Odds & Ends

The repaired Hazel bow has now had a total of over 300 arrows shot through it and is finally declared finished, it's drawing about 43# at 28" and sweet as a nut.
Thinking of Hazel turned my mind to the bow I made in a day at the club back in May http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/woodland-workshop.html
It had already had a few minor improvements but was still a bit of a pig to shoot, the grip being as wide as the Mississippi and as uncomfortable as a 3 hour flight with a budget airline.
I had some Hazel off cuts from the same tree so I glued a piece onto the belly side of the grip with the curve of the grain rings matching up. I sculpted the grip to be centre shot and as skinny as I dared.
It now shoots clean and true even with my 100gn arrows which used to be too stiff for it. I checked it on the tiller and its a tad over 30# at 28".

I slimmed the tips down considerably to remove excess weight which helps keep the speed up.

I might take it to the village fete near the club on Sunday where we are doing a have-a-go.

Meanwhile the Maple bow has been worked down so it's just beginning to flex on the tiller, I should have some pics over the weekend. I've been taking rough thickness measurements from the Hazel bow to get me to the current state, obviously adding a mm or two to stay on the safe side. That's the great thing about having experience and a dozen bows lying around, you always have some sort of reference. I'll make it as long as that one, with tips like that one, and a grip like t'other.

Splinter Repair + Update.

I got home from work and shot the last 10 arrows to make up the 100 through the Hazel bow. Running my fingers over the back, it just didn't feel as smooth as it should. There wasn't actually a lift at the splinter, but it didn't feel right.
I winched it back to 28" on the tiller and felt it again with my thumb nail, I could just feel the slightest edge.
It's almost a relief to make the decision to patch it.
The problem with a splinter or a split is you can never get glue down into the root of the crack, and if you prise open the crack to gain access it just makes it travel further down into the wood.
I set about chiseling out the splinter using a ground down needle file which was a bit too flexible and then I remembered my plough plane which has some narrow blades, one of which was just the job.
I was getting slightly anxious that I hadn't uncovered the root of the splinter, then, as I was cleaning out the base of the channel I could see a wafer thin remnant of the splinter lifting, (see pic top right).

Once the groove was cleaned and straightened using the edge of a file I sawed a thin sliver to fill it in. I'd kept the scrap pieces from where I'd roughed the bow out on the bandsaw, and one of these was soon shaped to suit, using bandsaw, spokeshave to curve it slightly and sand paper. I glued it in using Resintite and whilst pressing it firmly in place rasped off some of the excess so that it would be more flexible and would pull down into the contour of the groove better when I bound it with rubber strapping.

You can see how narrow and shallow the groove is, I'm pretty convinced that it's mostly cosmetic and feel that I could have strung the bow and shot it with the cleaned out groove. I didn't of course as that would simply be foolhardy.
We'll see how it looks tomorrow night.

Update:-
Two more pics, first with the wrapping removed, and the second with it cleaned and polished. You can see how the repair runs right through the area with the tiny pin knots.
The inlaid section fits better near the grip, but I was keen to make sure it pressed in right to the bottom of the groove so I didn't make it too tight a fit.

It doesn't look much worse than the original splinter.

I've shot 10 arrows through it and had it up on the tiller. Looking good, I'll be happy once I've shot another 90.

Maple Primitive and a 'Robin Hood'

I'm starting on a Maple primitive, along similar lines to the Hazel (which is looking good having shot another 30 through it). It will be interesting to compare the two.
I've used Maple from the same woodland before for a stupidly long longbow and an under powered American Flatbow. I'm hoping that the primitive shape will suit the wood better, but I feel I may need to heat treat the belly to get the best from it.

A youngish chap and his dad visited me to chat about longbows, he was about to start university studying History. I was slightly nonplussed, as despite my great age, I don't actually know firsthand much about the military use of the longbow. I stressed the difference between the few facts we know and the interpretation thereof. He was pleased that my suppositions about Agincourt agreed with his.
We had a good go with my bows and he felt the Yew with a spokeshave. There is a big difference between reading about heartwood and sapwood and actually feeling it.
I let him split one half of my big Maple log with axe and wedges. Again, it's something which, until you try it you have no idea of. The Maple split easily and illustrated nicely how there is no need for bandsaws and modern machinery.

One of the bit I like best was how impressed they were with the speed of draw and loose, having seen Olympic archers holding at full draw for over 10 seconds. the speed of the arrow and the fact that it hit what was aimed at was pretty good too. The good old Chinese Repeating Crossbow also got it's customary outing and was an interesting juxtaposition to the old soundbite that 'The Longbow was the machine gun of the middleages' which is far from accurate, but has an small element of truth.
It's not easy to put the position of the Longbow into a soundbite, as without the manpower, training, organisation and supply it is just a stick.
The mobilisation of a well drilled, well suppied, well disciplined army is what allowed us to win, but even that would have come to nothing if the French had been organised and used their resources wisely.
(Just my view of course, terms and conditions apply etc...)
All in all they had a good time and I got a nice bottle of red wine and a box of chocs as a thank you.
Anyhow, it's one of those bits of Maple I'm starting on, it's not the best half of the log, but I thought I'd jump in get a quick feel of it, so if I got it wrong I'd still have the best bit for another go. I generally work this way, and I often find that the 'best' bit isn't always the best bow.
Here are some pics of it de-barked and roughed out. Being from a bigger diameter log I'll be able to leave the back of the bow as nature created it, using the under bark surface.

Damn!
I was shooting in the Hazel bow some more and I heard a horrible clatter as I shot the nock and cock feather off one of my arrows, known as a 'Robin Hood'.
I'll probably repair it as the bottom of the groove where the string acually bears is still ok.
It was one of ny self nocked arrows too (as opposed to the plastic nock fitted on the other arrow).
Shooting 'Primitive' class in NFAS field shoots require the use of self nocked arrows, so I have some of each. plastic is quicker, tougher and easier to replace for general use.

Why a Bow Needs Shooting In

The Hazel bow has had 110 arrow through it and umpteen coats of Danish oil.
I was just rubbing it over when I noticed an odd mark on the back. There is a couple of tiny pin knots where the grain swells up, they are barely visible and I hadn't allowed any extra thickness there. There was a tiny zigzag line for about 1/4" across the back just to the tip side of the pin knots (It's about 3" from the grip).
From each end of the zigzag there was a hairline going tipwards for about 2". Could it be a splinter trying to lift?

My optimistic self said no, it's just a discolouration of the grain, but my realist gut self said its a damn splinter. I knew the bow was still shooting fine so I winched it back to 28" on the tiller and with my fingernail could just feel the zigzag lifting a tiny amount. I flooded it with low viscosity superglue along the zigzag and the hairline cracks, pulled it to 29" for a split second, then let it down and got the string off quick.
I left it a while and carefully examined the rest of the bow.
On the belly side under the pins was a tiny dark spot of a knot only about 2mm in diameter, I hadn't given it any real thought before. I cleaned it out with a drill bit held in my fingers, it had no strength at all, so I filled it with sawdust/epoxy mix.
I don't know if this contributed to the problem, and I don't know if the problem contributed to the apparent slight change in tiller where I feel the lower limb looked weaker than it did in the pic of it on the tiller.
Anyhow I ran my nice new 12" bastard file over the belly of the upper limb to weaken it a whisker and thus even up the tiller an take a little bit of load off the lower limb. I also ran the file over the outer 2/3 of the back of the lower limb to ease the load off the suspect area.
This tiny amount of work has lost a couple of pounds draw weight and evened the tiller.
I sanded the zigzag and filled knot dead flat then popped it back on the tiller at 28", no sign of the splinter, I shot 10 arrows and it's looking fine.

There is a huge temptation not to post this sort of embarrassing setback, but I think it's a vital part of the blog's usefulness.
The big question is have I fixed it? I'll shoot another 100 arrows through and see how it goes.
The good news is it didn't explode so it was probably a very shallow splinter. If it lifts I could bind it with linen thread rubbed over with epoxy or I could chisel it out into a shallow trench which fades out to nothing at each end and inlay a sliver of hazel. I could bind it anyway as a belt and braces fix. Anyhow, I'll leave it a day or so as I have other stuff to do.

There are often several options and not necessarily just one 'right' one.
I'm a lot happier about it than I was a few hours ago when I first noticed it and you could have knocked me down with a feather.

Hazel Finished

It needs a few more coats of Danish oil and a nocking point on the string but here are the pics.

I've tuned it up by adjusting the arrow pass and twisting the string up to a 5 1/4" brace as it was slapping my wrist. It shoots really nicely and clocks up 160fps (109 mph) through the chronometer, which makes it my fastest Hazel bow.
It's significantly faster than my old favourite Hazel bow (which has about four fingers of set and is about 5# lower draw weight). But not as fast as Twister (a Yew bow of similar shape and a couple of pounds higher draw weight).

This bow has little set, with the tips pressed against a straight edge I can just get 1 finger between the grip and the straight edge.

The grip has a plaque of bark left on the back which looks good, and the line of pith from the centre of the log is visible on the belly with some of the very subtle grain.

I've shot at least 70 arrows through it and I'm very pleased. The tiller never looks quite the same in the full draw shot as it does on the tiller. It dawns on me that I always take the full draw shot from the same side which shows the bow from the opposite side to how I see it on the tiller, I don't know if that's significant. The tiller is pretty much my usual arc of a circle, but I think maybe it's a tad stiffer in the middle than usual. Maybe I'll post some comparison pics later.

 

Long Day & Still Not Quite There

Whew, it's been hot and I've been in and out of the garage working away on the bow.

It's almost there, I've put on horn tip overlays and got the tips nice and skinny and been slowly tillering to even out the limbs and bring the draw length back.

In the pic the lower (left) limb is a hint stiff in it's centre. It's just over 26" draw there and has moved on another inch since then, with the lower limb improved.

I possibly moved onto the file and scraper a bit too early as the progress has been slow, but better slow than sorry. I've been trying to avoid set and get the tiller a bit more elliptical. It's been tricky as over the last 3 or 4 inches  of draw the bow is working very hard. I've been easing it off a tad down near the grip as a tiny bit of extra flex there is becomes quite a bit 30" away at the tip. I've been exercising it and shooting a few arrows, which were kicking a bit left and waggling their tails in flight at first until I narrowed the grip.

It's 45# at 27" now and a bit of fiddling, fettling scraping and sanding will get that last inch of draw. The belly is beautifully silky smooth and the bow is looking rather graceful now with a satisfying feel in the hand.

I'll make a proper string tomorrow and shoot it in before any final tweaks to the tiller. After that it's down to an arrow plate, sanding polishing and finishing with Danish oil.

Update:- Saturday, see right, I went for the Waterbuffalo horn tip overlay on a slim tip. It gives a nice contrased when the nock is polished. You can really see the slimmed down shape now. It's gone from ugly ducking to swan. I'll leave that bit of bark on the grip.
I've added another picture of the 2 nocks shown in the previous post, so you can see them from the side.

Hazel Braced and a Question of Nocks

I'm toying with a different style of nock.

Previously I've gone for a wideish tip with a simple shoulder so the string is supported on the edges of the limb or a skinny tip with an overlay so the string is supported by the overlay on the back.

An alternative is the skinny tip somewhere between a pencil and your little finger with a binding round it about half an inch down to support the string, this would have been of sinew and hide glue, but a suitable modern equivalent would be linen thread soaked in epoxy (hide glue goes tacky in hot humid weather). This sort of tip has been found on ancient bows in North America and Europe. The advantage of the skinny tip is the reduced weight, the down side is you have no margin of error for adjusting the string line... mind if the bow is left wide at the grip, then the adjustment can be made there. You can see the difference in tip mass (both Hazel bows), the skinny one on the left is a bit thicker at the tip to maintain rigidity, and you can see how that style evolves into the Mollegabet style (type Mollegabet bow into google images if you don't know what I mean) with a long rigid light tip with the bending part of the limb being the part near the grip. I'm sure that the various styles weren't rigidly defined or categorised like they are today, which is to my mind a nonsense.  You hear arguments about "is that a primitive or an American Flatbow?" And one archery society insists a bow can't be an 'English Longbow' unless it has horn nocks!

The bow is still looking a bit chunky, but as I work it down over the next day or so it will hopefully become more elegant.

Last evening I made up a quick jig for supporting one end of a bow when the other is on or in the vice.
I'd seen something similar posted on the Primitive Archer forum and I was getting fed up with resting the bow on the toolbox, or miscellaneous scraps of wood. I can clamp it to the bench wherever is convenient, hopefully it should make things a bit easier.
Update:-
A good days work on it, I've slimmed the tips considerably with the last 6" almost parallel. The reflex has pulled out except near the fades and there is a hint of set mid limb. Overall it's about straight now and pulling 24" at 45#
It's looking much more elegant and I've had a few test shots.