Bow design choice

[Lucasade]

Each year we have a stall at a Middle Earth festival in Birmingham. Traders and the public are encouraged to dress to look the part and there are Viking, Medieval and Middle Earth reenactor societies there. I realised after last year that I need to considerably up my game in the costume department and so am putting together an outfit that I hope will give the impression of being a woodsman with rough inspiration from Anglo-Saxon/early medieval period. Obviously being Middle Earth there's some wriggle room! Anyway I'm going to make a bow and arrows such as someone who works in the woods and needs to bring down game and the odd orc would carry. I have a lovely elm stave and I had thought to make a Holmgaard but digging around on here it seems that basic longbows were in use around then as well as the Hedeby and some other styles. Does anyone have thoughts on what the best weight of bow and design from late Saxon/early Medieval time would be of these or other designs? 98% of the people I will meet won't know the difference but I want to do the thing properly. Oh, and I've only made a couple of bows so ease of execution is high on my list of priorities. Thank you in advance.

[bradsmith2010]

I am just guessing,, but I would think a D bow design,, with slightly rounded belly,, would work,, and they are a good bow for less experienced,,,something in the 30 to 50 pound range,,
I am sure some others with knowledge of that period will chime in,, but thats my vote,,

[PatM]

I would make a longbow with small  recurved ends.

[Hawkdancer]

Blow their minds and do a Meare Heath style!  More Middle Earth, but effective!
Hawkdancer

[lonbow]

http://www.vikingage.org/wiki/wiki/Bows

This short description of viking age bows might help you! Anglo saxon bows are also mentioned there.

By the way: many viking age bows were found in Haithabu, northern Germany. Most bows are made out of yew and the draw weight was about 70 to 100 pounds. But there is also a fragment of a smaller elm bow from Haithabu.
You should also have a look at the irish short bows. Halpin wrote about it! There is also a good paper on it in the journal of the society of archer antiquaries from one or two years ago!

[Lucasade]

Thank you everyone - plenty to think about here.

[Lucasade]

Blow their minds and do a Meare Heath style!  More Middle Earth, but effective!
Hawkdancer

Wow that's erm, distinctive! As you say looks very Middle Earth but I'm not sure it would work in the woods so well?

[bradsmith2010]

of course it would,,

[Hawkdancer]

That is what my yew stave is going to be, when I improve my skills a bit, second choice would be an Irish short bow, I think. 
Hawkdancer

[bradsmith2010]

I still think the d bow ,, has the ease of execution going for it,,

[ksnow]

D cross section bows of yew have been the mainstay of european bows since yew started growing during the neolithic. I'd go with a typical longbow design, nothing fancy. Just a lean, mean shooting machine.

Kyle

[Lucasade]

Thank you all for your thoughts - much appreciated as always. Think I'll go for a nice basic longbow this time though the Meare Heath looks like a good one to try with another stave.

[Lucasade]

Okay - first lesson always be prepared to eat your words! Mine tasted not to bad washed down with some homebrew mead.

I've roughed out the elm stave for a basic longbow shape. No measurements just the biggest the wood would allow. There are several dodgy bits (to put it mildly) and my drawknifing hasn't always helped either. So, having read up about the Meare Heath bow the bowyer apparently used leather and rawhide sewn around the stave to support the wood. This looks like the way forward for me to actually get a bow out of my stave. So my question is, at what point does the leather go on and how do you attach it? Do I tiller extemely carefully thenapply the material or assume that the supported bits need to be left stiffer anyway and tiller around them? The article I read says it was stitched on wet which makes sense but I'm struggling to work out how to do the actual stitches on a piece of leather wrapped tight around a bit of wood.

Help!

[sleek]

Elm is a good wood, and the elvin wood of choice for bows.

[PatM]

Okay - first lesson always be prepared to eat your words! Mine tasted not to bad washed down with some homebrew mead.

I've roughed out the elm stave for a basic longbow shape. No measurements just the biggest the wood would allow. There are several dodgy bits (to put it mildly) and my drawknifing hasn't always helped either. So, having read up about the Meare Heath bow the bowyer apparently used leather and rawhide sewn around the stave to support the wood. This looks like the way forward for me to actually get a bow out of my stave. So my question is, at what point does the leather go on and how do you attach it? Do I tiller extemely carefully thenapply the material or assume that the supported bits need to be left stiffer anyway and tiller around them? The article I read says it was stitched on wet which makes sense but I'm struggling to work out how to do the actual stitches on a piece of leather wrapped tight around a bit of wood.

Help!

 Nobody really knows how the Meare Heath was wrapped or what with.  I wouldn't want to decide based on speculation.