Mary Rose replica (updated with full draw)

[adb]

Very nice work! I sure hope you're gong to post some more pics!

[Kviljo]

Will do

[Kviljo]

I braced this bow some days ago and pulled it on the tiller. It made two painful sounds before I calmly de-strung it and hung it on the wall. The relative humidity is down to 35% in my workshop now...   I'm in no hurry, and I don't want to risk the nice piece of wood, so it'll have to wait for more humid days. I'll get back to it in the spring.

A good scraper is really priceless when working with yew

[adb]

  I hope there was no damage. That happens here in the winter, as well. The humidity takes a nose dive, and the wood becomes very brittle.

[woodstick]

come to oklahoma it is allways up here.

[Kviljo]

Don't think it got any major damage. I couldn't see broken fibres on the back, but it was probably some left-over of the growthring I scraped away on the back that cracked. It will be pretty lively if it survives, that's for sure. It's pretty thick for it's width. I was quite amazed that it acted as stable as it did.

[Kviljo]

Just thought I would give an update on this bow. It hung on the wall for about 8 months waiting for higher humidity in my workshop, untill a few weeks ago when I decided to try this one out as a Standard Arrow flight bow at the Norwegian Championship that were held not long ago.

It is drawing ~80# @ 28" and ~100# @ 32". The bowyers mark is carved into the bow and represents I and M, which are my initials - Ivar Malde. If I weren't making a replica, I would have made it bend more towards the tips. However, I like that it has about the same tiller as the drawn original bow shown in Soars "Longbow". I decided to have the reflexed limb as the upper limb, so it might look like it is bending a liitle too much at the lower limb. I don't remember the exact amount of reflex the stave had, but the bow is straight even just after it has been shot.

The string is made from dacron and is about 3mm thick. I also made a 15 strand FF string for it, which I tested with a standard arrow today. The FF string made the bow sound like a guitar, but it didn't shoot measurable further. The Standard Arrow landed between 174 and 182 meters with both strings. The arrow was fairly point heavy, so I think it should be fairly easy to pass 200 meters with the bow.

The bow also won "Selfbow of the year" at the Bowyers competition during the Championship. With a shot of 174 meters at the Standard Arrow flight shoot, it came in third. An ash/walnut ~100# warbow shot 212 meters. (which I believe is a new world record for it's class!)

[adb]

Very nicely done, Ivar! It's good to be patient, and listen to the wood. I think your tiller is bang on for a warbow, and the weight certainly qualifies it as such. I love the side nocks, as well, giving your bow a true replica quality. Nice work! You're also getting some decent range. When you say "standard arrow", are you referring to EWBS standards at 52g?

[adb]

When you cut your side nocks, do you cut them both on the same side, or one on each side? Looking at the bow from the belly side, held out at arms length (like you're going to shoot it), which side(s) are the nocks cut on? Thanks!

[Yeomanbowman]

That's a beautiful bow you've Kviljo and from the scrapings I can imagine that the wood is nice and crisp and dense. 
By the way the EWBS record for a laminated bow is 281 yards shot/made by Joe Gibbs.

[Kviljo]

Thanks guys!

Yep, we wanted an extra class for the flight shooting, and decided to simply loan the english "standard arrow". By the interest we saw this year I bet there will be many competitors for the class next year.

All the MR bows I have seen drawings/photos of, have had the sidenock cut on the left side on the upper tip, and on the right side on the lower tip, seen from the archers point of view.

You're quite right, Yeoman, the wood felt like it had the right consistency. Opposite of dry, and did not show any signs of cracking at all while drying. I haven't measured the density, but it isn't overly heavy. Perhaps 0,7? I have two more staves from the same tree that I look forward to starting on, though this one was the cleanest with the most reflex.

We must have misunderstood the Meane-woods and non-historical-terms a little. Meane woods is non-laminated selfbows from native english woods, while all the laminated is competing in the non-historical class? Are there any specifications as to what type of bow one has to shoot in the non-historical class? Could one enter with a flatbow? In the meane woods class, it still has to be a longbow? It seems we have something to work on still, then. 281 yards is fairly hefty!

[nidrinr]

We'll soon have a flight competition with several classes of war arrows. (I'll post it soon on the Norwegian forum Ivar )

As I have understood it the meane wood class is all bows from all other wood than yew. (North european woods)
Laminated is laminated, and yew has a class of it's own. I don't know if there are any rules on what type of string has to be used, but if you remember my replica of the same bow made about 200 meters when we tested it with a perfectly tuned 52gr. arrow. I guess what made a difference was me using an FF string. My bows were a little late for the competition, but it would have been fun to compare the two one day. Both the 120# ash and the 110# elm constantly outshot the 100# yew, but I guess poundage does matter when it comes to war arrows.. 

[RyanY]

So happy to see this bow finished. Great job.

[Yeomanbowman]

Thanks guys!

Yep, we wanted an extra class for the flight shooting, and decided to simply loan the english "standard arrow". By the interest we saw this year I bet there will be many competitors for the class next year.

All the MR bows I have seen drawings/photos of, have had the sidenock cut on the left side on the upper tip, and on the right side on the lower tip, seen from the archers point of view.

You're quite right, Yeoman, the wood felt like it had the right consistency. Opposite of dry, and did not show any signs of cracking at all while drying. I haven't measured the density, but it isn't overly heavy. Perhaps 0,7? I have two more staves from the same tree that I look forward to starting on, though this one was the cleanest with the most reflex.

We must have misunderstood the Meane-woods and non-historical-terms a little. Meane woods is non-laminated selfbows from native english woods, while all the laminated is competing in the non-historical class? Are there any specifications as to what type of bow one has to shoot in the non-historical class? Could one enter with a flatbow? In the meane woods class, it still has to be a longbow? It seems we have something to work on still, then. 281 yards is fairly hefty!

Hi Kviljo,
This is taken from our website

The English Warbow was the bow the longbow used in battle by the Plantagenet and Tudor armies of the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries. The EWBS defines a warbow to be a bow that follows the pattern, profile and tiller of the bows found on the Mary Rose.
The Society imposes a lower limit on bow draw-weight for adult males (70lb at a measured 32” of draw), although there is no lower weight limit for women, juniors and archers over 60.  In order to encourage beginners, further allowance is made for a new member’s first year.

The bows are organised into three classes for the purpose of recording scores at events:
Mary Rose: Self yew bows
Meane: Self bows made of other woods available to the medieval bowyer, such as Ash or Elm.
Laminate: Non historical Bows: made from multiple layers of (exotic) woods. Any laminated bow would be in this class, exotic or otherwise, as would backed bows and self bows of wood not used in the above period by Anglo-Welsh armies (e.g. osage).

The arrow specs' can be found here...
http://www.englishwarbowsociety.com/EWBS_ARROW_SPECIFICATIONS.html

I'd urge any shoot organiser wanting to use EWBS classes, albeit in an informal way to check its website.

[Kviljo]

Brilliant, Nidrinr! Looking forward to that. Hope I will be able to make it. We should definitely compare these two bows. ...I just need to shoot some more to be able to draw the bow fully...

Thanks, Ryoon!

Good stuff, Yeoman. In other words, no flatbow/etc would be allowed at your shoots? Has it ever been allowed to shoot Standard arrows with anything else than longbows at flight competitions?