Christmas Presents and a Review of 2013

I got a handy little pocket GPS thingy from my Son which will allow me to record the location of promising Yew trees and also measure distances of flight shots (probably to within about 5-10 yards).
My wife made me a super Warbow bag, long enough for the longest bows. It has a reinforced leather base, a draw string with tassels and my DH Bowyer's mark on it... excellent. Got some more 40 grit belt sander belts too.

I've been tinkering in the garage, I'm trying to make a couple of whistling arrows using Walnut shells, I'll post some pics when I've done it. I've also been fiddling and fettling the stick Yew longbow and reducing the sapwood on the 90# @ 32" bow.

Review of 2013:-
Over the year I seem to have been building increasingly heavy draw weight bows. I seem to have broken a few personal records too (not to mention a few bows!)
The first heavy bows were "Trans" in April (A Transatlantic bow with Oregon Yew spliced belly and a continuous back of English Yew sapwood) and "Dogleg" which was a wobbly Yew stave that was heat treated and belly patched when it cracked.
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/belly-patch-bow-full-draw.html
Both those bows featured in being filmed as a contributor on Tudor Monastery Farm in July , a glorious day out on the South Downs.

I really enjoyed the fairly experimental Hazel with static recurve tips and an abstract paint job on the back which I made in May. Hazel continues to impress me, and maybe next year I'll try a Warbow from it.

The 120# spliced Warbow that exploded on the tiller was rather educational and is still the most viewed page on the blog!

I broke the score of 500 barrier at a field shoot in October (I scored 532) . It gave me great pleasure as I managed to avoid the after lunch dip, and getting 'tired and hungry' (our family euphemism for grumpy Dad syndrome), which often puts a dent in my scores.
This was followed by the 100# Elm warbow which I could just about manage to draw. The 100# mark being a bit of a mile stone even though it's just another number of course! The 302 yard flight shot I managed with it also broke another barrier.
Th 130# self Yew Warbow was finished next and this is the heaviest bow I've built to date, beyond me to draw it though! Hopefully I'll see how it performs next year.

The less bow related highlights were refurbishing a small lathe and making a couple of copper Archer sculptures. The cider making in the Autumn is an activity which marks the passing seasons, as does making Blackberry and apple pie!
I opened some on my Cider at Christmas, the clear fizzy batch was great.... the cloudier stuff was rather sour, but fine for sploshing in the cooking or quenching your thirst. Next year I'll do smaller batches in 5L containers... the big 25L fermenting bucket seemed to be a mistake.

It seems the word 'Warbow' ensures plenty of page views and I've also learnt to title my pictures so that Google Images will find them. This has resulted in a steady increase in the the number of people finding the blog. It's fun watching the numbers increase, but the real purpose of the blog remains to encourage and inform people who want to have a go at making bows and as an aide-memoir for myself, It truly is a working diary.

Seasons Greetings

Sort of winding down to Christmas. Finished at work, but there's loads of shopping and Christmas related stuff to do.
I've escaped to the garage a bit and been working down the sapwood on that next 90# Yew bow. I'll be shooting more arrows through the 70# Yew stick bow too, it seems to be behaving now.

I wasted the whole of yesterday trying to get the PC protection working again after Virgin Media said their security was being switched to a new company.... the link they kindly provided just screwed the PC and I .... blah ...blah...blah... I'm sure you don't want to know the boring details.
Anyhow I'm back online now.
Here's a festive picture for you! Taken a few years back when we had a lot of snow. That Yew tree is just outside our kitchen window and it was smothered in berries that year and full of squirrels & Blackbirds. We get Goldcrests in there too.

I expect I'll be a bit quiet for the next week, so Happy Winter Solstice and the festive greetings of your choice.
I'll doubtless post before the new year to check if you've all been good and have had a visit from Santa.
If all else fails have a nice boxing day walk in the woods and cut a Hazel stave.
Have fun and thanks for all the comments and contacts over the year.
Best wishes to you all
Derek

PS.
Watch out for Tudor Monastery Farm Christmas Special  (Dec 31st 9-10:00) You should catch a glimpse of me and some of my mates. If not, at least the bows they are shooting in the archery bit were made by me.

Confession and Speed Test

The first patch I put on had a small knot, more like a load of concentric rings really, but I noticed some tiny cracks radiating out from it... drat!
Well, I still had all the glue, strapping, offcuts of Yew and tools out, so I just took a rasp to it and added another patch, long and deep. This giving a nice continuous layer of clean wood up the belly made up of 3 interlocking/overlapping patches. You can hardly see 'em unless you know what you are looking at.
I've started shooting it again ... and I thought I'd shoot a few through the chrono'. It's maybe a whisker slower than I hoped, but it's rather long and carrying some excess timber in the form of knots. The results were a bit variable as I was having rouble getting a clean shot through the optical gate of the chrono' .
The best were a whisker over 167fps, using my 'standard'  arrows, which felt pretty good from the bow, although an 11/32" shaft would feel smoother.
The bow is looking very handsome now, it will need a lot of shooting in to make sure it's all fine. All the patches are on the upper limb. There are a couple of features on the lower which I will keep and eye on.
I've not done an arrowplate, I'll wait and see how it settles and if the guy for whom I'm making it still fancies it...
Maybe he's jinxed ;-) as the previous one I was making for him blew on the tiller.
Hopefully I'll have some cleaner staves seasoned by the summer.

Patches Finished

Maybe I should call this one "Apache"  ...( Because its a patchy bow ...geddit?... groan...sorry never mind).
Here's a pic of the problem area, you can see the bulge (showing whitish) , the first patch can be seen above the defects.
Then there's pics of the finished job. Upper pic is the side view, giving a good view of the second patch, lower pic shows both, they blend into the bow rather well although the second shows more.
The things to note:-

I've made sure the ends of the patches are staggered to try to avoid any weak point or visually eye catching point. A long patch is less obvious than a short one. There are still some black lines etc, especially visible on the side view. I didn't want to cut into the sapwood and if more problems occur, I'll just keep the bow for myself... it's supposed to be a stick bow not a jigsaw, so there has to a point when to quit!



The patch was strapped down with rubber while the glue was curing, but I haven't bothered showing that...  the last pic is immediately after the rubber was removed, it shows a nice amount of glue has squeezed out. Too much glue isn't really a problem as long as the joint is firmly strapped (don't squeeze it all out), it's messy, but not a problem. Too little glue and you risk a dry spot or an air pocket. The masking tape is just to hold the patch is position while the rubber strapping is wrapped on.

Belly Patching

I've tried to let the pictures tell the story.
The thing to bear in mind when doing a repair is... you don't want to be doing it again, or making multiple patches to do the job if you can avoid it. Sometimes it may be necessary to do two which overlap, or in this case you'll see I've filled the groove of the central pith with yew dust epoxy mix. There is no point in patching over unsound material!
The procedure is:-
1. Rasp out the cracks and make a long flat area for the patch to cover all the discontinuities and suspect areas. In this case it exposed a line of pith so I cleaned that out using a chainsaw file with the end ground cleanly across at a slight angle to act like a round chisel/scraper.
2. Fill the pith groove, then rasp it all flat again.
3. Find a suitable bit of Yew for the patch. Easier said than done! The offcuts from that actual branch were two knotty, eventually I found an offcut which was relatively knot free and a reasonable match for grain. That is to say, the patch wants ideally to have the rings running the same way as the limb of the bow. It's not essential and I could have used a quarter sawn bit with the rings effectively running back to belly. It wouldn't match in so well, but would still look ok if done well.
4. Prepare the patch to size allowing plenty of length and a little extra thickness. Get the width about right as it needs to be flexible so it will pull down flat when glued. I run a cabinet rasp along the two faces to be glued holding it across the work like a draw knife, this gives fine grooves along the wood. There is plenty of argument about how smooth a surface to be glued should be. I'll let you make up you own mind.
5. The glue is mixed, I use Resintite which I apply to both surfaces, despite the instructions saying just one (again, make up your own mind)
6 The patch is held in place with masking tape to prevent it moving while the rubber strapping is applied. I only use one layer of strapping pulled tight. It's cut from rubber roofing sheet or old inner tubes, about 1" wide and wound on to overlap each turn slightly.

Because this patch is on a finished bow, I've protected the bow with plenty of masking tape. I've also strapped the bow down to a length of 2x1 pulling the tip down by about 1/2". This is to remove a bit of a deflex bend at the weak point which is being patched, it will make the bow more symmetrical and remove the little set which the weak area had taken on.

The strapped up patch is left overnight for the glue to cure. Watch out if you are doing it in cold conditions and bring it in somewhere warm to cure.
It's then a matter of taking off the strapping and carefully rasping araway the excess wood. It needs extra care at the ends, where the patch protrudes past the flattened area as it will not be glued down cleanly to the prepared surface, but may have glue loosely tacking it down to the belly of the bow which still has it's Danish oil finish. If you are not careful, this loose area can tear or splinter down into the patch. I use a cabinet rasp held gently. Of course you don't want to rasp into the parent wood or remove so much you are back to having a weak spot! The moral is slow and steady... you've put all the work in, don't screw up now!

I haven't finished it off yet, and I'll need to re-tiller the bow, but I'll post this for now as I've had someone asking about doing a patch.

Update:-
I should have looked at this blog entry before I did the job! If only that were possible... I ignored my own advice and should possibly have rasped out more, I'll explain!
On the edge of the bow are a few black lines where rain or rot has got into the wood. The patch bridges over this area and I was hoping it would effectively sandwich the unstable wood between two bits of good solid stuff. The marginal wood is also on the edge and about half way between back and belly where it is theoretically neither in compression nor tension... Yeah right, someone tell that to the wood, now I've taken the bow to full draw a few times its bulging slightly where the black lines are. This is possibly due to the fact that areas which were previously distorting have now been strengthened, pushing the strain onto the next weakest link of the chain.
Anyhow, I probably couldn't have done it all as one patch anyway. It's frustrating, but a second patch should do the job. It just needs perseverance!
In the cold light of day, it simply needs doing, and the bow was an accident waiting to happen without this remedial action. a stitch in time saves nine... or more accurately two patches in time will save a smashed bow.
I've rasped off the offending corner of the limb, stopping just short of the sapwood at the edge. I've made a patch... much more difficult this time as it's curved incorporating some of the belly and some of the side like a long curved corner piece. Tricky to explain, but I'll post some pics tomorrow I've had enough for today!
If you look at the top picture (click on it to see it big), on the left, just where the blue of the G clamp meets the bow, you can make out the dark areas of poor wood on the side of the bow, there are 3 curved dark lines.

Shooting In and Derbyshire Yew

I've cleaned up the Yew stick bow and I'm shooting it in. At 70# at 28" it's surprisingly hard work, and it's taking a while to get sufficient accuracy to risk shooting through the chronometer, which is a tricky business with a longbow. Too close and the arrow either hasn't actually left the bow yet or it's flexing like mad. Back off to ten yards with a heavyish unfamiliar bow and you are risking shooting the chonometer or the lights etc!
70# doesn't sound much, but it it's enough to compress the joints and muscles and make a 28" draw more difficult... my usual anchor point just doesn't get me there and I'm having to pull further back verging on a medieval draw. You can see from the target, the first few shots were rather wild, but I then rattled 3 in touching each other, a combination of warming up, getting used to the bow and adjusting my anchor.
It feels smoother with the 11/32" shafts, but I'm using the 5/16" 'standard' arrows as I'm keen to work it hard during shooting in to see if the belly cracks and features move at all. It certainly is looking handsome now, I've been over the back with wire-wool soaked in white spirit to get off the last vestiges of cambium and I've sanded out the tooling marks. The belly is glass smooth so that I'll feel any wood if it starts to lift or crack.

Update:- Here's some video of me shooting it. I've also noticed I can feel a slight edge on one of the belly cracks... that's made the decision for me... I'll patch it.

Meanwhile I've been reducing a handsome stave of Yew for a chap who got it from Derbyshire. He's after 90# at 32" which suits me fine as I should be able to shoot it.
It's going to be very long, using virtually the whole stave to be as tall as the longest Mary Rose bow. The wood is very nice with few obvious problems. The sap wood is rather thick and is a bit thicker at one and and along one edge, so will need reducing. The wood will have had a year seasoning come January, so I've got time to slowly take the sapwood down.  You can see the pencil line to which I'm aiming to reduce the sapwood. You can see how big it is in the centre, It's that size for about a foot or so each side of centre then tapers to about 25mm square at the tips.
The only slight irritation with very long bows is they get cumbersome and it's very easy to bump them on door frames light fittings and all the other clutter in my garage. It will be a nice change to work a good clean stave. In contrast I have the other Churchyard stick to work, which is also aiming for 90# @ 32" so I may work them together so I can compare and contrast. Maybe I should write a learned paper and submit it to the craft guild of traditional bowyers and fletchers.... just kidding, I'm not a great one for guilds societies and such like. I hardly want to pay to be a member of a guild just so they can tell me I'm a decent bowyer... I've worked that out already! (Hmmm sorry if that sounds a bit up myself, maybe I'm just a grumpy old cheapskate).
Maybe Groucho Marks had the right idea when he said, he didn't want to belong to a club that had people like him as members!

Yew Stick Longbow Full Draw

It's been shot a few times, got the horn nocks on and had a wipe of Danish Oil. I will take my time shooting it in and finishing it. I want to be V cautious in case any of the cracks on the belly start to open or move, in which case I'll rasp off about 3/16" and glue on a nice long slim patch from the same wood (I always save the offcuts) There are things like grip and arrow plate to consider later, but first I'll give her plenty of exercise.
You can see the bow isn't bending that much, due to it's long length, this was deliberate caution on my part as the stave is so knotty. Normally I like to see a bow with a good bend on it.
Sorry the pics are dotted about a bit, it's a limitation of the blogger software and I can't be bothered to use 'paint' to join all the pics into a montage. The pictures show some of the features, there is a nice little ridge on the back at one point and the big swirl of knot by the bottom nock is interesting. During roughing out there was a big knot there either side and I was tempted to cut it off, yet by the time the tips have been worked down there is just a nice swirl and bump there. A lot of problem areas just melt away during the bow making... some however stubbornly remain.

I think the beauty and strength of this bow is it's untouched back and it would probably withstand a 32" draw, at least maybe a flash/slash draw to 32" for flight shooting. I won't risk it though as the knots and the cracks/shakes mean it is unlikely to fail gracefully if over stressed, more likely to explode.