Non Bow Related Activity

The roof of the Pergola/Pagoda thingy in the garden was falling down and in need of repair.
When I built it I'd wanted to clad the roof in Copper, but that was too expensive and it got left as treated softwood boards which have now rotted. I built it partly just for the fun of working with green Oak.

 It's totally overgrown with Ivy and Roses, but once I got in and started cutting out the dead stuff and the Ivy it didn't take too long to clear. the main Oak structure is still pretty sound so I've re-boarded the roof and I'm going to cover it with rubber sheet. I may do a decorative trim of Copper on the front edge.

The decking beneath it needs replacing too as that has rotted through. I'll be interested to see what is under the decking as I suspect a variety of small mammals and maybe crocodiles have been nesting under there.

I'll wait for a nice dry day before gluing on the rubber. Then I'll work on the deck, one of the Oak verticals is a bit rotted at the bottom, but probably only on the surface... pretty tough stuff Oak.

There are about 3 main stems of rose still going across it and I've been careful to leave those as they run up into the Yew tree and give a nice show of white roses, they run up next door's Rowan tree too, giving us both the benefit of a nice display.
It grieves me a bit when some people decimate their gardens of trees and rely on their neighbours to provide the shade, blossom and view. Our neighbours on that side are very good and have some lovely trees, notably a huge Hornbeam. They also have a big pond which brings in the Ducks.

All has been approved by the inspector of works! :-)

Plenty Going On

I've done the son of Il Bastardo, pretty much roughed out to the same dimensions with about an inch and a half extra length, Yew heartwood with a quarter sawn Ash backing.

The backing was cut from a 1/4 Ash log that I was given years ago, it had been felled by Chris Boyton for a bow making course he was doing in a Hertfordshire woodland and was surplus to requirement. I couldn't decide on Ash (cut following a ring) or Hickory for a backing, so I asked on the Primitive Archer, I'm never afraid to ask advice, but only from those who I know to have genuine experience. Anyhow, 1/4 sawn Ash was suggested by Marc StLouis (one of the top bowyers). It's not something I'd tried as a back, so I ran it through the bandsaw. It was a bit of a battle, I had to set the bandsaw to slow speed.
Even with a guide it took a lot of concentration to get a reasonable strip (about 1/4"). With some planing and sanding, this was reduced to give clean flat strip of  about 3/16" with only one slight waggle in the grain (and that is at the grip).
The heartwood belly was sawn to rough tapered limbs rectangular in section. It was glued up on a former with a tiny bit of reflex and a hint of deflex in the centre due to it being thicker at the grip but pulled down flat. Hopefully the diagram at the top of the post shows what I mean.

I took a video of it on the tiller getting close to completion, since then I've fitted the horn nocks and had it to 90# @27".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrF8nE6bBsY

I've been doing a bit to the crossbow project too, I've made some string catchers/buffers from rubber doorstops supported on turned Aluminium pillars. The Aluminium is decent quality aerospace grade alloy (7075) which machines much nicer than the bog standard stuff. (Note one limb is still covered in masking tape).

I've also re- tillered an reduced bow for a friend, taking about 20# off it and straightening out the sideways bend a bit! I replaced the hideous nocks too. I don't really know how people have the nerve to sell bows with nocks like that?

Il Bastardo es Muerto!

We went over to Now Strike archery near Chelmsford to test some warbows with heavy "standard" and "military"arrows and to give il Bastardo another try out with 28" flight arrows.
The heavy arrows flew well from JT's regular bows, and we could see which bow performed best, shooting those warmed him up for il Bastardo.
He flexed it a bit them pulled it back... I thought... Wow, that's coming back a long..BANG!
Previously he'd been an inch maybe and inch and a half short of full draw, but this time he was really getting into it. The bang was huge and it brought over the other archers from the adjacent field to see what had exploded.
It had a short but worthwhile life having won last year's Mary Rose flight shoot. It will be much missed by family and friends.
At least we have time before the next shoot to shorten and re-tiller some other bows for flight use. I'm also going to make a Hickory backed Yew so we can find which shoots best.

As it exploded it took JT's head clean off his shoulders, but we put his head back on, and having found the bow string, put one loop over his ear and threaded the string down under one armpit round behind his shoulders up under the other armpit and tied it off round the other ear. By the time he'd had a pint of Guinness and we'd shared a bowl of chips his head was growing back on nicely.

But seriously ... fortunately no one was hurt, and it could have been a lot worse... I could have been shooting it! ;-)

I've kept the pieces so I can take some measurements, as I think it was pretty much optimum..... but for a 27" draw!
It looks like the break propagated from the upper limb, but it's a very high quality break ;-) as it has smashed pretty evenly along the whole bow.

I expect JT is currently sitting in a darkened room with a large glass of red wine :-)

Funny Old Weather

We had one scorching hot day last week, so I put up the awning that I ordered last year, it's just a decent quality tarpaulin really, the stuff they use for the side of big lorries. The proper fancy awnings like you see in fancy hotels in sunny climes cost a small fortune. It worked really well and kept it pleasantly cool and shady indoors. Next day the weather turned so I had to take it down, which doesn't take long.
It's now been really miserable for a couple of days, and I really notice how dark it is in the garage compared with when I have the big up-and-over door open (you can't beat natural daylight from the North).
I'd been sitting with my mug of tea and the Toolstation catalogue and I saw a 600mm x 600mm LED panel light which looked like it would provide some good extra illumination over the work bench and give me something to tinker with on a wet afternoon. I also bought a couple of LED bulbs for my benchlight (the fluorescents take an age to get to full brightness and are a tad yellow).
The led panel comes with it's own slim transformer and the whole lot is very light...the down side is, it's doesn't come with any fixings as it is designed to drop into a suspended ceiling. Ha, but that just gives me something else to fiddle with. 4 wooden blocks screwed into the ceiling joists and some little aluminium clips did the job. It wasn't quite that easy, as I had to move one of the fluorescent tubes a bit to create space.

Why am I blethering on about all this? Well, I though it was about time I posted on here and I wanted to take some pics of a pair of longbows I've just finished. It's too wet to take the pics outside, but with the new lighting, maybe a pic on the garage floor might suffice.
The bows are two of the prototype flight bows I'd made earlier, suitable fiddled fettled and adjusted to become roving/field bows. They are both left handed and one has been worked down to 35# @ 27" . The are for the couple who run the ILAA, they'd asked me to make bows for them, but I'm not that keen on making laminates, so finishing up the flight bows seemed like a win-win solution especially as they wanted good cast.
The ladies bow Boo/Yew/Ipe is particularly impressive cast wise having shot over 220yards with a flight arrow, the gents bow making over 235. Distance isn't directly proportional to poundage and it was interesting to note that in the flight shoot the other week, sometime the lower weight bows were out shooting the heavier ones.

Anyhow, that's about it, other than some tinkering with the crossbow project, but I've got to go and do the weekend shopping now :-(

WMAS Flight Shoot

I drove up to Telford on the Saturday afternoon and stayed overnight for the shoot on the Sunday.
After a full English breakfast I arrived early at the shoot to leaden skies and a brisk wind.
The field was the sports ground of a posh school and was on a slight uphill, that, with the dampness and a brisk headwind made it obvious that no records would be set!
I'd taken a little tent with me which was very handy as I could keep my kit dry and have little lie down.
There were only about 20 competitors but most competitors were shooting more than one class and there was a good variety of bows, compounds, recurves, English Longbows and some interesting horsebows. My little Osage flight bow was put in the American Longbow class (unlimited).

It was 6 arrows (maximum) to an "end" and there were 4 ends being shot during day, each end including any class of bow.
The compounds shot first from a shooting line which was further back (100 yards?) and we all retreated behind the line while they shot.
I shot the boo/Yew longbow first ( not exceeding 50# class). After everyone had shot we walked up the field and planted a flag with our details on it where our furthest arrow had landed. Mine were rather spread about and my Ipe/pine laminated arrow had kicked well off left, so for the next end I swapped that for my number 7 arrow. I was disappointed to see I was barely up to the 250 yard mark! Then I heard someone say that the wind was taking 90 yards off their distances.
On the next end I had another go and shot a bit further, moving my flag up about 5 yards to the new distance.

Time for lunch, I only had water and a biscuit bar but was invited to join Tony (the range master... seen in the pic from my tent) and his daughter Rachel who had a huge spread of food. A chicken leg and chunk of bread topped me up nicely while we had a good natter about bows and shooting.

When you shoot, you are allowed a helper to tell you if you are aiming high enough and in the right direction. There were a variety of devices for judging elevation from simple spirit levels, to tripod mounted gauges. Tony had a nice hand held wooden gauge with a built in plumb bob pendulum. After he and Rachel had shot I stepped up to the line and she acted as my helper, which allowed me to shoot with more confidence and more smoothly (she also took the pic of me ). My arrows were flying fairly well, but some wagging their tail a tad.

After lunch I thought I'd try the Osage with my 26" arrows, and if they went well, I'd try the 27" on the final end.
Well, it's a while since I'd shot it and initially struggled with the weight! It was good to have a helper to tell me when I was about right for elevation as I was busy heaving it back and watching the tip of the arrow... they certainly went away fast compared to the ELB.
On the last arrow, a tried that whisker too much and BANG.. a shower of smashed arrow went about 10 yards forward and left. Fortunately nothing struck my hand or anyone else, I think the fact that the bow has a shelf saved me from injury. The string had sheared off a small portion of the Elm nock overlay, which had only meant to be temporary for tillering, but had been left on. The parent wood of the bow is fine so fitting new horn overlays is no problem. I think the bow is ok, but I'll give it a careful examination and some flexing.

I imagine the chain of events was as follows, I drew too far, the tip of the arrow slipped to the right and stuck in the belly of the bow. (You can see the small mark on the belly) The arrow exploded on loose which would dissipate some of the energy, but it would be close to a dry loose once it had broken. the string slamming home sheared off the nock overlay. Hopefully by then most of the energy had gone into the arrow, the string and shearing the nock and didn't leave enough to damage the bow.

I pretty much felt I'd shot my bolt by then, but with only one more end to shoot and the weather having calmed I strung the longbow for a final 6 arrows.
Walking up to collect the arrows I'd spotted 5 of mine short of my flag, but right next to my flag was one of Tony's 50# ELB arrows, so he was obviously getting similar distances. Then I spotted my final arrow 12 yards further up the field, definitely worth shooting those last six.
Time for a lie down and packing away my kit while the measuring was in progress. I also had a very interesting chat about using a thumb ring and a bit of a demo', something that's definitely on my to do list.
We sat round awaiting the results, I was hoping for a mention somewhere and was delighted to have won both my classes, narrowly beating Tony in the 50#ELB, he assures me that he'll beat me next time! Mind he won in other classes and Rachel won hers.

Many thanks to Nick Mitchell the organiser, Tony Bakes the range master and all at the WMAS for an excellent shoot making me (a newbie to formal flight shooting) feel welcomed.

This Title is Intentionally Blank

I've been tinkering with odds and ends preparing for the WMAS flight shoot at the weekend up near Telford.
I've been preparing flight arrows, checking bows etc. I would have done some shooting last Sunday but it was Essex Young Farmers Show on the shooting ground, anyway, probably a good things as I'd probably have broken some arrows.
I bought a Sharpie Liquid Highlighter for colouring the arrows... I'd tried an old highlighter that I had lying around and it worked quite well but dried up quickly. The sharpie one has liquid in it and works well, the arrows don't look very yellow until you get them in daylight and then they show up nicely. It's not as bright as the Rust-oleum Bright Neon Yellow paint but it isn't thick (which can leave a slight ridge on the shaft) and is much easier to apply.

I've also been working on the crossbow limbs getting them drilled and building up the nocks. I'll add string buffers to the crossbow this time to try and take some of the shock off the limbs.

I ordered a trail cam off the interweb, it turned up this morning and I've got it set up to watch the outside around the cat flap to see if any unwanted cats are coming in or if foxes are sniffing about. Emily cat has been a bit nervous lately and has been over-grooming causing bare patches on her forelegs :-( . Mind she's been otherwise ok.

Striving For Accurate Measurement

Tricky thing trying to measure accurately. I've patched the belly of the flight bow in the previous post and I'm working it back to 50# at 27" (that's 27" to the belly).
The actual repair patch was heat treated before gluing, you can see the length of the patch compared to the spall that broke off the belly in this pic.
I also took some video of it on the tiller.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfctW4fZAO0&t=5s

I've just got it teased back and taken measurements at 24, 25 and 26". The first reading at 24 was just over 42# but I drew it again and it had settled a whisker.
24" 41.8#
25" 44.2#
26" 46.8#
This gives 2.6# for that last inch and that gives a total of 49.4# @ 27"... ah, but the weight of the scale is hanging on there too, so I weighed that, its an extra 0.37# which I'll round up to 0.4#
That would give a total of 48.8#@27 which is good.

I see some tillering set ups with the scale fixed at the top and the bow hanging down from that. It has one big advantage that if the bow breaks, the scale doesn't come smashing down on to the floor, but it has the disadvantage that the measure of draw length is trickier, as a spring type scale stretches as it is pulled down so the rule needs attaching to the bow string or the hook at the bottom of the scale. Also when measuring the draw weight, the physical weight of the bow is also hanging on there so that needs accounting for if you want an accurate weight. Mind that is all a bit academic except for something like flight shooting as quoted bow weights are often a good bit out once the bow has had a few hundred arrows through it.

Now I've got 3 flight bows all at just under 50# @ 27" I can test 'em through the chrono' and decide which I intend to shoot.... bugger... just realised I'v got to make a string for this one first before I can chrono' it.
Better get on with it then!
Ha! Got the string made... tested it through the chrono... woo!
211.9 fps