Author Topic: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?  (Read 24840 times)

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Offline JW_Halverson

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #15 on: December 14, 2015, 06:59:45 pm »
Please may you post pictures of the yew? Is he the German guy?

forget the photos, ask for the GPS coordinates!
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline WillS

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #16 on: December 14, 2015, 07:50:35 pm »
Yeah its Michael.  You'd have to ask him for the pics, but it'll only depress you ;)

Offline poplar600

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #17 on: December 14, 2015, 09:30:32 pm »
I hope he makes good use of it all. Better than being turned into knife handles! A bow he posted was as clean as I've ever seen.

Don't mind a few good pins though  ;)

Offline AndrewS

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #18 on: December 15, 2015, 02:37:40 am »
@poplar600

you can't compare the flora of today with the flora of the middle ages....
The place of the "Ibengarten" was one example, where you can remind what was done in former times....
The fleet of the british empire was build of wood and I'm wondering how they can get all the different wood for so much ships...

Not all of the bows in thee middle ages were out of yew.... In the Mary Rose is one found out of  elm and there is an example of laburnum from Europe that is probably older than the MR bows.

 
« Last Edit: December 15, 2015, 02:53:52 am by AndrewS »

Offline Urufu_Shinjiro

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #19 on: December 15, 2015, 09:34:58 am »
TO expound slightly on the multi-generational tree tending, that would have been completely normal at the time. Remember under the feudal system your job was whatever your fathers job was, it was unusual for a son to venture out to a different trade, well a first son anyway, the other sons may go to different trades if the fathers trade does not support more than one or two at the time. But if part of your job as a forester was to tend the yew trees so they grow to good bow material then there would be an unbroken continuity from father to son tending the trees and no one would have thought anything of it, completely normal for them.

Offline WillS

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #20 on: December 15, 2015, 09:48:26 am »
This is an extremely old yew tree local to me.  I'm pretty certain this has been managed purely for bow staves in the past. 


Offline Lucasade

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #21 on: December 15, 2015, 09:50:50 am »
I don't expect the English particularly cared where the staves came from as long as they came, and I think others have suggested in the past that they were using high altitude, hard to get yew at the time of the Mary Rose because all the easier to harvest ancient growth across Europe had been cut down already and yew works on about a 80-100 year coppice cycle. If you were trying to make money selling wine to England and one of your business overheads was to provide 10 yew staves per barrel then you would presumably shove whatever yew staves cost you the least into the ship. If medieval civil servants had the same job satisfaction back then that they do today I can't imagine they would be inspecting every yew stave passing through their hands for suitablility as a bow, but they would just count them and leave the details to the bowyers. Maybe that's why the levy got increased from time to time - quality of staves was reducing so the pool needed to be bigger?

Even today coniferous forests that are grown exclusively to cut, ie effectively a crop in a field, grow for about 50 years in the case of Sitka spruce and 80 odd years for ash just for a couple of examples, so multi-generational forest management is still entirely normal. It's only in the last 100 years or so that ancient pollards stopped being routinely cut, which is why our woodlands are now in such bad shape.
« Last Edit: December 15, 2015, 10:05:33 am by Lucasade »

Offline Del the cat

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #22 on: December 15, 2015, 10:49:33 am »
Yo Will, paint my name on a couple of those ;)
@ Lucasade:- Your post is far too sensible for the Warbow section  ;) ::)  :laugh:
Del
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Offline WillS

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #23 on: December 15, 2015, 01:07:18 pm »
Have you guys seen those incredible Medieval buildings scattered around the UK that have hundreds of squared-up Yew staves built into the walls and ceilings?  They're quite a sight!  Most of the roof staves are reflexed as well. 

Offline poplar600

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #24 on: December 15, 2015, 02:31:27 pm »
Is it not just one house? Saw it on the net.

Offline WillS

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #25 on: December 15, 2015, 04:56:37 pm »
There's at least two that I'm aware of, and I'm sure there are more.

Offline Lucasade

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #26 on: December 15, 2015, 06:24:57 pm »
Can pictures be found easily with search engines? That sounds fantastic!

(and also supports my hypothesis...  ::))

Offline WillS

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #27 on: December 15, 2015, 08:32:12 pm »
I've seen the pics on a friends Facebook page.  I'll ask him to find them again at some point!

Offline Badger

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #28 on: December 16, 2015, 11:33:53 am »
  I wish I could find where I read this at but I read an article that talked about yew being a dominant species of tree in the Alps at one time instead of just an understory species. Yew is not able to recover as quickly as firs and pines once deminished.

Offline stickbender

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Re: How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
« Reply #29 on: December 16, 2015, 04:50:24 pm »

     Lets not forget the huge importation of yew, that was going on, and the bows of conquered foes. ;)
The French donated a lot of bows, with their loss. ;)
The conquered foes, were also required to furnish the Brits with good wood, from their forests.   You didn't just conquer someone and walk away, with out looking at their resources. ;D

                                   Wayne
                                   Wayne