Review of 2021

Been a funny old year, I seem to have done a lot of repairs, blown up a good few bows, made a few and done a fair bit of non bow related work.
The biggest project was the lever bow saga which taught me a lot about the geometry and eventually became a shootable bow, it was rather twitchy and would need carefull checking if I was to shoot it again. Maybe I'll try it with a flight arrow next year. (The project started in March and finished in July, so you can see it was a bit of a saga!)
My biggest disappointment was the gorgeous Yew character ELB that exploded after a couple of hundred shots, that came from a batch of 3 Yew staves which were full of splits.
The year started making a couple of bows from the Walnut I'd cut with my brother the year before, it was all sapwood and rather odd to work as it seasoned in a huge reflex, it made a couple of snappy bows... one of which literally snapped!
One of my successes was a nice 110# Yew warbow from a challenging stave. I think that particular bow will have a fairly easy life as the owner doesn't quite get to that full 31" draw so hopefully it won't explode!

I've done some useful stuff too, re-roofing and insulating the porch, which had been on the to-do list for about 20 years. I'm hoping to do some more much needed maintenance on eth house and garden, but fear not readers, I've already started on a Elm bow, looking for 90# @ 31"
I'll doubtless be posting plenty of youtube videos too.
So here's wishing you all the very best in 2022 and hopefully the horrid pandemic will be slowly burning itself out into some sort of milder but endemic strain and we can all get back to some sort of normality.

Elm Staves and some tidying

 I've been having a bit of a sort out and used the old cedar cladding to make some more storage boxes so my met raw material is now separated into ferrous, non ferrous round and flat. Another job was to saw my target boss in half and glue it back together with the outsides to the middle. I had some contact adhesive left over from my roofing, which seems to have worked well (I use the blank side of the boss normally, but the roundel side shows what I did).
I've also started to have a look at two Elm staves from a fairly small diameter trunk. I'm looking to make  90# @ 31" ELB, the skinnier stave may not be quite big enough, but it will let me gauge how the timber performs.

That's probably my lot for now until my end of year review. 
Seasons geetings to one and all. I do like to get past the winter Solstice, even though the coldest weather is still to come.

Wonky Yew English Longbow

 This is the last bow I'll complete this year and I'll shoot it tomorrow on a rove with the lads as the weather is due to be mild. It's one of two I started as potential replacements for the gorgeous character ELB that exploded. The bloke I'd made the character bow for chose the other, so this has been languishing unfinished for about a month.
Here's a composite photo showing unstrung, braced and full draw in one picture. Plus a couple of detail pics.

The bottom nock has a filled knot just below it which I think looks rather nice.

Just back from a glorious morning roving with the bow and some good mates. Sunshine, blue sky, good company, a tot of Walnut Brandy... bliss.
The bow out performed my expectations shooting about 200yards on one mark (slight tail wind). I used my regular field arrows (5/16" shaft) which are maybe a tad light for the bow at 400 gn. The 11/32" may have been better suited.
I'll add a pic of me at full draw later.

Test Bow from old Cedar Cladding

 I made up a pyrimid style bow (constant thickness, width tapered to a point) from a piece of the old cedar cladding. First try it drew to about 30# and the tip sheared off (there was a split in the wood there which I'd glued up. I spliced on a new tip and took 1.5" off each end and tried again.
It came back to about 26" (un-braced) at 32# before breaking at the same end. I videoed it all and it 's on my Youtube chanel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-G7hJW5HkY
Heres a pic of it alongside a wonky English Yew longbow that's just about ready for horn nocks. I'll get it up on tiller and check how it look first as its not bee
n worked on for over a month.

Soon be back!

 

I've got the re-roofing and cladding work done. Of courese there is loads of cleaning up to be done and whilst I've been doing that project other things have needed work.
Transformer for 12v lighting in the shower has failed. One sticking and one leaking tap. Flush in the upstairs loo was running non stop.... <sigh>
I've just tackled that last job. It's a flawed design which relies on the weight of water in the cistern to press the valve tightly sealed, but after a flush, there isn't enough weight to give a good seal and it leaks at the same rate as it's trying to fill. I took it apart and added a length of brass rod down the convenient tub that comes up the centre... that helps the initial seal and fixes it (for now).
I'm stacking all the old cladding round the back of the house and I can at last see the workshop floor.
The old cladding may be handy for bow experiments for light bows or maybe as a core wood. Failing that I'll make some planters.

Leather Stash and Roofing

 

I've got the roof done, just waiting on some cable clips to finish fixing the telecom line.. (I always seem to have (n-5) of any fixing/clip etc. Where n is the number needed!
Next job is the insulation and re-cladding. Meanwhile I've been having a bit of a tidy in the garage, replaced one dodgy shelf with some of the decent 18mm ply I had left over. I've been sorting out my leather stash, loads of old handbags, boots, bits of old leather

sofa, jackets etc. I've chucked the bits that were too small or poor quality and been cutting off the scraps and fittings from the bags and boots, that should create a bit more room. I don't chuck much away, as you never know when someone will want a yellow leather grip on a bow!

I also put some legs onto a big old slab of cherry (about 25" dia x 5.5" thick) to serve as a seat/table for the twin grand daughters who will be 2 at Chrismas

Compression vs Tension

 Following some discussion on the English Longbow Archers Facebook group I made this video of a simple experiment to show ... well watch it and see:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNyBr9HnVzk
Meanwhile the work on the porch is coming along and the weather seems set fair for the week so I'll try and get the rubber roofing glued down.
The short end wall has been virtually rebuilt and insulated, fascia has been added to the roof. It's keeping me busy!

A bit of a Hiatus

 Just in case you're wondering where I've been.
I'm taking a break while I insulate and re-roof the porch (insert your own automotive jokes here). When we moved in about 25 years ago I did a quick make-do job on it, but now the water is pooling badly and the felt is cracking up. I'll build it up with insulation board covered in 18mm ply with a much better drainage angle. The single leaf brick walls will get insulated on the outside and clad with cedar.
I've bought in the materials and the weather looks set fair. It should keep me busy for a week, then I'll finish off that wonky Yew ELB.

More Work on the Airshied

 I've tided up the battery mounting, replacing cardboard with aluminium sheet, made the contacts spring loaded and added a spring clip to stop it sliding out of the helmet! I've also taken off the outer shell of the helmet which doesn't really do anything except maybe stopping the filter bags snagging on stuff if you are working in a confined environment.
The unit now weighs a total of 1.58 lb against the original 2.4 lb which is a pretty significant improvement.
The battery life is a bit less, but I've measured the current draw(0.38A) and calculated it to be 2.95 hours which is fine for my usage, especially considering I have a second battery which I can just swap in.

Adjustment work and an Airshield Ventilated Mask

 I've been doing bits and pieces, a lady contacted me via Facebook, someone had suggested I could do what was required. She'd been given a gents bow which she liked but it had a big fat grip and inch markings painted on the back. She wanted a slimmer grip and it tidied up, she brought it over and I had a look, the tiller was a whisker off (lower limb weak), it had taken a bit of set and was generally tired. the grip had a brocade cover which I cut off revealing some wooden strips which had been glued on to bulk it out. I let her shoot some of my bows including the Chinese Repeating Crossbow and a little Hazel primitive. She even tried Twister which she could manage due to her having a short draw (24" if I recall correctly).
A week later I'd taken 1" off the lower limb and re-nocked it with a smaller tidier horn nock. I slimmed down the top nock a tad, but left its interesting shape. I did a new grip in black suede with a bit of padding under the back to round it a little and generally cleaned, sanded, tidied and refinished it. She was delighted with what I'd done and insisted on giving me a few quid and a couple of bottles of wine.
The next adjustment was taking between 5 and 10# off a boo backed yew I'd made for one of the guys at the club, I took a decent 5# off but didn't clean/sand it so he could try it out last Sunday. He managed it ok but felt a little more off would be good. A light rasp and then scraping has taken off another 2# so i reckon that should do it.

Meanwhile I invested in an Airshield Pro ventilated helmet/mask as I think the Yew dust was really irritating my respiratory tract, I'd been coughing a lot and it was effecting my sleep. The mask really seems to have helped, the cough has gone and I'm sleeping well.
It was a little uncomfortable so I've done a couple of modifications! I've padded the strap that contacts the back of the head (the top and front straps are already padded) and I've converted it to use an old camera battery (Lithium ion) which is much lighter for the same energy 20gram vs 200gram ! (The battery that cam with it was Nimh).
If it is comfortable and convenient to use, it will get used all the time, otherwise it's too easy to think "I'll just be doing a couple of minutes work, I won't bother with the mask"... then an hour and half later you've inhaled a load of yew dust. 
Another good point is that it doesn't fog up like my glasses did when using my old mask. There are some reflections off the visor, but once focusing on your work it's not noticeable. 
I made a video showing what I did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auYmniMP_hU

Radical Flight Arrow

 After the Character Yew ELB exploded I needed a quick fun project that wasn't a bow. Well I had this idea for a flight arrow. The premise was you start with a shaft that is smaller than normal diameter, but because of that it is too flexible. Long wooden vanes are added to both stabilise the flight and stiffen the back end of the arrow. I expect it's been tried before, but I wanted to see what it would do.
I started with a 9/32" shaft of about 30 spine and add three long thin shallow fins of Ash, a brass point was added which get the balance point to just about centre.
I tested it this morning, It left the hand with no problems but the back end was swinging round (nutating) in a circle. As it started to come down it flattened out and started twirling round like a Sycamore seed drifting in the wind! Highly entertaining!

I'd also made another flight arrow (32") taking the best performing arrow that I'd made for my mate JT as the reference/start point, and making minor changes that I hoped would improve it.
I kept the same 5/16 shaft as the basis for the arrow but narrowed the front end much more, adding a wooden footing for strength (and to keep some front end weight). the back end was similarly tapered to the reference arrow. I used the same profile fletching and kept the balance point just about the same. These changes resulted in the arrow being slightly lower spine at the front, but slightly stiffer in the rear, it also reduced the weight by 50grains.
JT had a quick try out for comparison using the bow he'd been roving with (about 90# ? ) and the new arrow flew 18yards further. hardly a conclusive test, but highly encouraging. I think it went about 285 yards, which is OK considering it wasn't a flight bow. I told him to shoot another 100 shot for comparison and to tabulate the results ;-)

They Tell Me it is Character Forming

 I had a guy drive 2 hours to collect that character Yew bow (in the last post). He shot about 10 arrows through it, we had a nice chat and tried some of the more exotic bows including the Chinese Repeater of course :-)
He drove home, messaged me thanking me for the bow and my hospitality... about 3 hours later he sent 2 pictures of the bow smashed! Apparently he'd been enjoying shooting it and it just went bang! H'e paid me by Paypal, so I just got on there and did a refund. We were both gutted.
I don't often go the whole hog on finishing a bow, I see them as more utilitarian than decorative, but that one was done as a masterpiece.

Well that was yesterday and I was rather down, but I've cheered up now. There are plenty of worse things happen, and as for all the time and effort I spent... well at least I wasn't painting skirting boards!

Anyhow, I've laid off working with wood and Yew in particular for the last week or so and my niggling cough has substantially improved. I think that over the years I've become sensitised to Yew dust and it's almost impossible to keep the workshop dust free even with my dust extractor and mask. So, I've invested in a Trend Airshield Pro respirator which blows filtered air down over you face behind a face shield/hood. It's pretty good, took a bit of fiddling to get it comfortable, it doesn't mist up which is a big advantage. The fan is a tad noisy, but can't be heard if using the bandsaw or belt sander anyway!

I'll lay off the bows for a bit while I fiddle with an idea for a radical flight arrow. Of the three staves I was recently given, that's the second to have exploded... I may dump the third (worst one) into my off-cut sack and quit while I'm behind.

Yew Character ELB

 

The character Yew ELB is virtually finished now, I got the horn nocks on it and shot 50 arrows through it indoors. Yesterday I took it out roving, it was a tad under powered for some of the longer marks but shot well and I was pulling the arrows right back to the tip with the point lying alongside the grip (the arrows are 28" to the base of the point and 29" overall). I shot another 55 arrows, so the bow has certainly been shot in.
This morning, I strung it, flexed it a few times and tried it on the tiller to 28", it weighed in at 44# . The guy actually wanted 43#, and that's what I've labelled the bow as, because it will doubtless settle by a pound or so. I normally only weigh 'em to the nearest 5# as the weight shifts over a days shooting and with age, weather etc.
There's a bit of a bulge at the grip, and the back is slightly concave across the width which would make it uncomfortable, so I've padded out the back with leather, built up and glued with UHU glue then rasped/sanded down. I'll get the black leather grip done today... I've taken the trouble to colour the leather black where the seam will be so that no pale leather shows through. I'm taking a lot of trouble with this bow as it is a bit of a stunner to look at.

I've just finished the grip, here are some pics.

Testing the Re-worked Lever bow

 

I tried the re-worked lever bow with some flight arrows, the draw weight is now a bit lower, but the limbs at the splice and levers are lighter. I shot five arrows, mostly at about 280 yards, but one went 313 yards. The best arrows were 27" long at which length the bow is about 60#.
So I'm pretty happy with that distance from a 60# bow. It also shows that the splice can be quite slim and still withstand the shock and leverage. The 28" arrow flew less far than the others, but was a good bit heavier.

Having had one Yew bow explode due to bug damage in the sapwood, I've started another, there are some splits and knots in it, but it's a gorgeous character stave with some natural reflex. I'm going to avoid getting greedy and just aim for 40-45# @ 28", 72" long.

Bug-grrrr

 The big Yew primitive exploded on the tiller while being exercised at about 80#. I was very surprised as a wide thin limb is much lower stress that an narrow thick one.
Anyway I did a post mortem and found some bug damage in the very thin sapwood, there was also an area where the bark had been chaffed through, presumably by a crossing branch, the sapwood there had that blue staining and was noticeably dryer and less waxy than the rest of the sapwood.
I've inspected the other two staves for any bug holes and they seem ok, fingers

crossed.

Big Yew Primitive

I went to a field shoot at Cloth of Gold near Hemel Hempstead  the weather was good for a change (it's been a grim summer so far). As I rolled up there I parked next to my mate Rob who'd brought me 3 interesting yew staves. They were all very nice wood, thin sapwood, nicely defined and dark heartwood, but two were a tad skinny with some tear outs and knots. The third was a half log with a nice waggle in one and and a knot dead centre, that piqued my interest as a big primitive say 80#@ 32" ?
We went off to shoot and I ended up in a different group to Rob, but it's nice to shoot with different people. Our group of 4 had two take down recurves with no sights stabilisers etc, one shooting carbons, the other woodies. The other guy was shooting a Turkish Ottoman style bow using a thumb ring, the bow was glass on wood and very nicely made, ( not one of those cheap Chinese Horsebows, mind they are ok).
I was shooting Twister, my yew primitive.
They all out shot me of course, their flatter trajectories being a considerable help, but when it came to a couple of small targets 6' below our feet and at about 5 yards, I out shot them.
Unloading the staves and having a good look at them, I just couldn't resist starting on the big Yew half log, roughing it out on the bandsaw and then taking the draw knife to the belly. It looked ready for a first try on the tiller, and as I pulled 80# on it the tips moved about 1/4" ! Ha, plenty more wood to come off.

Quick Try Out

The repair to the lever bow has been a success, video here
After that rather long project I felt like a quick try with something that's been on my to-do list for years, a hinged fold up bow.

I bought a couple of stainless steel strap hinges/marine hinges off Ebay and fitted one to an odd miss matched pair of limbs from broken bows. One limb was Ash backed Yew and the other a piece of scrappy Yew, each hinge has three 3/4" countersunk head screws holding it. The purpose of the try out was to see how sloppy the hinge would be and if it would hold a 50# bow. It holds the weight ok, but will need a pin/peg or some sort of locating arrangement to take out some of the slop. The limbs are too mismatched to use as a workable bow, but I may experiment a bit more with ways to get good alignment and maybe grind the hinge down to make it less bulky.

The screws are just "general purpose" but they are twin thread and fairly coarse. I could use a longer screw or go up in diameter.

Smashed or is it?

 I lightened the levers of the lever bow considerably but when I pulled it back on the tiller, the string didn't want to return correctly between the string catcher ears. I carefully removed wood at the tips to get the string returning true and finally tried a couple of test shots. On the third it went BANG... the string had missed the lever and the bow limbs had overshot and bent the wrong way breaking the yew belly. It was a fairly clean break starting at a point where I'd let in a small block to replace a patch of manky black wood on the corner of belly and side. The yew had lifted from the bamboo over an inch or so. Short video showing it being shot successfully, and the detail of the break

On careful inspection I decided to try a repair. The bamboo was sound and the bow hadn't bent too far back, the belly was mostly a clean crack at 45 degrees across. I opened up the cracks by flexing the wrong way slightly and flooding it with Cascamite. By flexing it back and forth the glue was getting pumped into the gaps. The bow was then put up on the tiller and drawn to a slight tension. I could see a slight gap between the bamboo and the Yew so I added a couple of clamps.

The bow has been braced no, but I noticed a little damage to the tip of the top nock. I'll need to re-shape the tips anyway to accommodate the change in string loops which will make the string sit at a different angle.

The Bamboo back was protected with masking tape before I started the gluing, and for clamping I have some plywood blocks that have a nice curve on one face specifically for clamping bamboo backs. The belly side was protected with a scraps of thin plywood.
This morning I tok the bow down and cleaned up the repair, it looks pretty good. I may chisel out a long narrow groove and let in a length of Yew to act as a key across the gap, but maybe not.
I'll probably reduce the draw weight and the experiment with other ways of getting the string to track... longer string loops which run down either side of the levers, being one.

Lever Bow and stuff

 

The lever bow now has horn nock inserts and I've had 3 test shots, it was tough to draw and a reluctance to explode it also came into play... I think I got it back about 25". I was shooting my 11/32" 100gn point arrows and they flew nicely, I didn't measure the distance as it was just test shots, but it looked pretty good. I've since been slimming the tips and the V splice. I took off the binding and re-did it at either end of the V, in the way that, if you were trying to bind two sticks together you'd overlap them and then bind at each end of the overlap. A single binding in the middle wouldn't stop them hinging like a pair of scissors. Video of a test shot

I've cleaned up the Bamboo back, rounded the corners and cleaned up some of the tool marks off the belly. The tiller has been tweaked since the last video in which the left limb was a tad stiff. I can string it with a conventional stringer now which is much more convenient, although the stringer grooves had to be shaped quite deep to allow for the acute lever angle.
The flight arrow I made for a facebook friend didn't seem to do the job being very noisy. My suspicion is that the bow is made for reliability and throwing heavy arrows when roving, rather than flight shooting. Apparently the arrow seemed to match a 90# bow somewhat better.

I've booked in to a field shoot on July 11th which will be my first for over a year, really looking forward to it. I've booked an 8:30 starting slot too, which will hopefully get us away before the compounders start twiddling and fiddling.

The 110# Yew character warbow was handed to it's new owner, but he could only get it to about 27" draw... hopefully by next Sunday he'll be able to work it harder and see how he likes it.

Yew Bow Explodes on the Tiller

 

Damn, having theoretically proved the wood from some logs by making and shooting the billet bow I was working on a slightly heavier one for the guy who brought over the logs. It looked like much cleaner wood but had a waggle in one limb... it turns out the waggle had rather swirling grain and it exploded there at a fairly modest bend at 80#.
Just goes to show you can't really be certain until the bow is finished.

I've finished the 110# @31" warbow and done a nice video showing the character detail 

Tricky Yew Bow 110# @31"

 This bow has been a huge amount of work to lay iit out in the half log, an I still had to work round a big knot, fill 3 others, work around and area of tear out from where the log had been spilt and do some steam bending, heat treating and cutting a bit off one limb. Other than that it was plain sailing ;-)
Here's the video where it finally gets to full draw:-

Heavy Bow Flight Arrow

 

Pic shows a warbow arrow, flight arrow for 110# @30" bow and a flight arrow for a 50# @ 28" ELB
The flight arrow for the 110# is the one I've just finished for a friend it is somewhat heavier than I'd normally make for a heavy bow, it's also stiffer spine as I got some nice stiff 3/8" (approx) pine shafts. I saw 'em about a year ago online and bought 'em while I could.
Anyhow here are some specs.
Max dia 9.7mm tapering to 6.6 mm at the point and 8.3 at the nock. Note, thickest point is between 1/3 and 1/2 of the way from the nock end.
Hardwood footing (Cumaru?) with a brass point, turned with a  3mm pin (about 30mm long) at the back which is glued into a corresponding hole in the footing.
The spine is about 110# , I had to do some calibrating of my spine tester as I don't usually get 'em this stiff. The fletchings goose feather 40mm long and 6mm high.
I posted it off today so hopefully it will get tried at the weekend or early next week.
The bow is a 110# "Barbarian" from Hillbilly Bows, a one piece glass on wood design with some reflex at the tips and no arrow shelf or cutaway.
It will be interesting to see if it extends his PB :-)

I've also done some more on the Boo/Yew heavy lever bow:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZOn5a_bBaY
The Force/Draw curve shows it should reach about 85# @27" which is too much for me at the moment as I struggled with 75# @ 28" at the weekend. The early draw weight also makes it feel like it is heavier. I've added a line to interpret it to 28". If you continued the line from before the levers come it it would be somewhere near 130# (vertical axis is pounds, horizontal axis inches). The kink in F/D curve is where the string lifts off the levers.
I've since pulled it to 24", so it's not far off now. Next ting is to start narrowing the levers and doing some fiddling and fettling of the tiller, rounding corners etc.