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Sturgeon's House

Archery Thread


Sturgeon

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130 pound bow?

 

Makes my little 50 pounder feel inadequate all of a sudden.

There is a bit of controversy regarding these massive poundages. It certainly doesn't help that the Mary Rose bows are mostly unfinished, made from wood that is hard to find thesedays, and that most of the really high weights are estimated using a 30' arrow (because that is how long the standard English arrow was). Finally, there is the little issue that nobody has so far published a full range of estimates for every bow and put it into the public domain, so we simply don't know what the population curve looks like.

 

My two cents is that there were always dudes able to draw heroic bows (130lb and over), while the majority of the plebs drew something closer to 80-100lb. I'd also expect that draw weight is normally distributed - so you should see a few folk able to pull 180lb and a few sneaking into service with 60lb bows. All of which is still very impressive (try pulling shooting a few dozen arrows from a 60lb bow) but not the sorts of legendary feats that fans of the ELB want to get into a huddle about.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I finally got around to making a bow (for one of my bosses, who ironically might not be able to use it now):

 

JNpLJwR.jpg

 

The bow is square in cross-section, made of Kiaat and linen backed.

 

Dimensions are:

  • 190cm long
  • 2.2 to 1.4cm thick
  • 3cm wide along the whole length

The finish is linseed oil after sanding and polishing (using a smooth stone). Markings have been burned into the handle area to indicate the midpoint of the bow and the correct side to keep upwards.

 

The draw hasn't been measured (lost my luggage scale), but feels in the 40lb range. It's braced a little low for my taste at present, but is fairly fast-shooting. There is, sadly, already a bit of set; which means that I made the limbs a bit narrow for the weight of wood. The string is just the starter (synthetic) string suitably cut down, as I wasn't feeling up to making a twine string and my wife stole all my nice, thin synthetic string.

 

I haven't had good experiences with kiaat so far, so it's good to finally finish one made out of the stuff.

 

RMPjgPS.jpg

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Dusted off my recurve today. Definitely a bit out of practice. 

 

One thing I have learned is that consistency is absolutely paramount to shooting a bow correctly. You have to plant your feet the same, hold the bow the same, etc. I take a slightly squatted stance, letting the bow sit in my hand but not grasping it. My feet are sort of in a fencer's stance when I shoot. And, what helps me is to keep my eyes on the target until the arrow hits home. 

 

There's a bow range near my house I'll have to visit when this snow is gone. 

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  • 4 months later...

That is some seriously interesting stuff,  and Youtube is rapidly becoming a repository of practical knowledge.  With enough practice, after watching that video I think I could make a sheep horn bow.  It would probably suck, but... yeah. That's one hell of a base to start from.

 

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2 minutes ago, Belesarius said:

That is some seriously interesting stuff,  and Youtube is rapidly becoming a repository of practical knowledge.  With enough practice, after watching that video I think I could make a sheep horn bow.  It would probably suck, but... yeah. That's one hell of a base to start from.

 

This video* was very good in that regard, yes, although the producers fucked up with their definition of 'tillering'. The guy making them knows what's what though.

 

I'd say that with a basic tutorial on making a wooden self bow and this video you could probably do okay.

 

 

 

* One of the most interesting things for me about watching build videos is that I find I grok stuff more easily than I would if I read a how-to. In general video>images + text>text for getting practical information across. As someone who grew up with the idea of tv=passive=bad this has been a bit of an eye-opener. 

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18 minutes ago, Belesarius said:

That is some seriously interesting stuff,  and Youtube is rapidly becoming a repository of practical knowledge.  With enough practice, after watching that video I think I could make a sheep horn bow.  It would probably suck, but... yeah. That's one hell of a base to start from.

 

 

The Internet is why I feel like I don't have to go to college. I love learning, and I can sit here and literally do that all day long in the comfort of my own home.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bow updates!

 

I finally got around to measuring my kiaat longbow... and blew it up in the process.

 

HSFFRKW.jpg

DWrSloN.jpg

PFkpHEq.jpg

XIdOtlv.jpg

The stuff is just so light and stiff that I think it can't be worked very close to its potential without something going wrong.

 

Edit: further testing has shown that a lot of my bows are suddenly cracking or blowing up all of a sudden. I think the cold and extremely dry atmosphere here is making all wood a bit less supple.

 

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In other news; I finally finished making the other lamboo pyramid bow I've been meaning to since January.

 

EJqkQ2a.jpg

tYzGAWL.jpg

 

The draw is about 25kg/55lb, and the dimensions are as follows:

- Length: 159cm

- Width: 53-16mm

- Thickness: 20-15mm

 

rag92vm.jpg

XNcs8Y6.jpg

The construction is just lamboo with linen backing. I was pushing the poundage on this one, so I ended up having to reinforce the handle and a spot near the base of one of the limbs. The reinforcements are also linen, held on with wood glue.

 

raYxGKu.jpg

g41La3x.jpg

This one has promise, but needs testing before I'm willing to sign off on it.

 

Bonus dog pictures:

uTznGnt.jpg

6dNFRbz.jpg

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18 hours ago, LostCosmonaut said:

This looks interesting

 

(not sure where to put it besides here)

 

For those wondering, this is a translation into modern English of an Elizabethan treatise on why firearms (even the shitty ones they had back then) were greatly superior to longbows.  Apparently there was something of a cult of the longbow in England at the time.

 

Quote

Due to our history and traditions we have a great love and affection for the longbow. Before the advent of firearms it was the greatest ranged weapon in existence. In the same way the Irish love their javelins, the Danish their axes, and the Scottish their long spears. Yet in the modern age these weapons are only fit for savages or impoverish [sic] nations unable to afford any better.
 

 

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