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.