Back from a Brief Break

We've had a short break in Seville. The Real Alcazar, a Moorish palace is fabulous and the Museum of Archaeology has some great neolithic exhibits including some incredibly delicate flaked arrow heads . Excuse the grainy photo, and lack of scale. I'd say they were about 1.5 - 2" long. The exibits were great, but they really should have a small scale along side.
I hope I'm not infinging their copywrite, oppologies if I am, but I'd think they really belong to the man* who made them, who has now long gone, leaving us to marvel at his skill (*or woman of course)
I'm not sure why the 'tails'? 'barbs' ? are so slender and curved... maybe they are to be lashed to the arrow shaft rather than being barbs... Any ideas or suggestions appreciated! There was also a vertebra of an animal with a arrow head embedded in it a good half inch!

Meanwhile Twister 2 has come back for an inspection. There are two hairline cracks on the belly which I think are no problem at all and were probably there in the log all the time but have just opened slightly with the flexing. I've scraped off the Danish oil finish, flooded them with low viscosity superglue and flexed the bow to help it soak in. I'll have another look with it on the tiller at about 3/4 draw. I don't think it will need anything else, but I'll shoot it in some more and maybe slim the tips a whisker.

You can see in the pic the crack (indicated by the red arrows) doesn't actually run out where the grip narrows which was the main worry. There is no sign of it opening at 26" draw. The crack on the other limb is even harder to see and looks to be fine. I'll shoot a couple of dozen arrows through it before reapplying the finish. I've narrowed the nock area and taken off a little excess weight, I haven't done too much as it would be foolish to change the tiller.

Here's a pic of the roughed out Elm warbow stave too, that should keep me busy until the Yew is ready to work.

Warbow Stave

I've got a stinking cold, but I think it's just a 48 hour job. I've been doing a tiny bit of work on the warbow stave getting it close to dimension. I relented and took some Mary Rose bow dimensions from 'Weapons of Warre' as a rough start point. You can see in the pic how big it is compared with the little BooYew bow, the weird dip near the tip at the bottom of the pic is also visible. Features like this can be a nightmare but add lots of character. Also note the deflex.
I have actually put it on the tiller with a long string and wound it back to 120#, really just to see if the rope and tiller block/winch etc would hold. 120# on a long string is much less strain on the bow than 120# with a properly braced bow. The stave did flex a little. It's got to withstand that weight eventually so it might as well get used to it!

I'd been toying with joining the EWBS (English War Bow Society) as apparently they have a forum with some very good warbow bowyers on there. I think I'll probably leave it until I've got a few more warbow weight bows under my belt. I was V interested in their flight records as there is a 130# Hazel longbow shooting over 300 yards. I was somewhat put of by one of the articles about the war bow which specifically says it's ideally made of:-
A stave of yew wood, ideally imported from the Italian Alps or Spain (but not English Yew; it being too full of moisture)
In my opinion that's just tosh, but maybe I'll wait til I've made a few more. If it's "too full of moisture", then season it longer! Or heat treat the belly!

Anyhow, in the mean time I've had a call about Twister 2, it has always had a couple of long cracks on the back, these seem to be fine , but there are a couple of hairline cracks opened on the belly. I'm pretty sure these are fine, but I've asked to have a look as it's much better to be safe than sorry.
Out of interest that Yew is from the USA, (so not English Yew, too full of moisture ;-) ) maybe it was seasoned too quickly, but as any wood is removed the internal stresses are likely to allow a crack to either expand or open out from the centre of the log to the nearest point on the surface of the bow. I'll post pics once I get the bow back. Worst case it will be a thin belly patch just for security to prevent a crack breaking out into cutaway where the grip is. 

Twister2 and Some Chrono Results

Twister 2 got collected today. Had a great visit, his new owner came with offerings of wine, cider, cheese, fresh farm egs and a nice pair of skinny chainsaw files! Result! I made him up four arrows so he could try the bow, as the ones he's ordered haven't turned up yet.
Shooting Twister2 through the chrono was tricky, I couldn't get stable results initially as the arrows were still flexing. The answer is to shoot from further and risk skewering the chrono, or to get closer, which can still give some dodgy results. It seemed to come out at 157.7 fps, which is reasonable, not as fast as twister, but then it's a shorter draw. Also it's impossible to build your best ever bow every time!
Later in the afternoon I tried the BooYew which I knew is V fast. Now this was giving the same problem at close range and oddly I got a reading of 157.7 at one point, which make me wonder if that's some sort of artifact of the chrono?
Anyhow I went back to 10 yards, getting a nice straight flight at that distance, it managed 165fps and when I shot a light flight arrow it went up to 170fps.
You have to bear in mind it's being overdrawn and is bamboo backed, so I'm pushing it rather to the limit.
Chrono readings are a good reference, but have to be viewed with some caution. My set up is far from perfect, being indoors with a couple of lamps for illumination. Outdoors with natural light and a big backstop net would be better. Target recurves, compounds and crossbows also give much more stable readings. Their arrow flight is cleaner as the the arrow doesn't have to flex around the grip of the bow. In other words, there is no paradox. Yes, the arrow is still flexing (except for the crossbow) but that's due to the method of release etc, rather than the arrow having to bend around the bow.
Just had a nice E-mail from Peter the guy who has the bow, he's given it a good work out and is pleased with it. It's throwing the arrows a good 200 paces... and he's got a tired arm now :-)

People mix up arrow flexing and paradox...
The Paradox is that on a longbow the arrow points well to the left when first placed on the string, yet flies along the line of sight from full draw! Why doesn't it kick left???
The explanation of the paradox is the arrow flexes, so you see it's a bit like confusing cause and effect.
The Wikipedia entry has a good illustration and explanation.
To wander off on a bit of musing it's like saying 'All crows are black'. this doesn't mean all black things are crows! So the paradox is explained by arrow flexing, but not all arrow flexing is anything to do with paradox.
Anyone who wishes to argue this point is welcomed to write their own blog and expound their theories at great length! ;-)

I made some crab apple jelly too, it's a gorgeous clear red colour. It's the first time I've tried it, inspired by my big Sis making some. I only did a small batch of 4 small jars, two with Rosemary and two with Mint, should be nice on roast chicken or cold meats. I used a recipe of the internet, choosing the simplest I could find and using less sugar than stated. I got the nice pic by holding it up with the setting sun behind it.

Arrow Plate

I've done the arrow plate in Water buffalo horn, the same as the nock overlays. I've made it fairly long and slim.
The pic shows the slight reflex on the left (lower) limb compared with the right.
The bow is finished now except for a wipe of Danish oil every morning and every night for a few days, then signing and a wipe of beeswax polish. I'm really pleased with it, the pictures don't really do it justice, you need to feel it to appreciate the balance and pent up power. It's got some nice character but without compromising performance. I haven't shot it through the chrono yet, as it's always got Danish oil drying on it!

I've also been working down the stave for a 120# warbow which will start serious work in November. I think I'll just go by feel rather than trying to copy Mary Rose dimensions, although I reserve the right to change my mind on that! I think trying to copy something can make one take your eye off the ball, lose sight of the real purpose and forget to look at the actual wood. I might even get it on the tiller just to see if it is starting to move.

Checked my cider this morning and at last it's staring to visibly bubble, not very vigorous, but you can see a steady constant flow of v fine bubbles coming up through the liquid and the odd bubble coming through the airlock. Letting nature take it's course takes a lot longer to get going than adding yeast, but the anxious waiting is part of the fun.

Twister2 Full Draw and a Chunk of Yew

Twister2 has a decent string now and has had about 30 arrows shot through it. On one of the archery websites someone had said how irritating it is that on TV they always make it sound as if bows creak as they are drawn. Oddly Twister2 had a nasty creak just as I got near full draw! I put loads of wax polish round the nocks to show up where the string was moving as the bow was drawn. On the lower nock the groove is much bigger like two grooves slightly overlapping, one for the string and one to make room for a stringer. There was a slight ridge between the two on the sides of the nock groove and as the string angle changed near full draw the string was slipping into the stringer groove with a creak. I just smoothed out the ridge with a bit of 240 grit wet & dry paper... creak removed!
Looking at the full draw picture, I'm pretty happy with the tiller. It shoots very nicely, a tad heavy compared with Twister 1. Once it's shot in I'll put a few arrows through the chronometer. It pretty much shoots where I point it, although I might tweak the arrow pass a little.

Last week a chap came over with a quarter Yew log which he'd bought on the Internet. It had been cut in Derbyshire last January. He's asked me to turn it into a bow (about 90# at 32" if my memory serves). It will be a few more months before it's ready to work down further. But reducing it a bit will help the final seasoning, it also allows a better look at the wood.
The sapwood is quite thick and will need reducing, the growth rings are fairly tight and the wood has a nice colour, There are a few fine longitudinal cracks on the surface of the heartwood, but they are probably just superficial from the early seasoning. Reducing it will also allow the wood to shift a bit if it wants to. As the months pass I'll look at it and maybe take it down a bit more here and there, at the moment it's about 50mm square (slightly less at the tips).
It's always a bit frustrating to end up with two long skinny offcuts which are all but useless. They do come in handy for patching and suchlike and I sometimes have daft ideas of laminating all the strips up into something useable.... probably be more trouble than it's worth.

Twister2 Ready for Shooting

It's taken a while to get Twister2 back to full draw length, and I had to use the rasp a little more. It's a tad over weight still as it's 50# at 26" where I wanted 50# at 27". But that's close enough for now, and it allows for some settling during shooting in.
I've got the nocks done and buffed up and given it a wipe of Danish oil. I've shot about 10 arrows through it using my tillering string and it feels good. next step is to make the final string and get it shot in.
Drawing to 27" is not a problem, and I'm sure it would come back to 28", but I'll leave that until it's fully shot in.
There are a couple of big cracks showing on the back but these seem stable. I'll keep an eye on them of course. Once it's shot in (about 50-75 arrows) I'll do an arrow plate and any tuning/minor adjustments. Here are some pics showing the details and features. The botom nock looks odd and bulky in that shot, but the pic is intended to show the knots and ripples in that lower tip.

It's all looking nice and caramel & cream.

Shave Horse Pics

These are for anyone who wants some more detail. I'll let the pics speak for themselves. The seat is off centre to allow a long stave to pass the left side of the user. I've included a rule in most pics, if you click on the pic to bring it up large, you can roughly scale the various parts .