The Comfy Chair

I've de-barked the Yew stave I'm working on. I'll share some of my thoughts on using a spoke shave. It's a very versatile tool, I only aquired mine about a year ago and it's a firm favourite... There's no 'wrong way' to use one, it works well bevel side up or down, pushing or pulling. Sometimes I hold the left handle still and work the right one back and forth. You rip off take off big fat shavings, or hold it with the handles vertical and push it away from you like a scraper taking off very fine scrapings.
One of the big problems with a stave is how do you hold the darned thing firmly, these pics show a few of the tricks I use and where the 'comfy chair' comes in (or rather a cushion I rescued from an old one).

Please excuse my state of dishabille as it's been rather hot.

Saxon Bow

I've been away for a short break up near the Dunstable Downs, some nice old hill forts there. Totternhoe Castle (Totternhoe knolls) was surprisingly spectacular, a steady walk up a wooded track and then out onto a clearing and up a reasonable sized mound. The panoramic view from the top was glorious as you didn't realise how high it was until you reached the top, some very steep banks and ditches too.
I always wonder how far an arrow would carry from the top of these hill forts. Enough musing here are some pics of the Saxon Bow which I re-worked from an old Elm Longbow.

You can see it really is bending in the handle.



I like to do new stuff, so for this bow I made a linnen string, it wasn't too difficult, but it's not easy to descibe. I won't waste the effort trying! Suffice it to say I followed the desription in The Traditional Bowyers Bible vol II which has an excellent section on strings. It's made out of 3 plies, each of 5 strands of linnen thread (bought from Quicks Archery), each strand has a breaking strain of about 8-10 pounds.

The first pic has my adjustable tillering string on it. below is a pic showing the side nocks and the linnen string, it also gives a good view of the Elm with it's nice 'hen pheasant' colour and grain.

Re-working Old Bows

As well as reworking the '1 hour bow' I've been looking at an old Elm longbow, which I made many years ago, but was never shot a great deal.
It has chrysals on the belly, is about 70" long drawing 36 pounds at 28". I'm going to cut it down to 61" as a Saxon bow at 30 lb for re-enactment.
I don't like making bows much below 35-40lb, but this seemed a good opportunity to try something new, revitalise an old bow and have something to tinker with.
There is not much Elm about these days and it's an attractive dark wood.
I've been playing with it most of the weekend off and on to see if it's feasible.
First I sawed 5" off each end...a bit irreversible, so I hope it works!
A lot has been taken off the belly with a spokeshave, I was surprised how deep the chryasls went, more than 3mm. The handle has also been drastically recuced, as the Saxon bow will need to bend through the handle to get 28" draw from a short bow. Although the bow will be 61" the nocks are 2" in from each end, which gives a working length of 57" and thus half of that as a realistic maximum draw, that's 28.5"
I've roughed it out and had it on the tiller back to 30 pounds at 26", it really is bending in the handle which is a nice change for me as I have a tendency towards making bows whip ended (or at least this old Elm bow was...)
By the way, I put the giant ladle back together on Friday, it needs some more work, but at least it's back in one piece.

Plenty to be Getting on With.

The chap, came to pick up the bow on Friday, we had a good chat while I finished off a few arrows for him. I've since heard that it's performing well, he's very pleased with it and it's had plenty of admiring comments.
I shall have a week off from bowmaking to finish some work repairing a giant wooden ladle for the Gibberd Garden, it's not a full restoration (which would be a huge task).

I'm just refitting the handle and it's ball end.
There is a lot of rot which I've dug out and filled, hopefully I can patch it up to last a few more years.

I've also got to mend our patio table which fell to bits when I had the ladle handle on it!
Oh dear I'm sure you all know that sinking feeling when one job ends up creating yet another.

Anyhow, those jobs shouldn't take too long and then I can de-bark my next longbow stave and have a good look at my baulk of Hawthorn which I cut last year.







I shall play around with trimming down the one hour bow (see more about it on my website). I'm intending to take a mm or two off the belly to remove the chrysals and trim it down to become a kids bow.
It will be nice to give it a new lease of life and it will make an interesting primitive. I don't really like making low draw weight bows, so re-working one is a win-win result. Here's a pic which shows the chrysals on the belly.
They are the fine silvery lines across the bow, they are compression cracks which are raised, you can feel them if you run your fingernail over them. There is no real cure without taking off wood and losing draw weight. If you try sanding them off it just weakens the belly further and more wood is likely to collapse.

Woo Hoo!

Update:- 138 fps tested through the chronometer.
A couple of pics here, she shoots really sweetly with a decent string (bracing height 5 3/4 " which is pretty high). Even I got a reasonable group (well ok it was only from 10 yards). I've put about 50 arrows through it to settle it in.

I pulled it back to 29.5" on the tiller, I'm sure it would make 30" but you have to stop somewhere.

It's on the tiller supported pretty close to how the hand would support the bow, and the hook pulling the string back actually has two prongs to simulate fingers and pull in a realistic manner, they are positioned correctly on the string.

It is a pretty accurate picture of the tiller as it would be in use.
I'm very satisfied, I could probably make it look even better if I fiddled it's position on the tiller, an actual full draw pic will be added later, and I'll shoot it through the chrono sometime.

The chap I'm making it for is picking it up on Friday, so I have a bit of time to buff up the finish and sign it.
Can't stop fiddling, just eased off a spot on the grip where the left thumb sits.
I've also re-checked the final draw weight, it's lost a couple of pounds during the final finish, shooting in and tweaking, which is perfectly normal. It now weighs in at 38 pounds at 28" .

At last a decent pic of the back of the grip. It's tricky photographing very pale shiny surfaces.

Added Detail

Just needs some varnish, a few coats of Danish oil rubbed down with wire wool (soaked in white spirit to lubricate) between coats and a final rub with beeswax polish, oh and a bow string would help!
The nock and arrowplate look a bit dull without the final wax, but these shots give an idea of the final shape and curves.
I need to spend some time learning the intricacies of my digital camera so that I can take pictures of white bows without bleaching out the detail...hmm don't know when I'll get around to it.







Little update, it's now Tuesday night, I've made the string and tweaked the nocks for a smooth fit. Hopefully shoot it through the chronometer tomorrow night.

Detail Work

Doing the grip, nocks and arrow plate now.
I glued a pad of leather over the grip area and then glued a block of Yew (from the same log) on top of that. Plenty of rasping is getting me down to a nice grip, not over sculptured as this is a primitive bow not a modern recurve...it still needs to be comfortable of course.
I may cover the grip with leather, but I like wood myself. 'Grip' is also a bit of a missnomer as you don't grip it, you hold it lightly (but without dropping it like some target archer who tried my Hazel bow did the other week did, without any hint of oppology...' you can see I'm a target archer' he said... hmmmm yes...).
I like the quote from a golf book I have, which is probably applicable and ammuses me...
"you should grip the club (or bow in our case) as firmly as you would hold a cat or a baby!" Anyhow, enough chat, here are a couple of pics.

The leather has been used to allow for any slight flexing in the handle which could otherwise crack a glueline. There was some discussion of this idea on the 'Primitive Archer' website, so I don't claim any originality here, although the principal of flexible mounting is well established.

The grip is shown looking at the belly and left edge of the bow, it shows how the natural wiggle of the stave works into the handle. The slightly raised step is where the arrow plate (a Waterbuffalo horn oval) will be inalid.









The pic right shows a roughed out piece of Waterbuffalo Horn being glued onto one of the tips clamped in my trusty old work bench. You can see how the tips are left a little thicker as I don't want that hint of recurve pulling out at full draw.

I've pulled it back to 29" inches now and once the nocks are done I'll be able to get the proper string on and do some final measurements and tweaks before finishing.

For this work I've used a rapid epoxy adhesive, I could have used natural hide glue but it has a much longer curing time and isn't so water resistant. As my Brother once pointed out when I asked him about using modern materials in a reproduction he was making, he simply said that 'primitive' man would have used Araldite if they'd had it!
Indeed it's about using the best and most appropriate materials, hide glue is still better than epoxies for some applications, especially if dissasembly may be required.
If I build another Cherry/Ash bow I shall use hide glue, but for detail work that you want to get finished there's n'owt wrong with a rapid epoxy. (Pencil in 'IMHO' and the usual disclaimers!)