Yew for bow making for sale

[Dave177]

I have 3 lengths of Yew in the yard that were brought back from a job in september. They are around 8" diameter and around 6-8ft long.

Pm me if they are any use to you otherwise they will be going on the bonfire

[se7enthdevil]

pm sent

[Lazurus]

pm sent

 

Making a bow Steve?

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

Where did it come from? If it is English it is unlikely to be suitable for bow making. English bows were made from billets of yew harvested from the Italian Alps or Spain.

[se7enthdevil]

Making a bow Steve?

 

i've always wanted to give it a go...

[se7enthdevil]

Where did it come from? If it is English it is unlikely to be suitable for bow making. English bows were made from billets of yew harvested from the Italian Alps or Spain.

 

that's true of the best ones as we ran out of good quality yew on the british isles fairly quickly. other species were also used and ones have been found made from elm, ash, mulberry, blackthorn, oak and field maple.

[Darrin Turnbull]

Here's somebody who makes longbows , don't know him personally.

http://www.steveralphs.co.uk

[Lazurus]

Mine is weighted at 55lbs draw weight, I did get a 75lb but was way too much for me at 6` and 15 stone, makes you realize how these guys in the past must have practiced with draw weights of 180lbs and be accurate to 200 plus yards.

There are some excellent You tube clips on making and using English long bows. I think the skill is in tillering the bow to get equal compression and a draw weight to suit.

[gobbypunk]

Hi Arcto,what you are saying about yew being imported for long bows is not correct as we have a nice yew forrest by us that was planted for yew for long bows , it is no longer looked after like it was back then but still interesting I wonder how many more there might be dotted around , would love to have a go at making one ,

Cheers Mark

[se7enthdevil]

he is right to a certain degree mark, i admit that i don't know much about the subject but whilst researching yew timber i came accross alot of info saying that we used plenty of spanish imported yew once the stocks we had was in short supply. we also used some pacific yew from traders that went to the west coast of america about 400 years ago.