Wych Elm Primitive

I've been given a Wych Elm stave to work into a bow. I'm aiming for a wide flat primitive shape with  nice willow leaf shaped limbs, about 80# at 30".
It's mostly sapwood, but once I started working it with a spokeshave I could smell that earthy peppery Elm smell. The figure in the grain also looks like Elm.
It's coming along nicely pulling to about 70# at 23" at a low brace.

I've heat treat it to take out that reflex kink and to prevent chrysalling,hopefully.
Pic on the right shows one limb heat treated.
Note:- The two pics on the left are taken at an angle, so the grip looks left of centre.
There's a couple of videos on my Youtube chanel:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSQasahMT18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3VTd3v6kuU&t=5s

Busy Weekend

It's been scorching hot, so I got in the pond, dredged out some of the silt, pulled out some of the Canadian pod weed and cut back some of the reedy stuff. Whilst doing so I found myself staring at a pair of little Froggy eyes... made me chuckle.

On the Sunday I went to the Aurora open field shoot and had a fine time, I was shooting with friendly bunch Joyce, Pete, Terry and my mate Mick the blacksmith. There were two AFBs, an unsighted compound (shot off the fingers) a sighted target recurve and my primitive. They's all shot round on the Saturday already, but two days is a bit much for me.
It was an odd format and scoring with two arrows at each target from the same peg, which is a bit irritating if you hit with the first and miss with the second.
It's hard to judge how well I shot from my score as it wasn't the usual big game system. I think I did pretty well, and actually scored more than Mick, which is unusual, but by his own assessment he was "shooting like an arse".
My best shot was a really inviting peccary/boar/Javelina or some such. The peg was up on the stump of a coppice stool, shooting down into a dip about 13 yards away. Each target had a yellow spot marked to score 11, the inner kill was then 10, the kill 8 and anything else 5. I just knew I couldn't miss as it was pretty much the same range as shooting into my garage when allowance was made for the downhillosity of it. The first shot was a spot and the second about 1/2" away to score 21. Joyce (AFB) was on great form and just kept hitting 'em all the way round. Some of the long shots caught me out as I rarely shoot at those ranges, the damn Lion standing in bracken was very deceptive... had no idea how far away it was and I put two over his back... grrr.
It was pretty hot, but being in a shady wood helped considerably.
Many thanks to the Avalon team for a great shoot all their hard work and keeping us fed and watered. I don't know how they manage to find the energy to run a two day shoot, but they do it with great humour.

On the Monday (or "yesterday" as we sometimes call it), it was scorching hot and I felt at a bit of a loose end. I'd been contemplating decorating the little Elder bow, but din't want to actually copy a Native American (NA) bow. I just went for it with some Acrylic paint doing a simple zig zag on the upper limb and a wavy line on the lower. My wife thought the red was a tad vivid and I bowed to her opinion as my colour vision is a bit off (slight red/green deficiency) and I went over it again with more burnt umber and less crimson. I added a couple of nice blue iridescent Mallard wing feathers that I'd taken from a road kill and a tassel of horse hair gleaned from a barbed wire fence.
I quite like the look, but it's not supposed to be "authentic", it's just a homage to the NA style as us Northern Europeans don't have that tradition of decorated bows (or at least I've not seen any).
Video here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spDZlBHcMCE&t=6s

Re-built Bow Finished

The 3 ring per inch Warbow that broke at the splice has now been rebuilt as 60# @ 28". I had some fun trying to see the curve of the bow on the tiller so I had a cunning plan. I stuck pieces of card along the bow and trimmed them to a straight line with the bow unstrung, this gives a good reference for the eye to follow.
I took some video here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0cyp4g9Noc&t=32s
I've also done a video of it being shot into the garage. To get a decent video I've constructed a temporary backcloth which hooks over the guttering, this stops the light sky bleaching out the top of the frame and losing the upper limb. I'd been meaning to do this for ages, and had been looking for a simple solution. An old garden rubbish sack seems to work well to block the light.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkC9dNJzbgY
Just out of interest I'll try posting video direct onto here to see how the quality compares.
Ah, the video seems as good, probably 'cos it's all owned by Google now and is actually the same platform... sorry I don't really know what I'm on about but I thought saying platform would be impressive.... platform platform platform... oh dear I've gone all Miranda now... such fun!

Little Elder Bow

While I waited for the re-built broken warbow to settle down after it's steaming I got going on a skinny little bit of elder that I'd seen in the woods over the road back in 2018. A conservation group were clearing and widening a path along the brook and were about to cut it, so I asked I have it.

I've been taking a few videos of the tillering. Having been asked about tillering it got me thinking more about the process and how "easy to do" is easy to say, and it is sometimes more tricky and subtle, especially if you are working a marginal stave.
I dunno if the videos are helpful or even make much sense, but I try to be a honest as possible and talk through my thought processes... not that I promise they are right!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAbm2YvXp0c&t=16s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxB_0zvV53w&t=495s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T3-ifCi3xc&t=11s
The pic with the coloured ellipses is a frame grab from one of the vids, it shows how the right limb is still stiff, especially at the outer.

While my mate JT was over on Thursday, I got the reworked warbow back on the tiller aiming for 50# at 28" and it's looking promising with oodles of character.
JT loved the look of the little Elder bow and was struck by how little it weighed ... he entreated me to avoid blowing it up while he was there! I duly obliged and have been carefully teasing back towards 40# @ 26". Not quite there yet.
Just tried a test shot:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP3QOgezHYM

I've done a tad more and got it to full draw, you can see the improvement on the previous pic:-

Testing My Perseverance

Having a couple of bows explode left me feeling I wanted something quick and easy...
so I picked up the old 3 ring per inch yew warbow that had broke a while back and started to refubish it, aiming to make it about 60# !
The old warbow had broken at the splice and was going to loose a few inches, but with some careful patching in I managed to maximise the remaining length. I rasped away a shallow scoop of sapwood at the splice and glued a long sapwood patch over it for added security.
I left the bow propped up against my shelving to allow time for the glue to cure...
Later I was rummaging around on the stepladder pulling out a little Elder stave to play with when I contrived to knock down an couple of big unseasoned staves from the adjacent top shelf... It made such a row that my wife came out to see if I was ok! It had also knocked the glued up bow to the floor.
Last night I thought I'd see how the glue was and suddenly realised the tip of the bow was missing!!! The logs falling on it had split the top nock clean off at an angle... oh bugger. Fortunately the top limb is the longer one and I can afford to lose maybe an inch. Of course it had split off at an angle losing about 3" so I set to and spliced on a bit of Yew to build up the tip, I did it rather quickly so it would be cured by this morning and on inspection it's not a perfect match... it looks good from one side but the heart/sap boundary doesn't match on the other (it's actually wood from the same log), mind once the horn nock is remade it probably won't show.
If the bow survives I shall call it "Jigsaw"

Here's a vid of the first tentative flexing. I filed a temporary nock in the new limb tip... I'm fed up with doing horn nocks and then having the bow explode!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d13s5y4jYnM

I decided to steam bend some of the waggly deflex bend out of the bow, and when I dug out the wooden jig I use for clamping up bows... there on top of it was the broken nock!

A Bit of Chit Chat

Had my Nephew and his family over yesterday, lovely weather kids playing in the garden, picnic lunch. Excellent but tiring with two little girls 6 and 2, they had stayed overnight and the little one had apparently fallen out of bed in the night, which led to their dad having to kip on the floor next to her... such fun!

I've been wound up for a week with my car, the power steering had failed and the Nissan dealer couldn't fit it in for ages and were unhelpful and were going to be expensive. I found a local garage who said they'd do it (fit a new electric steering column)... long story short, they did the work, but couldn't get the car electronics to recognising the new unit and it just locked them out despite trying several top end electronic diagnostic machines and phoning Nissan for help!
They had to refit the old unit in the end, but didn't charge me anything. I felt they had acted in good faith and spent the time, so I gave the bloke £40 for a drink. By contrast Nissan wanted £114 just to plug in the diagnostic machine (bastards). Anyhow the car is still driveable, but it's hard work manoeuvring at low speed.
We were thinking of going electric, but almost every manufacturer is waiting for next years models, or can only offer something with about 140 mile range. Prob' buy a 2nd hand petrol automatic to tide us over, then go electric when they actually have cars to sell. (You can always get great deals on stuff they don't have!).

Meanwhile I'm a tad jaded with exploding bows so I had a good tidy out of long random timber area of the garage. I found lots of length of "nearly useful" yew and some other stuff which I either trimmed into useful sized or put in the scrap sack. It's a lot clearer now.

Back to the car dilemma... I could just go out, slap down some cash and get something... but of course I have to get it pass my less impetuous and generally better half first (rolls eyes ;-) )
Still it all smacks of first world problems, mind it could be worse...
I could be at work!

Damn, Working it Too Hard

The warbow flight bow for heavy arrows has just exploded. It was bending a lot in the middle, but I was happy with that, I was just getting the outer limbs moving and the tiller was looking good. It was braced at about 4".
I was exercising back and forth at about 100# at about 22" and started moving towards 110# to see the draw length at that weight when it went bang.
Bows normally go in the middle of the upper limb and I was keen to avoid that, which is why I was letting it work hard at the grip. I was also expecting the outers to look a tad stiff due to the hint of reflex.
Anyhow it's an interesting break for a few reasons:-
1. It's just above the arrow pass.
2. There is a bit of a waggle in the grain of the backing strip where the grain runs off the side of the bow.
3. There is a knot in the side of the Yew which also has the grain running diagonally across the bow.
4. The glue line has failed over a small area, indicating an imperfect glue up.

The interpolated draw weigh at 30" was about 147# so I was rather over weight and maybe should have taken it easy... but that doesn't really hold up.
It's a tricky question, of course the bow will have to pull to 120# at some point, but there are two things in play, the force on the bow and how much it's bending, either of which can break the bow.
I checked and I'd actually pulled it to 130# before, but on a long string and not at that amount of bend. It's always back to the same old adage "Always pull to full draw weight, as long as the tiller looks ok".
Of course actually seeing if the tiller is ok, is easier said than done.
Never mind I'll have a nice cup of tea :-)

I shall endeavour to learn from these lessons for the next highly stressed flight bow.

The Best laid Plans...

I had a stave that looked quite promising for a warbow, it's rather narrow, deflexed and from a fairly small log.
The sapwood looked rather thick on the sides and from the end, so I ran it through the band saw just removing a thin slice to be safe leaving about 5/16" visible on each side... ah, but there was heartwood now visible in places down the centre... drat, not so safe then?!.
Oh well, maybe I'll just back it with some of the 1/4 sawn Ash. Then I had a cunning idea, if I use the stave the other way round the deflex becomes reflex and I can glue it up with just a hint of reflex and the Yew under some compression for early draw weight.
On closer inspection, all the deflex.. (well now it's reflex :-)  ) is in one end of the stave and it's about 4"with the other limb being straight... now if I heat treat the belly (which is actually the side with hints of sapwood remaining, having trued it up to a fairly even basic taper) I can take some reflex out of one limb and bend some into the other, giving each limb about and inch of reflex and some heat treatment on the belly.

Well, I've got that done, in fact I'd have had it done quicker if the power steering on the car hadn't failed (grrr) it's driveable but hard work. there's a red warning PS on the dash to tell me there's a power steering fault... sheesh... it's bleedin' obvious. Some time later a warning comes up on the nice retro LCD display (it is a 2004 Nissan Micra) saying "Power Steering Fault, go to a Nissan Dealer"
I'd never have guessed if it hadn't told me. On the plus side it will be good for my shoulder strength :-)

Visitor with Yew Logs!

My mate Rob came over yesterday with a nice load of Yew, all nice and straight about 4-5" diameter. Nearly all of 'em had at least one good stave and some had two clean faces, a couple of them just gave a billet.
We spent a few hours working on a stave he'd been working on and roughing out a smallish half log he'd been given. The stave he'd been working had a knot right through the back near the tip... it was a bit iffy, so I went through the process of rasping it down and doing a patch on the back. It's one of those jobs that is basically fairly simple but it needs a lot of fiddling and fettling to get the patch to match up reasonably and to be thin enough to flex so that you get a good glue line. It's a job that unless you've seen it done is a bit daunting. We had a good natter about why bows explode etc and wolfed down egg and beans on toast and copious tea. A good day on all counts, I also gave him a couple of smallish seasoned staves that he can have a go with for say 40-50 pounders with less risk of them exploding. I feel I could do with making a nice safe 45# ELB myself as I don't actually have a longbow of that weight...
The only ELBs I have are a 70# @ 28" self Yew an 80# @ 32" Hickory backed Yew and a 50# Boo backed Yew flight bow ... so no real choice ;-)

I spent most of today, running the Yew through the bandsaw and painting the ends with PVA. The final count was 10 staves and 4 billets. I took all the off cuts to the council tip, along with some garden rubbish and swept out the garage. Daft thing is, I'd taken some off-cuts of green Yew to the tip the other day and asked if it was "Timber" or "Garden Waste" .... I was told garden waste. So this time I went to chuck it in the garden waste and the bloke says "that's timber"... I told him the bloke the other day said it was green waste and explained it was green not seasoned ... I think I lost him, but he let me chuck it in the skip. I don't really care which it is, just wish they knew the difference... which presumably is whether it is seasoned? (Answers on a postcard...)

Anyhow, I've got a decent stash ready for winter 2020 :-)