MR replica (pics)

[Kviljo]

Finished this MR replica today. It is a little over 80" ntn, and 39mm wide at the handle. 11mm just below the horn nocks. It is made from norwegian yew, and has waterbuffalo horn sidenocks. It had 1" natural deflex from two kinks at midlimb on both limbs. The wood isn't too dense, even though the growthrings are tight, so it isn't more than 75# @ 34".

Hoping to make a string for it tomorrow. Perhaps there will be a fulldraw picture too.

[adb]

Nice work, and even side nocks, too! I can't wait to see a full draw pic.

[Del the cat]

Love the nocks... clean and simple.
75 lb @ 34" adds up to a fair bit of stored energy, I'd guess if you want to increase the draw weight it could be shortened a tad. Do you really draw 34"?
Del

[Kviljo]

Thanks

It didn't follow the string much. I didn't measure it, but it was under one inch. - so I guess it could be shortened quite a bit to raise the draw weight a bit. The extra long staves are quite rare here, so I like to make them full length. I draw 31-32" with these heavier bows, so hopefully it will serve another archer some time.

[bow-toxo]

Thanks

It didn't follow the string much. I didn't measure it, but it was under one inch. - so I guess it could be shortened quite a bit to raise the draw weight a bit. The extra long staves are quite rare here, so I like to make them full length. I draw 31-32" with these heavier bows, so hopefully it will serve another archer some time.

Congratulations !  I'm really impressed. So nice to see a genuine replica. The side nocks look bang on. The MR website could use them to replace their lame Victorian "replica".

[Phil Rees]

Congratulations Kviljo..... that's a bow you should be very proud of.

[Kviljo]

After finishing it is 55# @ 28" ( ) and 70# @ 34". One thing is for sure, this piece of yew is quite relaxed, hehe.
On the picture I am aaaalmost drawing 34".

[Yeomanbowman]

An excellent piece of work (as expected) Kviljo.  As Erik says the nocks do looks photofit good.  Did you have to chase the sap down or are your Scandinavian yew trees better behaved than ours in Britain?

Cheers,
Jeremy

Oh yer, don't forget to tell us how she shoots.  I often think it would be interesting to shoot an arrow that was standard so we could put performance into context to enable us to interpret the data better.  I think something like the EWBS Livery arrow would fit the bill as it a good replica war arrow. 

[Kviljo]

Thank you

I removed about 5mm sapwood on this one, but there are trees here that have down to 4-6mm sapwood, although they are quite rare. It really varies a lot on the growing conditions.

It is 31mm thick at the grip by the way. It should perhaps have been a bit thicker, but still with it's massive 39mm width I would have imagined that it should have come out a bit heavier, to say the least. I was aming for just over 100 at 32.

As an experimental bow for telling us how the MR-originals behaved, it is quite interesting. I think it does show that they not neccesarily were all 190 pounds. The larger bows could have been made that big because the wood wasn't as dense as the wood in the smaller bows. - but I don't think it will do much with a 75 gram arrow. I will shoot it some day and let you know. I bet no more than 140-150 meters though.

[adb]

An accurate MR replica in every way, except the draw weight. Well done.

[adb]

Oh... I forgot to ask... with your side nocks, does the nock go on one side of one tip, and the other side of the opposite tip, or did you put both your nock grooves on the same side? Thanks.

[Kviljo]

All of the MR bows I have seen have the nocks cut on both sides, and it seems like the top one always is on the left side, seen from the belly - and the bottom one on the right side.

Not sure about the "except the draw weight" thing. If there are MR-bows with the same dimensions as this one (80"+ and 39x31mm), it is only the density of the wood that decides the draw weight, and that is unknown as far as I have heard. Even the growthrings and amount of sapwood seems to be close to the originals. - and if they used this kind of less dense wood, the original MR bows could not have had any higher draw weight. In fact some of the smaller bows would have had even less draw weight if they were made from this non-dense yew.

The distances shot with heavy arrows we can read about in the historical scources seem to be the most reliable source of information on the draw weight of the MR bows.

Still, this bow is perhaps a bit too long and too thin to be a typical MR bow and to represent a typical MR draw weight - but not by much .

[adb]

Do you think a Medieval archer, who was depending on his life with the bow he carried, would have carried a 60 or 70# bow into battle?

[Davepim]

Nice bow Kviljo!
     My last bow in Italian yew was very very similar in dimensions to this but weighed in at a tad over 120lb at 32". I have tried shooting 1/2" to 3/8" bobtailed shafts that weigh in at just over 90g from another bow of 75lb draw weight and they just don't work; I doubt I'd get 100m distance and absolutely no chance of going through plate armour! I really don't think arguments that the MR bows might have  been around the 100lb mark, or even less, will hold water.

Cheers, Dave

[Kviljo]

Do you think a Medieval archer, who was depending on his life with the bow he carried, would have carried a 60 or 70# bow into battle?

Yep, and it was most likely done over and over again. - just look at the Nydam bows. Some have estimated them to be around 60-70#. That was 300 AD, but still.

I don't disagree that ~120# probably is the best estimate for the MR bows, but we can not be too sure. If we were to depend on replicas alone to estimate the draw weight, it would have to be a very broad estimate - probably from 60-200# at 32". But then again, what the bows will do with replica arrows, is probably the best scource of information on the draw weights. - on the other hand, as I said in my previous post, some of the largest bows may have been made that large because the stave was not as dense as the other staves.

So while shooting replicas might hint at draw weights over 100#, the reconstruction of replica bows from less dense yew might give us a hint that the extra large bows not necessarily were as powerful as they might look.


...after all, stories tend to make things bigger and bigger over the years...  ...and longbows in Britain are probably not the exception, hehe...