I can post a photo later, but I made a English Longbow out of Pacific Yew many years ago. I made it from a tree I found and it had a straight 6 foot section in it which I harvested and got many staves out of. I could sit down and make another bow If I wanted.
cont.
Pacific Yew is similar to the European species that some English longbow where made from. It is a naturally laminated wood, the heartwood is good under compression and sapwood good under tension. Shaping the cross-section of the bow into a "D" shape give you a bow that shoots amazingly well.
I never went out and bought a spoke shave or draw knife to carve the bow, I just used a sharp butcher knife and a metal ski wax scraper, I also didn't have a Shave Horse, I just used a work bench. I worked on it about 20 mins at a time and it took a few months, slowly removing material. I bought a pair of cow horn knocks and epoxied them into the end, and a leather wrap for a "handle"
When I began to get it so it could bend in a nice curve I made a grid system on a wall in my house out of string to judge how evenly the bow would bend, making sure there were no weak spots or strong spots. I used a bathroom scale and a tiller to judge the draw weight, which I wanted about 50 lbs. I had the bow for about 10 years until crack formed in the wood and the bow snapped one day when I was putting the string on.
Yes. Being a natural piece of wood there was bound to be some defects in the wood that grow with each use. Yew is an understory tree that grows in the deep shade, and finding a straight section 6 - 7 feet is pretty rare. When Yew bows are unstrung, they look very knobby and bent. You shape them so when they are strung they curve in a perfect shallow parabolic shape.
My bow looked a little like this one:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/740687160/pacific-yew-snakey-primitive-style
I shoot an American longbow. Learned archery on a trad recurve but I was always drawn to the longbow so I bought one and started bringing it to the range. Not really a hard thing to get into if you already know how to shoot. Just prepare for more hand shock and worse groupings to start. Both resolve pretty quickly with practice.
What you might want to do is practice on something like a 35 lb recurve. A real pleasure to use since you don’t have to strain holding it back. Keep in mind what anon said above about injuries from the 100 lb bow.
Thanks anons
SCA
I utilize a tower shield with a dowel spike so I can prop it up like one of those wet floor signs, but the dowel is spiked so I can plunge it in the earth. I shoot at bands of knights, especially ones in shiny armor, until they send a fighter after me. I btfo them with an axe or falchion, then rinse and repeat until the whole squad comes after me. It frees my band up to fight other objectives and I usually take 5-10 people out before they take me out.
What you might want to do is practice on something like a 35 lb recurve. A real pleasure to use since you don’t have to strain holding it back. Keep in mind what anon said above about injuries from the 100 lb bow.
Ego was the point. I would show off by shooting a bow other people could barely pull a few inches.
was a custom bow from misko rovcanin broken now cause I got the smallest length bow and stressing it against its maximum draw length all the time.
now shoot a 60lbs daylite majesty with a few inches of maximum draw to spare
I utilize a tower shield with a dowel spike so I can prop it up like one of those wet floor signs, but the dowel is spiked so I can plunge it in the earth. I shoot at bands of knights, especially ones in shiny armor, until they send a fighter after me. I btfo them with an axe or falchion, then rinse and repeat until the whole squad comes after me. It frees my band up to fight other objectives and I usually take 5-10 people out before they take me out.
Have an ash wood 40lb longbow from a bloke called Nick Toy in Kent, he does them as a side thing. It's quite a lovely stick. https://classicbowyer.co.uk/ Go to an archery club and see if there are any blokes there with longbows you can ask and get a feel for.
There's a semi-alive thread on archery in PrepHole Shame archery threads are few and far between, doesn't help they get made spread out on out/k/xs
Have an ash wood 40lb longbow from a bloke called Nick Toy in Kent, he does them as a side thing. It's quite a lovely stick. https://classicbowyer.co.uk/ Go to an archery club and see if there are any blokes there with longbows you can ask and get a feel for.
There's a semi-alive thread on archery in PrepHole Shame archery threads are few and far between, doesn't help they get made spread out on out/k/xs
I looked at archery clubs, they seemed like too much regulation saftey fear mongering and other shit designed to stiffle any fun and individualism. Apparently I would have to do a long course just to join one, I'm sure they would teach some good theory and practical skills but I can't be arse to listen to some gay wearing hi-vis for no reason hold forth about saftey and shit which is common sense. The cucked as frick club mentality ruined rifle shooting for me in Britain, I am worried it would do the same for archery if I joined a club. I wouldn't want to go there and be marshalled and restricted every moment, just want to chill and shoot with some other people doing the same where everyone is unmoronic enough to know to point arrows at eachother or walk up to targets people are shooting at but without some range officer Nazi type homosexual lurking behind you.
Is it like that or am I worrying for no reason and paranoid from previous experience with gun-clubs?
Just do some browsing, buy a bow and shoot in a field in the middle of nowhere. Never seen a hi-vis at achery tbh. Most target shooting at clubs i've seen goes like this;
>Everyone shoots three arrows >Check up and down line, wait for last ones. >All good, whistle blows. >Everyone heads to the targets to retrieve their arrows. >Everyone heads back to the line >Shooting resumes. >Laid back, chit chat, chill and twang throughout.
Rinse, repeat.
If an emergency or need to stop the shooting urgently, someone yells out " 'Fast!"
Don't nock arrows in between shoots.
Don't twang bow strings without arrows nocked.
Don't approach target filled with arrows directly from the front.
The last two are more just general advise/quality of life rather than rules. It's all pretty laid back. Courses are there mostly to make money. I've yet to find proper daft people at archery clubs, they're quite good at vetting, because of how simple things are, you really need to be doing something wrong to cause issue.
>Is it like that or am I worrying for no reason and paranoid from previous experience with gun-clubs?
I've never been rifle shooting, but i'd expect that community to be far more up tight, because anything that can go wrong is a potential reason to lose your firearms. Archery is far more relaxed, I doubt anyone would try outlaw sticks and string.
>I wouldn't put it past them in this country.
They can try, just make your own.
During ww2 the Norwegian resistance made sten guns in bicycle workshops. In minecraft.
just go to a field with a soft dirt/sand bank as a backstop, put a target agaist the bank like a tennis ball or anthing else that will stand out and be soft enough to not get your arrows wedged in and impossible to get out without damaging them like wood.
shooting against a bank is better than a flat field because on a flat field your arrows go down flat into the grass and get lost
I can post a photo later, but I made a English Longbow out of Pacific Yew many years ago. I made it from a tree I found and it had a straight 6 foot section in it which I harvested and got many staves out of. I could sit down and make another bow If I wanted.
Very cool anon
cont.
Pacific Yew is similar to the European species that some English longbow where made from. It is a naturally laminated wood, the heartwood is good under compression and sapwood good under tension. Shaping the cross-section of the bow into a "D" shape give you a bow that shoots amazingly well.
I never went out and bought a spoke shave or draw knife to carve the bow, I just used a sharp butcher knife and a metal ski wax scraper, I also didn't have a Shave Horse, I just used a work bench. I worked on it about 20 mins at a time and it took a few months, slowly removing material. I bought a pair of cow horn knocks and epoxied them into the end, and a leather wrap for a "handle"
When I began to get it so it could bend in a nice curve I made a grid system on a wall in my house out of string to judge how evenly the bow would bend, making sure there were no weak spots or strong spots. I used a bathroom scale and a tiller to judge the draw weight, which I wanted about 50 lbs. I had the bow for about 10 years until crack formed in the wood and the bow snapped one day when I was putting the string on.
That’s too bad it broke, is it common for them to break like that after a while?
Yes. Being a natural piece of wood there was bound to be some defects in the wood that grow with each use. Yew is an understory tree that grows in the deep shade, and finding a straight section 6 - 7 feet is pretty rare. When Yew bows are unstrung, they look very knobby and bent. You shape them so when they are strung they curve in a perfect shallow parabolic shape.
My bow looked a little like this one:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/740687160/pacific-yew-snakey-primitive-style
you can place tape on the flat side to elongate its lifespan, similar to how runners put tape on their shins, etc.
>Pacific YEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!
I shoot an American longbow. Learned archery on a trad recurve but I was always drawn to the longbow so I bought one and started bringing it to the range. Not really a hard thing to get into if you already know how to shoot. Just prepare for more hand shock and worse groupings to start. Both resolve pretty quickly with practice.
Should I learn on a recurve before getting a longbow?
It's not necessary. They're 90% the same. Longbows are just harder to take places because they're so damn long.
Thanks anons
How long have you been in the SCA?
What you might want to do is practice on something like a 35 lb recurve. A real pleasure to use since you don’t have to strain holding it back. Keep in mind what anon said above about injuries from the 100 lb bow.
my right shoulder is slightly fricked from shooting a 100lbs recurve every day during corona, injured it twice now it complains all the time
I didn't know they even make 100 lb recurves. What would be the point? You can kill any big game with a 60 lb
Ego was the point. I would show off by shooting a bow other people could barely pull a few inches.
was a custom bow from misko rovcanin broken now cause I got the smallest length bow and stressing it against its maximum draw length all the time.
now shoot a 60lbs daylite majesty with a few inches of maximum draw to spare
SCA
I utilize a tower shield with a dowel spike so I can prop it up like one of those wet floor signs, but the dowel is spiked so I can plunge it in the earth. I shoot at bands of knights, especially ones in shiny armor, until they send a fighter after me. I btfo them with an axe or falchion, then rinse and repeat until the whole squad comes after me. It frees my band up to fight other objectives and I usually take 5-10 people out before they take me out.
you just buy one off fairbow.com and use it. get the starter kit that comes with a sentinal long bow. get it 40lbs.
you just buy one and wait 3 years for it to ship
jack you fricking Black person. seethe and cope eternally
how long do I wait before I chargeback my credit card
Thanks anons
Any suggestions for a good starter longbow?
Ooh, another archery thread.
Have an ash wood 40lb longbow from a bloke called Nick Toy in Kent, he does them as a side thing. It's quite a lovely stick. https://classicbowyer.co.uk/ Go to an archery club and see if there are any blokes there with longbows you can ask and get a feel for.
There's a semi-alive thread on archery in PrepHole Shame archery threads are few and far between, doesn't help they get made spread out on out/k/xs
I looked at archery clubs, they seemed like too much regulation saftey fear mongering and other shit designed to stiffle any fun and individualism. Apparently I would have to do a long course just to join one, I'm sure they would teach some good theory and practical skills but I can't be arse to listen to some gay wearing hi-vis for no reason hold forth about saftey and shit which is common sense. The cucked as frick club mentality ruined rifle shooting for me in Britain, I am worried it would do the same for archery if I joined a club. I wouldn't want to go there and be marshalled and restricted every moment, just want to chill and shoot with some other people doing the same where everyone is unmoronic enough to know to point arrows at eachother or walk up to targets people are shooting at but without some range officer Nazi type homosexual lurking behind you.
Is it like that or am I worrying for no reason and paranoid from previous experience with gun-clubs?
Just do some browsing, buy a bow and shoot in a field in the middle of nowhere. Never seen a hi-vis at achery tbh. Most target shooting at clubs i've seen goes like this;
>Everyone shoots three arrows
>Check up and down line, wait for last ones.
>All good, whistle blows.
>Everyone heads to the targets to retrieve their arrows.
>Everyone heads back to the line
>Shooting resumes.
>Laid back, chit chat, chill and twang throughout.
Rinse, repeat.
If an emergency or need to stop the shooting urgently, someone yells out " 'Fast!"
Don't nock arrows in between shoots.
Don't twang bow strings without arrows nocked.
Don't approach target filled with arrows directly from the front.
The last two are more just general advise/quality of life rather than rules. It's all pretty laid back. Courses are there mostly to make money. I've yet to find proper daft people at archery clubs, they're quite good at vetting, because of how simple things are, you really need to be doing something wrong to cause issue.
>Is it like that or am I worrying for no reason and paranoid from previous experience with gun-clubs?
I've never been rifle shooting, but i'd expect that community to be far more up tight, because anything that can go wrong is a potential reason to lose your firearms. Archery is far more relaxed, I doubt anyone would try outlaw sticks and string.
Thanks for the info. And those longbows looked good, I will buy something else to learn on but one day I'd like something like that.
>I doubt anyone would try outlaw sticks and string.
I wouldn't put it past them in this country.
>I wouldn't put it past them in this country.
They can try, just make your own.
During ww2 the Norwegian resistance made sten guns in bicycle workshops. In minecraft.
shoots three arrows
up and down line, wait for last ones.
>>All good, whistle blows.
holy shit what a hassle
only children need this kind of structure
It's what usually happens in a sports hall with sixty-od people shoulder to shoulder shooting bows.
just go to a field with a soft dirt/sand bank as a backstop, put a target agaist the bank like a tennis ball or anthing else that will stand out and be soft enough to not get your arrows wedged in and impossible to get out without damaging them like wood.
shooting against a bank is better than a flat field because on a flat field your arrows go down flat into the grass and get lost
Exactly the kind of thing I want nothing to do with.