EWBS Quarter Pounders

[adb]

I like birch too, but I've found they don't fly as well or as far. They all come out very stiff, and don't fly worth a poo.

[adb]

What happened to your pics???

[WillS]

They should be back now! Had to reupload as I moved them to a different photobucket album.

[AndiE]

Hi

Yes birch is good too. Poplar are good for lighter warbows and easy to straighten.
But my favorites are ash and especially larch. Larch shafts are heavy, also easy to straighten and nearly indestructible.

Kind regards
Andi

[outcaste]

I like birch too, but I've found they don't fly as well or as far. They all come out very stiff, and don't fly worth a poo.

Guess it depends on the poundage of your bow. When I used to shoot these arrows I found that birch and ash were pretty consistent from the heavy bows (130-155lbs) I used.

[adb]

Maybe that's it. They didn't fly worth a hoot outta my 90-110# warbows.

[Heffalump]

Nice job Will! Look forward to seeing you shoot those at Donnington Castle next year matey 

[WillS]

Thanks John! I'm still struggling to really get on top of 125#ish to push these out.  Anything lower seems useless with them.  Hopefully when I get my 130# bow finished it will motivate me to crack on and move up in weight!

I'm fairly comfortable at 100-115 and on a really good day can comfortably shoot 120ish but I seem to have lost strength recently! Maybe it's the cold weather and lack of practice space?

[meanewood]

Larch makes excellent shafts.

If you're interested in keeping it traditional, the most common arrow shafts found on the MR were Aspen (or Poplar, pretty much identical) followed by Birch, and Alder.  I love Birch shafts, they're chunky and heavy and very easy to work.  I remember doing 12 EWBS Standard arrows from ash, and cutting the nocks to insert the horn strips took FOREVER.  Blitzed through a set of Birch though.

Nice arrows, love the black fletches.
Before I made a set of oak arrows, I made a couple of quarter pounders from oak and found cutting the horn insert slot very hard going. That's when it dawned on me that inserts are pointless in the harder woods. I made the set with no inserts and have had no problems ( max 130 lbs so far).

The fact that the ash set you did were so hard but the birch was easy, leads me to think medieval Fletcher's probably only used inserts on the softer woods and not on ash and oak?

[WillS]

Quite possibly! It certainly would save a huge amount of time for the fletchers.

Then again, I'm not sure how historically accurate oak and ash are for war arrows.  Ascham writes that ash is favourable for war shafts, but only a single sheaf containing one ash arrow was found on the Mary Rose, whereas softer woods like Poplar and Birch were the most common.

[meanewood]

Yes Ascham does say Ash and some Oak are best. He is probably having a go at contemporary fletchers for using Poplar (Aspen) but it is light , strong, if made thick enough, straight grained and easy to work with. So having to use horn inserts was a small price to pay I suppose!

[Heffalump]

Thanks John! I'm still struggling to really get on top of 125#ish to push these out.  Anything lower seems useless with them.  Hopefully when I get my 130# bow finished it will motivate me to crack on and move up in weight!

I'm fairly comfortable at 100-115 and on a really good day can comfortably shoot 120ish but I seem to have lost strength recently! Maybe it's the cold weather and lack of practice space?

I know the feeling Will  You might have seen Darran's thread on the EWBS forum regarding seeming loss of strength in cold weather? Mind you, he is on another planet with that 162 Poletti self-yew bow eh?  Myself and another warbow enthusiast/improver were also remarking on failing performance in the cold the other day at the field. I'm well on top of anything 100-110 and can rove all day with that weight no problem. I'm still building up in draw-weight and got reasonably comfortable with shooting livery arrows in 2's and 3's through a 120 bow during the Autumn, but am now struggling a bit with the colder weather and not so many shooting opportunities. I think this is probably true of most people when it comes to working at your current maximum draw and trying to maintain good form. It's certainly gonna be a while before I can do justice to the 130 Del has just made me 

p.s. Doesn't bode well for a sub-zero shoot at Donnington in March does it 

TTFN,

John T. 

[WillS]

Yeah Donnington could be interesting haha!

I think I might make myself a 45lb yew longbow and write "150@32" on the belly in marker pen...  I'll also hollow out my Livery and Quarter Pounders and replace the heads with plastic.  Nobody will know...

[Heffalump]

Yeah Donnington could be interesting haha!

I think I might make myself a 45lb yew longbow and write "150@32" on the belly in marker pen...  I'll also hollow out my Livery and Quarter Pounders and replace the heads with plastic.  Nobody will know...

That's the spirit mate! Just be ready for a quick "Exit stage left"....if anybody mentions scrutineering 

[WillS]

"Whassat? They wanna weigh the arrows?  Hang on, me tent just blew over...."