Friday 4 July 2014

Ladies Yew Longbow

I've pressed on fast with this bow as a favour for a friend. I suffered a bit of creeping spec' syndrome, with it starting out as 25#-30# at 26" then creeping up to 30-35#.
I don't mind really as I'd rather make a 35# than a 25#. I was a bit nervy as I couldn't vouch for the quality of the wood, also it is as highly stressed as the primitive I've just finished!
How so? Well the primitive was twice the draw weight but twice as wide. So if I taped two of the ladies bows side by side I'd pretty much have the primitive!
I've got horn nocks on it, trying to keep a simple medieval look, it's never going to look like a warbow, but it has nice clean lines. the horn is dark with the lower nock having some nice pale streaks and the top one having a smoky look.
The stave had some natural deflex at the centre which possibly helps take some stress of the limbs which have remained fairly straight. There were a couple of knots to fill and I've noticed a tiny pinch on one knot where it goes diagonally from side to belly, the hard centre of the knot has got a hairline crack across it and you can feel it raised with a fingernail. I don't think it's a problem, being on the belly, but I will unstring it and put some low viscosity superglue on it. There is no loose manky material round the knot and it's near the limb tip anyway.
The pic shows the bow at 25" draw and if you zoom in the scale reads 34.7, a triumph for the digital scale and new camera. Mind the brace height needs to come up a whisker yet.


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