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21
Bows / Re: Bow Testing 2023 / 2025
« Last post by simk on December 11, 2025, 06:47:35 am »
In 2025 we dropped the restriction on "longbows" and allowed any bow. We had a compound bow (dark blue), recurves, longbows and asiatic bows made from glass (light blue), some of the most sophisticated carbon-superrecurves (grey) - beneath selfbows (light brown), wood composites (medium brown) and horn-sinew wood composites (dark brown). The weather was very hot and humid which certainly affected the performance of the horn-sinew composites. I never build my bows for max speed or flight - I do sell my bows and not want them to come back to me. Durability and successful target-shooting are the main goals. With 3d bows I'm looking for a little more speed than 20y target shooting. Hunting bows must be short and tough in the first place.
 
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Bows / Bow Testing 2023 / 2025
« Last post by simk on December 11, 2025, 06:38:44 am »
I sometimes bring my shooting machine to the bow fair in Eigeltingen and request all bowmakers to bring their fastest bows. Rules are: 40# bow +/- a few #. I then measure exact drawweight and pick the arrow that brings the bow closest to 8gpp. Then shoot it on the machine. The results were published in the German "Traditionell Bogenschiessen" Mag.

In 2023 we wanted to test just "longbows" according to IFAA which also includes D/R profiles as long as they fully stretch out at brace. The "winning" bows were a classic 66" Longbow made from yew, maple and bamboo and a D/R glassbow which both measured same speeds. Wooden bows are brown, glassbows blue.
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Bows / Re: The best shape for a reflexed bow?
« Last post by willie on December 11, 2025, 05:24:53 am »
Quote from: Tuomo on December 10, 2025, 04:05:13 pm
Nice idea, Willie, and definitely worth trying. But I see many problems as well. How can I be sure that strain distribution is the main feature of an exceptional bow? Why not mass or curvature distribution, or the side profile combined with some other parameter?


you cant input a stress curve directly into Virtualbow as you can the profiles, but knowing what a good stress curve looks like can help you make the adjusments for your next iteration

when you look at arrow speed, also look at the stress curve for shape as well checking for max stress levels. Curve shape patterns will emerge with the faster arrow speeds. I never look at mass, if its too high, arrow speeds will suffer
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Bows / Re: The best shape for a reflexed bow?
« Last post by simk on December 11, 2025, 04:31:10 am »
you are right Badger - I messed that up - the short bow does store less energy but is more efficient.
But why does it store less energy? String angle?
And why is it more efficient? Limb mass, limbtravel and inertia?
And why does the d/r in Tuomos experiment store more energy than the straight limbed bow? string angle?
Now: In practice we often see that short bows are faster — especially with light arrows — than the longer ones: is that  maybe because limb mass and limb inertia (efficiency) matters more than stored energy?
If that is the case,  when trying to make a fast bow, one should maybe focus more on efficiency than energy storage? How to optimize these contradictory facors?
Given that more stored energy usually means heavier and slower limbs, how do we find the sweet spot where arrow speed is maximized?
It must be where increasing stored energy starts to cost you too much efficiency by increasing  limb mass and inertia.
Now where is that?
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Primitive Skills / Re: A simple leather project
« Last post by M2A on December 11, 2025, 02:22:07 am »
I like it! Good way to make something useful and appealing from those small pieces
Mike
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Bows / Re: Snake bow
« Last post by M2A on December 11, 2025, 02:11:04 am »
Interesting idea thinning the outside of those turns. Makes sense.  I’ll have to keep that in mind when I take on some of the snakey staves I have collected. Sharp looking bow!
Mike
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Bows / Re: Osage Selfbow
« Last post by M2A on December 11, 2025, 01:54:12 am »
Congrats! You been putting out some real nice work. Enjoy seeing your work. Best wishes on a speedy recovery.
Mike
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Primitive Skills / Re: A simple leather project
« Last post by Pat B on December 11, 2025, 12:43:27 am »
Nice work, Brian. Form and function.  8) :OK
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Bows / Re: Black locusts bow
« Last post by Selfbowman on December 10, 2025, 07:52:43 pm »
Day five 32.1 will check it for three more days to see if it changes.
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Primitive Skills / Re: A simple leather project
« Last post by Pappy on December 10, 2025, 07:23:17 pm »
Nice BJ , looks like you are pretty good with leather to me. Pappy
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