White Wood ENGLISH Long Bow Challenge

[The Burnt Hill Archer]

i love that crepe-myrtle man. and i hadnt seen the "faux yew" stain job on Manny's bow. pretty sweet!

Phil

[radius]

I may be confused, but not about math! I know the difference between a fraction and a ratio. I was trying to point out how a guy could apply that ratio to any width that they had. And I am guilty of a making a bad math joke......
I deleted it.

dude, what's the math joke?

[tom sawyer]

Heres a bow made by David Mims.  I gave him a piece of hackberry several years ago, and the following year he brought back this hackberry ELB.  72", 50lb@28", very nice shooter and straight as a string after unbracing.  My wife immediately took a liking to it, and she's shot it quite a bit over the last few years.  In fact she competed in this year's MOJAM clout shoot with it.  Its the one on the right in the first two photos.  It has a "classical" ELB profile, flat back and arched belly.  It has a little bit of a stiff handle, just slightly deeper but nto really what I'd call Buchanan dips.




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[tom sawyer]

Next one is something I made but never quite finished.  Its hickory, 72", 50lb@28".  The stave had a little kink in it right in the center, I made that the handle so it has a touch of deflex there.  The other slightly interesting aspect of this for me, was it had a little knot on the belly side and I dug out the punky wood and filled it with epoxy mixed with sawdust.  Its worked fine.  Tips on this one are quite skinny.  Now the confession, the cross-section is elliptical and the ratio is 0.6 (1.25x0.75), slightly under your requirement of 0.625 but worth a peak I thought.  Someday I'll put a handle on it, it really deserves better than its spot in the bow bin.  Its the bow on the left in the first two pics.




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[ThimoS]

Tom very nice bows there. It's funny my wife also gravitated to the elb type bow. It has an enchantanting beauty to it that one cannot deny like it or not.

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

Hopefully there's a couple of 80-90 # ELB's in the 4 staves on the left

[Cromm]

Heres a link to a site that has info on an ELB that may have had a rectangular cross section( paragraph 29"the Mendlesham bow")
 
 http://margo.student.utwente.nl/sagi/artikel/longbow/longbow.html

And to think that i live about 10 mins from here and vist the place at lest once a week!!!!!!!! And have never been told or seen the thing???

[Minuteman]

Those are the kinda pics we need on this thread to get folks motivated. Thanks guys. Beautiful work on all of the bows.

[DCM]

Lennie I'd be surprised if that hackberry would pass the 5:8 test.  I recall it being a pretty wide bow, 1 3/16" maybe.  Hackberry is light as a feather.  Your hickory bow bends fantastic.  Might even consider a pike job if you wanted more draw weight.  And it certainly deserves a handle wrap.  Same string?  Lazy bastid.  LOL

[D. Tiller]

How about Manny's strawberry guava? I've been planning to make a warbow out of that stuff for a long time!

David T

[Kegan]

I've got a question- why is are woods not considered ELB woods? From all the photos, it seems they work fine. Is it how ELB's used to be made (sting it up, bring it down after you get full draw)? Or has heat treating simply fixed the problem of compression strength now?

[ThimoS]

Keegan, I just finished researching and traditionally as in back nearly 3,000 years or more woods other than yew have been made into the elb design. Oak, elm, and even Scotch-Pine have all been used. Personally I think there were years of wood "black-balling" by the yew-wood El' eatists. Just as once we had the same with the Osage-faction based here in the States. In their eyes we are seen as heretics and they would love to tie us to a stake and burn us with our own inferior staves. Thats a bad thing for those of us who have enough stocked wood to make a long lasting pyre.


Now as to "rules" the only one I go by is the depth of the bows limbs should never be  less than 3/4" difference from the thickness of the same area.

[Rich Saffold]

 Kegan, Like Thimo said, It's primarily historical dogma spread by those with agendas,  perhaps limited bow wood to use like only osage or yew, and the lack of knowledge/open mindedness to give other woods a legitimate shot...

Every environment has woods which will perform best "in general" Osage for example is good in humidity, and its humid where it grows, but take it to 100+ temps and sub zero/ very low mc%, and you are much better off with hickory, elm, guava..tension woods since your osage bow could very well end up in pieces with prolonged exposure. This many of us have seen first hand..

And most white woods don't do well in humid conditions..

its these variables which help those with "agendas" drive their "point" home as well. At mojam I picked up some fine elm, and osage since where I live is as near a perfect condition for bow woods as there is, and thus my signature elaborates this point..

They all work good, if you have a clue

Rich-

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

Interesting Thimo, so that brings the 5/8 rule to 6/8, but the cross section could be perfectly flat,...did I get this rigth ?

[ThimoS]

Yes there are rectangular cross-sections on even some of the Mary-Rose bows, corners rounded of-course. I've made both deep rounded and flatter-squarish-rounded and like them equally. It's really about what the stave has to say in my opinion.