Boo/Yew/Ipe is particularly impressive cast wise having shot over 220yards with a flight arrow, the gents bow making over 235. Distance isn't directly proportional to poundage and it was interesting to note that in the flight shoot the other week, sometime the lower weight bows were out shooting the heavier ones.

Anyhow, that's about it, other than some tinkering with the crossbow project, but I've got to go and do the weekend shopping now :-(