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stuckinthemud

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Everything posted by stuckinthemud

  1. Anyone know who did the carvings in Bryn Bach Park? These are just some of them, there’s a lovely owl and fox bench as well but I didn’t manage to get a photo (yet)
  2. I've made a couple, mostly been on crossbows over the past few years, made a lovely longbow from hazel, no photo though. This is a short bow experiment in scotch broom I haven't finished tinkering with yet.
  3. If you go with a kit, splash a little extra cash on a really good quality shooting glove or finger tab.
  4. Go to your nearest archery club. You'll get to try lots of different types of bow. Don't buy anything until you've found out what style of archery (field/target/3-D) and types of bow you like (there are at least 11 main types of bow). Archery can be dirt cheap or mega expensive. I think I've spent about £50 over the last 6 years, but I make all my own kit (its not cos I'm tight, no really, its not...). You can spend £50 on an arrow if you're so inclined. Check Archery GB, English Field Archery Association and National Field Archery Society for clubs nearby.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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
  8. Just received an email from my regional federation acknowledging xbow is "discouraged at club level" mostly because bolts are thicker than arrows and cause greater damage to targets....
  9. As an archer I never realised how much xbow is blocked by archery clubs even though the national federations all allow it. Not a single club in Wales, that I know of
  10. 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.
  11. Been a long time, started in 2018, had big delays with the metalwork, finally got it shooting today. 75lb draw weight yew/sinew prod, inlays in antler, water buffalo horn and cow bone. V-tool engraving filled with varnish coloured with charcoal. I am really pleased with the way its all come together and its a lot of fun to shoot. Just a couple of odds and ends (like serving the string) left to go.
  12. I am trying to go as light as I can while staying 'safe' so I'm using blunts, 12 inch bamboo shafts, 2 inch feather fletch with a 1 inch brass screw as a screw-in tip. Not totally happy using blunts think I might end up switching to bullet points
  13. Scrappy bit of apple for the tiller, took a lot to get it squared up and shaped, holly fork for the trigger, walnut sapwood for the bow.
  14. Had some fun building a sort of replica crossbow based off an archaeological drawing of a group of finds from Colletieres a Charavines dated to the 1040s. Beautiful little crossbow with a subtly sophisticated design I think most copies have missed, they use the wrong shape trigger, the original used a very upright trigger you push against with your thumb but all the replica I have seen use a flatter shape you squeeze down. The bottom photo shows the trigger in the fired position. This shape allows you to hold the bolt in place with your trigger hand while still gripping the tiller, leaving your other hand better able to support the bow, which was 4 feet long and 1.5 inches thick. This one isnt, its a garden toy, 30lb draw weight, 33 inch lath 1.5 cm thick but good fun at 50 feet
  15. Thanks everyone Willow is what I need for my current project, so I took a saw up this afternoon but any potentially useful timber (main stem) was heavily rotted, no wonder it blew down last weekend
  16. Tree, single stem, shrub-like, many branches, stem only about 1m before branching, total height about 5m
  17. Thought maybe black pop. Not sure though. Leaves feel furry/downy
  18. Punch the nailheads in but the wood will seal over them no need to fill.
  19. I am slabbing out some black poplar. I'm cutting 3ft long slabs 4 inches thick and 12 wide but my little 32 is struggling with the soaking wet timber, would I be better off splitting it down with wedges?
  20. Thank you, did not know that rule, its good to know that. Looks like I'm already running the biggest bar then.
  21. Anyone know what size the largest bar a mcculloch 32 can comfortably power is?
  22. Armstrong mt500. This is not my bike, its a library photo but it is so exactly the same I checked the site in case someone was selling on my bike that was nicked, even though it was pinched in '98. Still miss it, even though I never got the knack for starting it and fell off it 3 times stopping too fast at traffic lights as my legs are too short. Stops had to be planned in advance . Checking the image, mine had del'orto carb and better forks

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