Hazel longbow

[jameswoodmot]

I’ve heard mixed things about Hazel from it being a very good bow wood to “passable at best” . I had a couple of shots with one of Del the cat’s hazel bows and it definitely wasn’t “passable”!

There is a lot of it around but it’s surprisingly hard to find a piece that isn’t corkscrewed and large enough to use. I found a very clean and straight stave about 2 1/2” diameter at the base on a walk and brought it home.

I underestimated how thick it needed to be so over thinned and narrowed a bit before heat treating and tillering and it only came out at about 29lbs. I took 3/4” off of each tip and it’s up to 31 at 28” and holding an inch of reflex after shooting. Getting 160-163fps 10gpp.
I had planned for it to have a bit of bend in the handle but as I took the limbs down too much it’s stiff though the middle. I’ve got the other half of the stave though so I’m now set to go with that.
Took the heat really well and was very soft to work with.

A little bit of leather stain, an arrow test and handle wrap.

65” total length
31@28”
162fps 10gpp

Let me know any improvement you can see in the tiller. It had a bit of deflexed in both mid limbs but it then also took a bit of set there, I think I could get the inners and outlets bending a bit more?

[jameswoodmot]

Pics

[superdav95]

Sweet bow!  I like the bend on this bow.  Looks good to my eye.  From the pic it may appear the bottom limb is slightly stiffer but that’s not a bad thing.  Well done. 

[stuckinthemud]

Love a hazel bow, lovely job.  A good heat treatment makes the world of difference

[Del the cat]

Looks good to me.
I think the hazel is really well suited to that sort of bow and the lower draw weights. The speed of yours is impressive
Del

[JW_Halverson]

I’ve heard mixed things about Hazel from it being a very good bow wood to “passable at best” . I had a couple of shots with one of Del the cat’s hazel bows and it definitely wasn’t “passable”!

There is a lot of it around but it’s surprisingly hard to find a piece that isn’t corkscrewed and large enough to use. I found a very clean and straight stave about 2 1/2” diameter at the base on a walk and brought it home.

I underestimated how thick it needed to be so over thinned and narrowed a bit before heat treating and tillering and it only came out at about 29lbs. I took 3/4” off of each tip and it’s up to 31 at 28” and holding an inch of reflex after shooting. Getting 160-163fps 10gpp.
I had planned for it to have a bit of bend in the handle but as I took the limbs down too much it’s stiff though the middle. I’ve got the other half of the stave though so I’m now set to go with that.
Took the heat really well and was very soft to work with.

A little bit of leather stain, an arrow test and handle wrap.

65” total length
31@28”
162fps 10gpp

Let me know any improvement you can see in the tiller. It had a bit of deflexed in both mid limbs but it then also took a bit of set there, I think I could get the inners and outlets bending a bit more?

I happen to own one of Del's hazel flatbows. He left the bark on the stave all the way to the bitter end. With the natural white wood and the color of the bark, it simply reminds me of a nice floury baked potato. And if you know my deep and abiding love of carbohydrates you will recognize that is a compliment of high order.
 
That cute little wide limbed bow is snappy and has a very sweet draw. Honestly, I'd love to go back 45 years and plant a nice thick row of hazel, come back 10 years later to coppice it, and now go and harvest some nice pieces for bowmaking! Hazel is a wonderful wood and is used in so many wonderful tradition crafts in Britain, no sense ignoring it when bowmaking time comes.

[medicinewheel]

In his video Gary Davis says "native americans didn't go hungry when they didn't have any osage". Neither did stoneage Europeans when they didn't have yew.

Very nice bow in all aspects. Including speed.

[jameswoodmot]

Thank you all! I appreciate the encouragement and support

In his video Gary Davis says "native americans didn't go hungry when they didn't have any osage". Neither did stoneage Europeans when they didn't have yew.

Very nice bow in all aspects. Including speed.

h well I completely forgot to say what the inspiration for the bow was. I  gave a bow to a mate last month (eastern woodlands) and he was asking what bows were likely used in the Bronze Age and Neolithic settlements near him in Cornwall. All the bows from that period in Europe that I know of are yew apart from the Scandinavia ones. I’ve got the feeling (with no evidence) that the yew bows just survive better in the ground and that all sorts of woods would have been used. Yew isn’t that common a tree and I can’t imagine it being used to make the kids and youth bows. So I set about making something that felt kinda prehistoric and might have used by those Neolithic /BA people
   

I’ve heard mixed things about Hazel from it being a very good bow wood to “passable at best” . I had a couple of shots with one of Del the cat’s hazel bows and it definitely wasn’t “passable”!

There is a lot of it around but it’s surprisingly hard to find a piece that isn’t corkscrewed and large enough to use. I found a very clean and straight stave about 2 1/2” diameter at the base on a walk and brought it home.

I underestimated how thick it needed to be so over thinned and narrowed a bit before heat treating and tillering and it only came out at about 29lbs. I took 3/4” off of each tip and it’s up to 31 at 28” and holding an inch of reflex after shooting. Getting 160-163fps 10gpp.
I had planned for it to have a bit of bend in the handle but as I took the limbs down too much it’s stiff though the middle. I’ve got the other half of the stave though so I’m now set to go with that.
Took the heat really well and was very soft to work with.

A little bit of leather stain, an arrow test and handle wrap.

65” total length
31@28”
162fps 10gpp

Let me know any improvement you can see in the tiller. It had a bit of deflexed in both mid limbs but it then also took a bit of set there, I think I could get the inners and outlets bending a bit more?

I happen to own one of Del's hazel flatbows. He left the bark on the stave all the way to the bitter end. With the natural white wood and the color of the bark, it simply reminds me of a nice floury baked potato. And if you know my deep and abiding love of carbohydrates you will recognize that is a compliment of high order.
 
That cute little wide limbed bow is snappy and has a very sweet draw. Honestly, I'd love to go back 45 years and plant a nice thick row of hazel, come back 10 years later to coppice it, and now go and harvest some nice pieces for bowmaking! Hazel is a wonderful wood and is used in so many wonderful tradition crafts in Britain, no sense ignoring it when bowmaking time comes.

Well you luck so and so!I tried to do the same with this bow but it cracked and started to come off in some areas. I wonder if it’s because I dried it fast?

As it happens my partner and I are going through the house buying process now and we will have enough land for a small area of coppice. It’s in an area that hazel and wych elm both grow readily so it’s one of the first things we will be doing!

[bentstick54]

Great looking bow. I think you nailed the tiller, and wouldn’t change a thing. Impressive speed confirms it. I bet it’s a smooth shooter.

[medicinewheel]

To my best of knowledge the yew bows are couple thousend years younger then the ones of whitewoods because it took the yew much longer to travel north after the melt of the iceshield. I'll look that up in the book ba jürgen Junkmans later...

[Chumash]

@ jameswoodmot

I think, you are right with your feeling.

In Italy near Rom was found a neolithic settlement.
The settlement was discovered almost 40 years ago. Among other things, more than 30 bows were found. 19  have been properly examined in recent years—with a very interesting result:
Surprising variety of wood
By analyzing the archaeological finds, the researchers were able to identify six different types of wood. The most common wood was hornbeam, which was found in nine bows, followed by woolly snowball with six specimens. Individual bows were made from alder, dogwood, ash, and evergreen oak.

This is remarkable because previous research on Neolithic bows in Europe showed a clear dominance of yew. The study suggests that bow production followed a practical approach. People flexibly used what the surrounding Mediterranean mixed forest had to offer, rather than following a specialized or restrictive choice of materials.



Written in:
 „Archery technology in the Neolithic: Management of the Mediterranean mixed forest and woodworking activities at La Marmotta (Italy)“ (Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2026)

[jameswoodmot]

@ jameswoodmot

I think, you are right with your feeling.

In Italy near Rom was found a neolithic settlement.
The settlement was discovered almost 40 years ago. Among other things, more than 30 bows were found. 19  have been properly examined in recent years—with a very interesting result:
Surprising variety of wood
By analyzing the archaeological finds, the researchers were able to identify six different types of wood. The most common wood was hornbeam, which was found in nine bows, followed by woolly snowball with six specimens. Individual bows were made from alder, dogwood, ash, and evergreen oak.

This is remarkable because previous research on Neolithic bows in Europe showed a clear dominance of yew. The study suggests that bow production followed a practical approach. People flexibly used what the surrounding Mediterranean mixed forest had to offer, rather than following a specialized or restrictive choice of materials.



Written in:
 „Archery technology in the Neolithic: Management of the Mediterranean mixed forest and woodworking activities at La Marmotta (Italy)“ (Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2026)

That’s a great article and has lead me to find several more that I was unaware of including one about phragmites reed composite arrows which is incredible
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-77224-w


Do you know if there are any more photos of the bows found in Italy? Some of the dimensions seem unlikely for bows, three are so short and thick I can’t see them working even for a small fishing bow

20x13mm at the tip, 32x25 in the middle and 20x18 at the other tip and 825mm long just doesn’t seem likely and there are three other bows there of similar dimensions. Very roughly 3/4x1/2 tip, 1 1/4”x 1” middle and 3/4x 11/16 and  32 1/2” long which seems implausible


Medicinewhee, yeah that’s exactly what I have read this morning, I assume the advent of farming in the area was also brought about by the warming climate

[Robert Pougnier]

That's a sweet looking bow with a nice profile!

[Pappy]

Beautiful bow, very well done.
 Pappy