Long term project done (almost)

[Conor Wright]

Nice. Proper craftsmanship.

 

You did a fantastic job on that. 

Took some serious patience by the look of it, well done.

[gobbypunk]

Cool as F##K thats some ace work being Welsh I would love to make a longbow one day .You should be Chuffed does it shoot stright 

[stuckinthemud]

It shoots straight, shame I don't !!

[sime42]

It'd sting but its only about 100 fps, so no where near as good as a 30lb long bow.  
 
Sinew tends to be de-greased then dried for storage. To prep it, the outer sheath is removed and the bundled fibres seperated by pulling them apart, these are soaked in warm hide or collagen glue, excess glue is squeezed off and the fibres laid along the back of the bow.  There are an infinite number of variations on the process. 

Thanks. I'm always interested to hear about proper old crafts.
Did you want to use sinew to be in keeping with tradition or is it better than synthetic equivalents?

[stuckinthemud]

There are arguments as to whether sinew is as good as carbon fibre in performance terms, CF is definitely quicker/easier/cheaper and it is used extensively as a replacement for sinew in archery.  However, I am interested in how well medieval crossbows performed and why they were built the way they were built.  Whether I am brave enough to keep this bow cocked for 4 hours just to see what happens to it remains to be seen.  There are probably reasons why most pictures from the time show game being driven toward the crossbows, rather than shooters sat in blinds

[Khriss]

3 hours ago, stuckinthemud said:

There are arguments as to whether sinew is as good as carbon fibre in performance terms, CF is definitely quicker/easier/cheaper and it is used extensively as a replacement for sinew in archery.  However, I am interested in how well medieval crossbows performed and why they were built the way they were built.  

To shoot the French I recall   K

[Ashley gould]

Lovely piece you have made there. I’m looking to do a project of my own will be my first time doing something like this but I’m really struggling to get hold of yew looking for help and advice on where to find good timber and tips on what to look for 

[stuckinthemud]

Finding yew is really difficult.  I found the couple of bits I have by driving round then knocking on doors. Literally.  I found some in a copse that no-one claimed to own, I did a proper search and it does seem to be an abandoned scrap of land.  The other time, I was coming home from holiday and saw a yew copse. I emailed the owner and got permission, but from a dozen trees, only one stem was any good. If you see a good piece, knock the door, be polite, chatty and be willing to show photos of what you do. 9 times out if 10 you'll get permission to cut, even if the door belongs to the church vicar. Councils sometimes thin yews, contact the parks team arboricultural officer to see if anything is scheduled.

Edited September 5, 2021 by stuckinthemud

[Rough Hewn]

Finding yew is really difficult.  I found the couple of bits I have by driving round then knocking on doors. Literally.  I found some in a copse that no-one claimed to own, I did a proper search and it does seem to be an abandoned scrap of land.  The other time, I was coming home from holiday and saw a yew copse. I emailed the owner and got permission, but from a dozen trees, only one stem was any good. If you see a good piece, knock the door, be polite, chatty and be willing to show photos of what you do. 9 times out if 10 you'll get permission to cut, even if the door belongs to the church vicar. Councils sometimes thin yews, contact the parks team arboricultural officer to see if anything is scheduled.

I’ve got loads of it for sale.
Most 8’ some longer.[emoji106]

[stuckinthemud]

Nice.  You need a board with few knots and no large knots, sawn in such a way you can get an inch of heartwood with grain in the same plane as the waney edge.  The waney edge needs to be free from ripples , try to work out how much twist there was in the tree. There's normally twist but you can unwind that with heat.  There's a narrow board in the center that looks quarter sawn you might get a pair of bows out of.