Jaro's new article

[adb]

Oh for sure, but what if you can't get yew?  We know via documentation that bowyers were required to make a certain number of warbows from meane woods for every yew bow, as yew was scarce and expensive, despite being outsourced.  If you can't get yew but you need to make bows of the same draw weight using the same techniques and dimensions (more or less) you need to use the next best bow wood, and the best quality of that wood.

Totally agree. But, once you've shot warbows from yew and warbows from other woods, it's obvious why yew was so highly prized.

[WillS]

Yup, I guess so.  I've got so little experience in both shooting and making them that it's all just one big adventure at the moment!  I'm really looking forward to properly starting on my ash warbow that I've got in the pipeline - really good quality ash, and with Jaro's help (and Cam's recent thread!) I should be able to hit my target of 110# hopefully.   It'll be interesting to see how it compares to yew both on the tiller and when shooting. 

I really want to have a go with plum - apparently it makes stunning warbows, as Joe made one from yellow plum of 92# and it beat a 110# yew bow made by Steve of Alpine yew by around 20 yards using a Standard!  My dad has a lot of plum trees so I might see if I can find some decent staves.

[adb]

I think it depends so much on the individual stave, even with yew.

[Badger]

       Plum is extremely well suited for war bow designs. I would say better than even yew.

[adb]

It must be good wood if it's better than yew.

[nathan elliot]

It must be good wood if it's better than yew.

Another member of the plum family worthy of note is Sloe  (prunus spinosa) I have found it has a higher sg than plum and makes a great bow.

[Badger]

  I have proably only worked about a dozen plum staves, none big enough for war bows but it never fails to impress me., Of course yew also impresses me.

[gianluca100]

I made two light ash warbows about two years ago. Some guys from a reenactment company didn't have the cash to pay for yew bows so I proposed them to make ash bows. Ash is much less expensive here in Switzerland and i have a lot of clean straight staves. It's also faster to process, hence the lower price.

The funny thing is, I worked more or less exactly like Jaro described, making the bows a tiny bit wider and with a less pronounced rounding on the belly. The light toasting of the belly was also the same
Both were about 36mm wide at the handle, about 190cm ntn or a bit longer and had around 80 to 90 pound at 32 inches of draw.

Doing a few shots, i could not notice any big difference in performance compared to yew bows, but the testing series was small and I'm no expert warbow archer, I can't draw more than 85 pounds (what a wimp  ).

With my 'normal' whitewood bows, they are mostly around 55-60 pounds, I prefer it the other way round: a perfect flat belly and a more rounded (or trapped) back. And as narrow as possible. I feel that this gives the best performance with the white woods. I always wonder if the medieval boywer would also have chosen to go that way, to avoid all the problems with chrisaling and string follow...?

ciao,
gian-luca

[Del the cat]

The article has inspired me to do an Ash bow for a guy at the club 85# @ 32"
The Ash is well seasoned (2 years) but is still about 15% moisture content, so I've stuck it on a long radiator  .
I stuck a new blade on the bandsaw and adjusted it up to get a clean cut. I've even used my plane on the stave, a tool I only very rarely use.
Maybe I'll find I like Ash more than I thought...
Del
(PS. I looked at the other articles on the EWBS wesite. They really should remove that bit about Warbows not being of English Yew" because it is too full of moisture" it just makes them look stupid. It certainly puts me off every joining 'em.
Someone should have a quiet word).

[brian]

Steady on Del, Saying that the EWBS are being stupid about English Yew, is asking for them to put a curse on all the English Yew bows ,you make to fail at the tillering stage

[Yeomanbowman]

The man does make a beautiful bow, indeed.  He's a talented boy.
I agree with Del and Brian about English yew, well Welsh at least   The right stuff is the equal of anything in my experience.  I believe a Welsh self yew longbow has the honour of shooting a wood/feather arrow the furthest official distance ever .  The average British yew is certainly not the equal of Spanish or Italian, though , but will still make a serviceable bow.  It should be noted that Ireland was a significant source of yew stave importation in the middle ages (see Wadge's informative Arrowstorm).
Here is a link to a similar Jaro ash bow's performance.  Indubitably well shot but still not the equal of hazel in performance but I'm sure much better in longevity due to hazel's propensity to crysal.
http://74.209.214.7/~englishw/DonningtonFlightResults2012_EN.html