Another one Bites the Dust.

The character warbow exploded spectacularly... I'd done a lot of work too ... oh bugger.
I'd taken out the deflex and heat treated the belly, I also patched the missing timber from where the original sawing of the log had chamfered out a bit on the belly side of the grip.

Doing an autopsy, it showed that the big belly knot that I filled was in fact 3 knots! There was a central knot and a smaller one either side, which I'd thought were just small inclusions of bark. The black line round the two knots would have had little compressive strength and probably just collapsed. Alternatively the big dip in the sapwood could have been the weak point and maybe that just snapped...  I did get it on video, but it is so fast that, it would need a high speed camera to actually see it.
https://youtu.be/-8lZBCmuWXI

Character Warbow Work

Blimey, after 2 days of almost unbearable heat, it's now raining non stop, a good time to write up the blog! It was so hot last night, I went down stairs where it's cooler, opened up the big double patio doors and slept on the floor.

The stave is being worked down to a reasonable size and taper. I've taken the sapwood down and tried to get it following the undulations.
As I've reduced the belly I've uncovered a buried knot which has needed filling, I also fear I may have gone a tad thin near one of the big waggles, but only time will tell.

There's a fair bit of reflex near the grip on the lower limb, which I decided to steam out.
A little deflex makes warbows easier to get braced in the early stages of tillering, and a lot of reflex is a nightmare, as it makes it almost impossible to get 'em to brace without risking coming in under weight.
I feel for a bow with a long draw you can't afford to waste potential tip movement by having 3" of reflex.

Setting it up for steaming I found my old 5L plastic bottle steam chest had just about disintegrated. Fortunately I had a bottle of windscreen washer fluid that was almost empty, so I topped up the washer bottle in my car and cut some holes in the bottle for steam use. (Not forgetting a hole in the bottom to let any water out))
I set up for making 3 simultaneous corrections.
1. Pulling it down to put in some deflex to make the lower limb a better match for the upper and to make it about flat tip to tip. (I pull it too far to allow for it to settle back)
2. Sideways deflection to get the tips in line and to stop it trying to flip over sideways on the tiller.
3. Twist removal. (Wooden "spanner" clamped to tip and pulling down with rubber strap).

I left the steamer going for over an hour until it ran dry and switched off. There is a great temptation to take it off and see how it looks, but I resisted and left it overnight. I've taken a pic of it this morning against a straight edge, so that I'll be able to see how much it recovers over time before I start flexing it.
You can see the big waggle in the right limb in the bottom pic.
I've had it on the tiller on a long string and pulled it to about 80# it looks fairly even and the weak point i was worried about doesn't seem to be a problem. The really positive thing is that it is sitting much better on the tiller and not trying to flip over as the string alignment is now much better.
I'll maybe get some video later. https://youtu.be/2p_N3lcN8hw

I've eased off the outers and pulled it to 90# @25.5 from a 5.5" brace which is good progress.
That interpolates to about 110# when I allow for brace height. I may consider heat treating the belly near the grip and taking out a whisker of the deflex, but that will certainly wait for a day or so as it's only just been steamed.
The dilemma is, should one aim for a well tillered 100-105# character bow, or a 120# with the risk of ending up with a pile of firewood?
Slow and steady wins the day, when in doubt... don't.
I feel the extra thickness of sapwood near the grip will make it elastic rather than punchy, and it feels fairly safe... but experience has taught me that you can't actually tell which will explode.

Bow Pics and Sorting my Stash

Spent most of yesterday going through my seasoned timber and trimming some of it. I have to do this periodically to make room on the shelves for this years timber. It also reminds me what I have and allows me to weed out some of the dross and to trim/rough out some of the staves.
I did a vid of it:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rDHPH94rrU&t=39s

Here's some more pics of the 100# @ 32" Pacific Yew warbow. The guy I made it for was shooting it on Sunday, he's still a couple of inches short of reaching full draw, but very happy with the performance.

Warbow Virtually Finished

I've taken a few vids of the progress... final one here:-WHOOPS... not this video!:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFCvaOdZWzw

THIS video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6r42x2-xUM&t=112s
Full draw pic show left (lower) tip looking stiff due to some natural reflex there.

A Spot of Field Shooting

I had a bit of a break from the warbow yesterday and drove down to Blackwater in Hampshire with JT to see our mate Rob, who then drove us about 20 mins to Fleet Ibex Field Archery Club.

We had shoot round in glorious weather and a beautiful setting, plenty of butterflies and some deer too. We had the place to ourselves, it was very peaceful. I was shooting twister my fave Yew primitive and did ok, though some of the log shots were baffling!
Rob was pretty steady, but we weren't being competitive or scoring, just having a stroll and shooting a few arrows as the fancy took us.

JT rarely shoots field and normally shoots a heavy warbow... he went round with an old Quick's takedown recurve that he'd given someone £20 for rather than see it binned. It was interesting seeing it shot from what looked like a 30" draw! It was pretty quick, but with less draw weight to provide resistance it felt a bit like waving a feather in a breeze. His shooting was a bit like the curate's egg. With matched arrows and a bit of practice it looked like it would be a fun field bow. I had one shot with it using a fat arrow that had no point! (Yes of course I hit the kill ;-) ).

We stopped at a pub (The Fox) for a bite to eat. I had a grilled pork wrap with tzatziki ... yum, and a beer, perfect way to spend a day...
Pics courtesy of JT... including him pondering the eternal question of half empty or half full. This was eventually resolved with a refill !

The drive back round the M25 was a bit of a chore, but it's not so bad when there's 2 of you in the car and you can have a chat, and be fed extra strong mints.
Back at JTs we loaded a big Yew log onto the Micra so that we can run it through the bandsaw on Thursday. Nice log, but one side is all branches at one end, so we will prob make a series of saw cuts across the knotty side and chop it away with an axe. Removing some of the bulk will make it more manage able for the bandsaw.
I'm almost tempted to buy an electric chainsaw for such trimming work, but it would be just one more seldom used tool to clutter up the garage, anyhow, a bit of hand sawing is good for the general fitness level... and I certainly need it.

The combination of shooting, being stuck in a car driving and heaving a bleedin' great log of the car (with some help from my better half) made my shoulder ache something chronic... then I remembered we have on of those cloth bags full of rice or beans or something that you warm up in the microwave... absolute bliss wrapped over the shoulder, loosened it off a treat :-)

Pacific Yew Warbow

The warbow is coming along, but just a day using the drawknife off and on has got my shoulders and elbows aching. It's odd, I thought all the work on the pergola had me nicely loosened up... it just takes a slightly different action and you really feel it...
The stave looked perfect with a nice even layer of sapwood, but once I had it roughed out and started working it down, it became obvious that the sapwood was too thick ( 1/2 " ) and I've taken it down with a spokeshave, leaving it full thickness in the middle to provide a little extra thickness to allow for a weird dip at that point.
I've got it flexing about to brace height, but I can't actually brace it and I'll have to resort to the winch.
I like to get them braced early as it helps to show the curve of the limbs. I see quite a lot of posts on Facebook and the like where people as how the tiller is looking on a bow but it isn't really flexing at all.
Here's some video of it flexing and a pic of it at about 110# ... whoops , it's only supposed to be 100#, but as it's not braced yet, that doesn't make any real difference.
https://youtu.be/u0LlbYdiYH8

I've since removed a little more wood and managed to get it to a low brace of 3.5" , by pulling it on the tiller using a stringer and the 2:1 advantage of the pulleys on the tiller rig, just managing to slip the string on.
I then pulled it to 100# @21" and I won't pull it over 100# now it's braced.

The tiller set up was squeaking annoyingly and the needle on the scale was jumping about. I noticed the scale was rubbing on the wooden rule as it moved up and down so I've added a wooden block to space the rope away from the wall (glued to the wall with some rapid epoxy) to keep everything running straight and parallel. I also lubricated the pulleys and the scale mechanism... it all runs beautifully smooth now.
A bit of maintenance makes everything so much nicer to use and it's much easier to read the draw weight and length now.

Finished the Pagoda/Pergola

I can start on another project now, which is to be a 110# @ 30" (I stand corrected 100# @ 32" ! ) Warbow from a stave of Pacific Yew that belongs to one of my friends (another John... you are never more than 25 yards away from a John... or Dave), he's been waiting on it getting done for a long time now, so it will be good to pick it up.

Over the last weekend my mate JT shot at the Mary Rose shoot where unfortunately the Ash backed flight bow got broken on their test rig due to a combination of factors, which are being amicably resolved.

The flight bow in question had been drawn to 90# at 27" on the tiller and had some tentative test shots which seemed very promising.
The big misunderstanding was that all bows would be tested at 28" draw, which should have been ok... but I had said it should only be tested to 26".
BUT they insisted on drawing to 28"and were measuring to the belly which isn't how ELBs, warbows and selfbows are normally measured!
The only time measurement to the belly is used, is for weight classified flight shoots (e.g Not exceeding 50#), where the arrow length is used to measure draw to the belly. This is to stop anyone drawing an extra inch or so to gain extra draw weight.

You can see that drawing the bow 28" to the belly when it is 1.25" thick at the grip is actually drawing it to 29.25" measured in the normal way to the back!
Note:- To corroborate my assertion that ELBs should be measured to the back, here's a brief Youtube video from the respected Richard Head:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVcd9a1CfWA&t=63s
No wonder it broke!

The disappointment is that we never got to evaluate the performance. It was to be shot with flight arrows from 28"-32" in length and as such may have exploded anyway, but to break a bow is really the prerogative of the bowyer or archer and no one else.
Anyhow, as I said, changes to the rig, specification and rules are all under consideration in an amicable manner.

On a happier note, JT still won the afternoon flight shoot with "Smooth-Hound" the second string bow :-) .
On the overall 2 days he was narrowly pipped to second place by arch rival Gunther which of course will spur us on for next year!

Flight Testing and Pagoda

I've got 2 flight bows done for my mate JT's outing to the ILAA Mary Rose 2 day shoot at the weekend.
One is a self Yew bow that has a hint of deflex and its a tad longer than the other, which is Ash backed.

 The first, named "Smooth-Hound" 'cos it it smooth rather than 'cos it's a dog! Should, in theory, nicely match a heavier arrow and a longer draw.
While the Ash backed which may get named at some point will be for flight arrows at a max of about 29-30"

We gave them a try out on Sunday both at a slightly short draw, the Ash backed sent two of the four arrows over 300 yards, this gave us some idea which were the best arrows and draw length (about 30" arrow at about 400 grain). Of course there were many variables like the warming up and confidence factor which could be contributing to the results, but none the less, the results did tie in with some previous observations and we could certainly rule out the 27" arrows as too short and flirty.
Smooth-hound performed roughly in line with other bows but was under drawn and into a slight head wind. It out performed a fresh but heavy warbow that couldn't be pulled to full draw... so that will get maybe 5# taken off it.
I'm making another flight arrow (maybe 2) roughly in line with the best one tested, but at the correct length (30.5 rather than 32")
There's a short clip of Smooth-hound being tested in the garden last week here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oitQeEq5r_A



Meanwhile back at the Pagoda... I've got the rubber on the roof... it was a bit wobbly up there and a nightmare wrestling roses and adhesive which seems to never dry and gets everywhere! My better half opined that I should do the posts first to make it sound and solid, but I wanted to get the roof done to help keep the deck dry, and I also wanted to do it while I had a flat deck to work from...

Anyhow, she was right...ish ;-) 'cos when I took up the decking I was shocked to find the 4" square Oak posts had rotted virtually all the way through and the whole structure was held in place mostly by gravity. Mind, it has to be said gravity is pretty reliable!
I'm sure you can imagine, I got some teasing and raised eyebrows... I didn't get where I am today wasting time planning!
I'm sawing the bottoms off the posts (no...not all at once ;-) ) and fitting steel supports which will be concreted in. The supports will be round the back of the posts so they won't spoil the look of it.
In the pics, the front left leg has been sawn off and is supported on a block of timber. The steel bracket and the sawn off foot is lying on the block.
Note the distortion in the picture... the verticals are all parallel (or near as dammit)... the camera doesn't always tell the truth, worth noting when looking at the tiller of bows.

PS. Update 27/6/2022. JT shot a PB of 361 yards with smooth hound (gusty wind). Dimensions of Smooth Hound 66" nock to nock. 1 1/16" wide at the grip (almost square).