Ash ELB at reenacting event

[Matt Heppe]

A friend of mine, Christian Cameron, writes historical fiction novels. He's also a big reenactor. So to celebrate the publication of a new novel, Ill-Made Knight, he sponsored a reenacting event.

I used to do Revolutionary War reenacting, but I had never done anything Medieval. We were reenacting the year 1380. I had no gear, and no clothes, but I did have bows. So I traded a persimmon self bow and an ash ELB for clothes (for me, my wife, and my daughter), as well as for a quiver.

Here is the ash longbow. It is 55# @ 28" and is 78" long. Too long and not heavy enough. Christian is doing the event again this year and I am going again. I plan on getting the bow back and piking it to increase the weight. I'll also put horn nocks on it.



Here's the quiver Christian made for me:



I didn't have any authentic looking arrows, so I asked around here on the forum for suggestions. Adam "ADB" ended up making a dozen beautiful arrows for me. He posted them, but I can't find the link. I didn't need true warbow arrows as I was only shooting a 55# bow. He put together some white fletched, self nocked arrows that looked authentic and shot really well.

I ended up taking second place in the short range (25 yard) competition, and third place in the long range (75 yard) competition. Now, there were only twelve archers, and none of us were exactly experts. But it was fun.

This year I am taking a yew longbow that is still in the works. I'll post some pics if it works out.

[Del the cat]

Nice, the bow has the right look to it. I wouldn't bother piking it, you won't gain much just taking off a couple of inches, and if you take off more you'll loose the look.
If you want some extra oomph and authenticity, get that right hand back and anchor to your shoulder or close as you can get. It won't over strain the bow any more than piking it would!
Make another!
Good looking kit really like the jacket
Del

[WillS]

Very nice! Bow looks really good.   I wouldn't bother with horn nocks - you wouldn't have found them on white wood bows in the 14th century, as they are for protecting soft yew from string biting.  Horners wouldn't have been required to make extra for the bows that didn't need them.

Can I go off topic and ask what those hose are pointed to? Braies or doublet? They look quite low!

[adb]

Hey, Matt. Great kit and nice looking bow. I'm glad those arrows worked out for you! Certainly not war arrows, but it sounds like they're flying pretty good for you. Here's some pics again:

On a side note... I wouldn't pike that bow either. It's perfect target weight. If you want a true warbow, make another, only heavier.

[Del the cat]

Nice arras..
Del

[Don Case]

Nice arras..
Del

 Ya picked up a few 'merican words on your trip Del

[toomanyknots]

Yeah, if ya got a good bow, the best thing to do is just leave it alone usually. Sometimes working on a bow reminds me of a clock, per say. With "12:00" being a perfect bow, and "6:00" being a ruined stave. It seems like you can never get it perfectly at 12:00, but you can get really close. But the more you keep messing with it when it is close, the more the clock moves from 12:00 and the closer it moves to 6:00, ya know what I mean? When ya got a good bow, ya wanna just leave it be, especially on a tricky stave or something. Very cool setup, and nice bow! I really like the quiver! And nice arrows!

[Matt Heppe]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll do as recommended and keep the bow as is. It certainly could be drawn longer.

WillS, the hose are pointed to the braes. They weren't a great fit as I received my kit on site. I've since purchased some hose that fit much better. Now I want a hat instead of that arming cap.

The arrows flew very nicely and looked good with the kit.

I am currently working on my first yew bow. My "practice" yew stave is a bendy bit of wood that will make a very cool bow if I can steam a little of the bend out of it.

I have one very nice, straight stave for an ELB. Very nervous about taking a draw knife to it as good yew isn't easy to find.

[WillS]

If you get a good thigh length gamby that coif will look fine for the period.  If not a hood with liripipe is probably the best bet (and easy to make!) or a good straw hat with real straw.  You planning on going to Azincourt 2015?  They're being super strict on kit - 15th century yet they want split hose! They'll need to be pointed high to a doublet to look remotely accurate but I bet most people won't bother with a decent doublet and go for some hollywood style waistcoat or something!

Anyway, lovely arrows by Adam, and a perfectly fine bow - best of luck with the yew staves (don't baby them - they can take a huge amount of mistakes and will usually yield a good bow if you're sensible!  If you're used to working with ash then yew will be a walk in the park! Don't need to follow sapwood rings or be so careful with cross sections)

[Badger]

  Nice looking bows and arrows.