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Longbow help needed


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You'll want to cut or cleave the blanks, so you have staves of both heart and sapwood. The bow will need the heartwood for strength but the sapwood is much "springier".

 

Then season them for at least four years....

 

No hasty business this war faring lark.

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You'll want to cut or cleave the blanks, so you have staves of both heart and sapwood. The bow will need the heartwood for strength but the sapwood is much "springier".

 

Then season them for at least four years....

 

No hasty business this war faring lark.

 

Tried cleaving last time and it didn't go well but that could have been duff timber.

 

Four years, bugger I am going to be late for Agincourt

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Don't assume the bow will cleave out dead straight and perfectly even. If the timber is perfectly knot-free, straight grained with no grain twist then it will, otherwise it won't. That doesn't make it unusable - work with the way the timber goes, rather than trying to shape it into a piece of art. There's a bowyer who goes to Wierd and Wonderful Wood who has some of the most random shaped bits of stick imaginable, but they shoot straight.

 

The cross-section diagram above is perfect - as you get nearer the tips you end up with less heartwood, more sapwood to get the flex.

 

You'll need to consider overall length, draw length and draw weight. Longbows are less efficient than a recurve, so you need the draw weight as high as you can handle. You want a fairly gentle arc, so the longer your arms, the longer the bow needs to be. Don't assume 6'. The most difficult bit I found was tillering - you need to get the curve nice and even at the right draw weight, but you can't put more on! A 2:1 advantage with a snatch block on the tiller, and then take it gently to avoid cracking it, was the easiest way I found.

 

Alec

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