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Good bow timber


Bowyer97
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Hello, if anyone has any bark- on pieces of yew (English is alright - Italian/high altitiude great if you have it), hornbeam or laburnum hanging about in knot free pieces / containing knot free sections 7ft long, please get in touch. I'm new to bow-making and I'm struggling to source suitable wood for self bows. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading my enquiry. All the best, H.

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Hi just down the road from me is a small yew forest that apparently was planted for bow making ,obviously nobody’s managed it for that for yrs and yrs,if I get a chance I will take the dog for a run there and have a look,I know it’s miles but if you want to come and have a look then no worries 

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57 minutes ago, gobbypunk said:

Hi just down the road from me is a small yew forest that apparently was planted for bow making ,obviously nobody’s managed it for that for yrs and yrs,if I get a chance I will take the dog for a run there and have a look,I know it’s miles but if you want to come and have a look then no worries 

Trust you to get some pickings,Bloody great forum is this ?

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Yew is the business, as is laburnum but your setting yourself up for a really long wait to get hold of any timber to use.  Hornbeam makes a great bow but is soo hard you may not want to work with it. Hazel makes a fabulous bow - its everywhere and can be force-dried if you're in a hurry; its the wood I started with and I can't recommend strongly enough that you start off with hazel.  Some species of holly can yield suitable timber, if your lucky you could also find straight sections of rhododendron or laurel but these need to be strapped down as they season or they'll twist all over the shop but they make incredible bows.

 

Derek Hutchinson is one of the very best bowyers and you really need to spend a few days reading his blog, it will be a crash-course in bow building with British timbers for you.  Also, if you need 7ft long sections, I guess you want to dive straight into building longbows?  I would work up to this as they can be really tricky to make. Maybe start off with a few bend-through-the-handle flat-bows - allow double your draw length plus 10%, so if you draw 26", then all you need is a stave 60 inches long which is much easier to come by than 94" long.  Also, you should definitely check out the Primitive Archer forum. Good Luck.

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