Yew Warbow

[Marc St Louis]

This is a warbow I just completed. It was made for Steve in the UK.  It started out as a Mary Rose reproduction but the stave just wasn't up to par for the bow I was to make. The back was clean but there were some knots on the belly that were not good for the high draw weight the Mary Rose bow that was going to be. Also the ring count and density of the wood was too low.  So I took it down in dimensions to what the wood could take without taking high set.  The final dimensions for the bow came out at 83" long tip to tip and 1 1/2" wide by 1 1/4" deep at the center tapering to about 5/8" wide at the base of the nocks.  The horn for the nocks came from the UK courtesy of Steve and they have some nice coloration. The scale I have only goes up to 100# and it pulls that at 23".  By my calculations the bow pulls in the neighbourhood of 150# @ 32" but it may pull more.  When I try to draw the bow it feels like trying to push my truck by hand uphill.  I know I can pull about 80# but this thing is way too much for me.  Here's a few pics

Here's the top nock on the bow but not polished yet




This is the bottom nock



Here's the top nock finished



This is the bottom nock finished



This is me holding the braced bow



And this is me trying my hand at drawing the bow, you can see how far that gets me




This last picture is of me pulling on the string with 2 hands back to full draw



Hope you enjoy the bow Steve

[sailordad]

thats a nice looking bow

i just cant get over the fact that some people can actually pull those demon bows back one handed.

i thin i would ripp my shoulder all to hell again,dont need another surgery lol

[huntertrapper]

wow nice sir. yeah i got a 50 pounder and i can only hold er back for about 10 15 seconds and start shakin.

[adb]

Hey, Marc

That is awesome!! A true warbow. Kinda funny... a fellow canuck making a yew warbow for a Limey!!

[cowboy]

Man Marc - looks like that aught to do the trick if you can draw it . Good lookin warbow all over, like those horn nocks.

[Pat B]

Nice bow, Marc. You look like me trying to pull the 95#@31" bow I made.    You did a nice job on the transition between the horn nocks and bow tips.   Pat

[stevesjem]

Hi Marc

Yes i am really looking forward to getting this bow,

Hi everyone else,

just a bit of info for those wondering why i got Marc to make this bow, well the original project was to compare a high quality piece of American Yew with High Quality Italian Yew, I gave Marc the dimensions of one of the bigger MR bows, these were the same dimensions used for the 202lb Italian Yew bow and as Marc was in a far better position to get the correct wood than i was i asked him to make the bow for me, however the density was not high enough for Marc to make a true comparison bow so it was decided just to make the haevist draw weight bow the wood could take and the above bow is what Marc ended up with, a real beauty as far as i can tell, However the project is not over by any means, Marc has informed me that another posiible stave could be available for the comparison bow so my project is still on.

With this bow, well 1st of i shall ask Mark Stretton to shoot it in for me as he can and i can't, i am hoping to work into this bow over the next year or so, i can pull bows upto 130 but cannot shoot them, i can shoot with control bows of 120lb with no problems, so i may be biting off more than i can chew with this draw weight, but hey I 've got to at least try! This bow has very long limbs and this should help me with shooting it. Below is a picture of me shooting an American yew bow that i made, this one is 120-125lb at 32", depending on the weather. I am only 11stone in weight and not really strong, shooting these heavy draw weight bows is all about technique.



Cheers

Steve

[Hartung]

Very nice bow Marc and great tiller!

"[Also the ring count and density of the wood was too low] [……however the density was not high enough for Marc to make a true comparison bow.]"

What would have been the correct ring count and density? And what is the actual ring count and density?

Thanks!

[Marc St Louis]

The ring count varies.  In some spots it has rings that run to 80 or more per inch and other spots where it might make 40 per inch so as an average it would be about 50~60 rings per inch

[nick1346]

Nice work Marc, I'm looking foward to seeing this bow being shot, I'll try and get a bit of film of Mark shooting it.

[sailordad]

   now i need to go see the shoulder surgeon again,because just looking at that photo of you pulling that demon bow back is making my shoulder hurt.

damn must be nice to have nice young,strong shoulders.
i guees 20+ years of wrenching took its toll on me and i'm only in my 40's.

good luck on pulling on those demon bows.

[The Burnt Hill Archer]

very nice sir! what type of string are you using?

[Kegan]

That's amazing, both of you !

[cowboy]

Steve: Just out of curiosity - you say your eleven stone in weight. Is that an old unit of measure? and how much does a stone weigh? Just curious .

[Marc St Louis]

Here is an unbraced picture of the belly and a side view to show how much set the bow has taken.  This bow is not shot in though, something that I can't do, so it will take more.