Australian-grown English elm "war" bow

[WillS]

This is a bow that I made from the first of three staves that I received from Stuart ("meanewood" on this forum).  Stuart contacted me recently asking if I'd be interested in a trade of English yew for some elm he had, and being up to my eyeballs in yew and going through a bit of a meane wood obsession phase I couldn't possibly say no! 

Stuart had come across from Australia and we met outside Salisbury Cathedral to do the bow stave exchange - a more medieval scenario would be hard to find!  The elm (which is English elm, grown in Adelaide I believe) was beautiful and snaky and exactly what I was hoping for, so to do it justice was a relief.

This one came out around 80lb at 32" and took no more than 3 hours from rough stave to finished bow.  The bow was essentially finished before it was bent at all, with the nocks fitted and the sanding completed.  It was braced fully and taken to 25", where a few scrapes were required.  The belly was then toasted, and as soon as the wood was cool the bow was taken to 32" to check the shape, at which point it was toasted again and finished.

It's super light in the hand and surprisingly small - just 26mm deep and 34mm wide in the handle.  Within hours of completion it was snapped up by Nick Birmingham or "big bow brum" as he's known on YouTube and will be going off to Germany with the Free Company Of Aquitaine in a week or so.

The bow is 74" nock to nock, fitted with cow horn sidenocks and finished with a simple pine resin and beeswax compound. 

















Here's a pic of Nick shooting the bow in, when he came to collect it.

[penderbender]

That a beauty wills! I really like that clear nock! Cheers- brendan

[Ruddy Darter]

Very nice WillS, the tiller looks great. 

 R.D.

[loon]

Beautiful! And not too long!

Did you not toast the tips? would that make them brittle?..

[WillS]

To be honest, I usually just find that the tips could always use more bending so I tend to stop the heat treatment about 5" from both ends.  I'd much rather have a bow with slightly whipped tips than one where they're too stiff!

I don't think it makes the wood brittle however - you're not toasting to a char, just getting a good deep heat into the cells.

[FilipT]

Cool bow. Not many healthy elms here. How was the bow finished in such short time?

[WillS]

That's just how I make them.  I don't like having bows on the tiller for more than 30 mins max, as you don't need to do it.  If your tapers and dimensions are accurate and balanced there's no reason to keep drawing a bow on the wall to see if there are any mistakes.

All the hard work is done before it's bending - all the roughing out, sanding, scraping and cleaning up, all the nock work, polishing etc.  Once all that's done, it's braced at full height and that's when you can see 90% of any issues - weak spots, stiff spots, unbalance etc.  You don't need to draw it on a long string over and over again to see that.

[Bob W.]

Excellent job Wills, tiller looks great!

[FilipT]

That is completely unfamiliar to me. I have never got stave / sapling that had behaved remotely good at first at tiller. I do my tapers, layouts and what not with calipers and AutoCAD and still bow is at first giving me lots of headache.
That is why I need long string as I do hours of tillering for the preparing bow just for the brace. After that it goes really easily and without much to do, but until brace its complete hell.

[WillS]

Calipers and computers are great if you're working with something that doesn't vary.  Wood varies.

You need to be able to look at a stave and see where the finished bow will be thicker or thinner, without having to bend it to find out. 

Even on a really characterful stave you should be able to brace straight away. If one limb is completely wrong or looks dangerous at brace then the roughing out wasn't done properly. 

If you look at a really crazy, swooping, twisted bow unbraced the bow will make sense.  The thick spots and thin spots will have a reason for existing. 

[FilipT]

You need to be able to look at a stave and see where the finished bow will be thicker or thinner, without having to bend it to find out.

How do you do that?

[WillS]

If it dense or has slight reflex, it will be thinner.  If it's less dense, has deflex or shows signs of potential​ flaws - knots, pins, grain violations, twist etc - you leave it thicker.

This is only to get it to brace height remember.  You're not doing any drastic pulling.  Once it's at brace height you can see all the actual issues that might occur and you remove wood accordingly.

Don't over think it too much.  Try it on a piece you don't care about.

[FilipT]

Ok, that makes sense. Never seen this approach before. Thank you Will

[loon]

Do you use calipers? Or just sort of guess by feel?..

[WillS]

I use a ruler.  I just measure from highest point on the back to the belly and check about 3 times as I remove wood.  I keep meaning to buy some calipers but never get round to it!

I've not really got enough experience to do it entirely by feel - I can feel where areas are too thick or thin once the bow is roughed out, but I wouldn't trust myself to start a bow by feel.