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91
Flintknapping / Re: Some of my points
« Last post by jameswoodmot on May 25, 2025, 09:47:48 am »
Quote from: sleek on May 25, 2025, 08:52:48 am
Wow man, I have tried knapping and managed to get lucky with a few points. This on the other hand is really quality work. And learning like you did without the culture for it like here in the states is even more impressive. But, that begs a question, why dont yall have groups who study knapping like the do, and do you guys find arrow heads in the ground also?

Thanks!


I think ultimately it comes down to availability of metal and iceages I think. We are quite far north so a lack of habitation through the last ice age and an early adoption of copper and iron means there aren’t a huge number of artefacts to be found. The lithic technology here just didn’t reach the degree of refinement that it did in American and North Africa.apart from a handful of Bronze Age finds like the Aylesbury archer there is not a lot in the way of nice looking stone tools. It’s almost all flakes and blade core technology, which whilst it is clearly very practical just isn’t as pretty and interesting to most people.
I have found a lot of debitage and a few scrapers and such from a couple of local sites that span upper paleo right through to Bronze Age. Arrowheads are very rare and often very rough, little more than retouched flakes.
I think Jackcrafty made a post a little while back (which is what lead me to find my local sites) to this website https://finds.org.uk/database/search/results/q/Flint+arrowhead

That’ll give you an idea of the kinda stuff we have here.

Of course we have all the history through from the Bronze Age that isn’t present in areas that stuck with stone technology, most people in the U.K. that are interested in old crafts are interested in the post-lithic ages
92
Flintknapping / Re: Some of my points
« Last post by sleek on May 25, 2025, 08:52:48 am »
Wow man, I have tried knapping and managed to get lucky with a few points. This on the other hand is really quality work. And learning like you did without the culture for it like here in the states is even more impressive. But, that begs a question, why dont yall have groups who study knapping like the do, and do you guys find arrow heads in the ground also?
93
Flintknapping / Some of my points
« Last post by jameswoodmot on May 25, 2025, 08:36:14 am »
ht I’d share some of my points, been knapping properly since the start of the year but I’ve made a handful of glass points over the last couple of years.

Most of these are English flint, some from Suffolk and the rest from glacial deposits near my house. One toffee coloured chert from wales, a couple glass and one porcelain.

The glass was just flaked but the rest were done with the under the knee indirect style.
Not much of a culture of it over here (like bow making) so I’m grateful for the internet!
I’m interested to hear feedback
94
Bows / Re: Help with avoiding set
« Last post by jameswoodmot on May 25, 2025, 05:16:22 am »
Quote from: Badger on May 25, 2025, 12:44:19 am
Elbs have their own challenges because your dimensions are pretty well-locked in. From what you are describing it sounds like you are doing better than most but I do understand how we can get hung up on a little bit of set and it does reduce cast significantly. I don't think I have ever had zero set but I can usually limit it to about 1". Ash is very inconsistent about density, I have seen some at about a 60 sg all the way up to about 80. One technique I use is as follows. I like to keep the center section pretty stiff but only if I can get away with it. If I am at 24" and start to pick up set I will go back to the center to gain my additional inches always carefully monitoring the set. Toward the end, it becomes a puzzle: Where can I remove more wood to get my last couple of inches?  The pattern I follow when making an elb is as follows. Based on the draw weight I will select a width and length. From there I just go ahead and carve out a longbow knowing it will be a bit stiff by floor tillering. Then I put it on a long string and check the weight and tiller. Contrary to popular belief a long string will give you a fairly accurate weight reading regardless of how long the string hangs down. If I am making a 100# bow I start right off with 100# pulls and then just start removing wood until I hit the draw length I am looking for.   

Thanks Badger, in my searching last night I found your detailed description of no-set tillering which was really insightful.

Both of them I started pulling to 80lb, keeping the long sting for quite a lot longer than I would normally, minimal set before I braced them. Quite an elliptical tiller to start but as I progressed I had to make it more and more compass as the mid limbs were getting over strained.
I find it quite difficult to judge how the tiller will change between long and short strings but that will come with time I guess.


As far as exercising goes, lets say you had a bow that was perfectly tillered but had never been bent before. If you were to string it and draw it you could get it to full draw length with a perfect curve but i imagine if you surprise a piece of wood with that much bend in one go its going to either break or take massive set.
How much would you want to exercise a piece of wood to get it to full draw as a bare minimum, excluding the bending and exercising needed to check the tiller.
The tillering process on the Ash elb was really quick for me which I was pleased with, it was a very uniform piece of wood and I started at a good point but I have a suspicion that it lead to less exercise and more set.
95
Bows / Re: Help with avoiding set
« Last post by Badger on May 25, 2025, 12:44:19 am »
 Elbs have their own challenges because your dimensions are pretty well-locked in. From what you are describing it sounds like you are doing better than most but I do understand how we can get hung up on a little bit of set and it does reduce cast significantly. I don't think I have ever had zero set but I can usually limit it to about 1". Ash is very inconsistent about density, I have seen some at about a 60 sg all the way up to about 80. One technique I use is as follows. I like to keep the center section pretty stiff but only if I can get away with it. If I am at 24" and start to pick up set I will go back to the center to gain my additional inches always carefully monitoring the set. Toward the end, it becomes a puzzle: Where can I remove more wood to get my last couple of inches?  The pattern I follow when making an elb is as follows. Based on the draw weight I will select a width and length. From there I just go ahead and carve out a longbow knowing it will be a bit stiff by floor tillering. Then I put it on a long string and check the weight and tiller. Contrary to popular belief a long string will give you a fairly accurate weight reading regardless of how long the string hangs down. If I am making a 100# bow I start right off with 100# pulls and then just start removing wood until I hit the draw length I am looking for.   
96
Bows / Re: Help with avoiding set
« Last post by jameswoodmot on May 24, 2025, 08:50:58 pm »
Quote from: willie on May 24, 2025, 08:42:00 pm
going from 45 to 80 will require almost twice the width

how wide and long are the bows you shoot for 80,  with those species?

The most recent was Ash, 77” long and about 1 1/2 - 1 5/8” wide (can’t remember exactly and it’s fire wood now so can’t find out)
Wych elm was similar volume but a little shorter and wider.

97
Bows / Re: Help with avoiding set
« Last post by jameswoodmot on May 24, 2025, 08:47:31 pm »
Quote from: sleek on May 24, 2025, 08:32:17 pm
This is my favorite subject of bow making. I will give you an absolute solid rule if thumb I have learned. Every inch of set indicates a bow that was underbuilt by 25%. So increase the bows working area by 25% for 1 inch of set and you will find yourself with a much better bow. Some woods however just dont wanna work, and thats across all species of wood.

Talk about efficiency and arrow speed seems a bit controversial here from what I’ve seen, but it’s what I am most interested in achieving. It certainly seems the most complex aspect of bow
making.


I have another piece of elm that I’m going to aim for a heavy flat bow, just wide and long and see what I can get out of it.
The problem with overbuilding an ELB is it becomes a flat bow pretty quickly.
I’ve got the feeling I’m missing something in the tillering process, more than the design or materials. I’m seeing people make bows with the similar materials and dimensions as me and getting nearly double the draw weight.pretty sure it’s my skill that’s falling short, I just don’t know where
98
Bows / Re: Help with avoiding set
« Last post by willie on May 24, 2025, 08:42:00 pm »
going from 45 to 80 will require almost twice the width

how wide and long are the bows you shoot for 80,  with those species?
99
Bows / Re: Help with avoiding set
« Last post by sleek on May 24, 2025, 08:32:17 pm »
This is my favorite subject of bow making. I will give you an absolute solid rule of thumb I have learned. Every inch of set indicates a bow that was underbuilt by 25%. So increase the bows working area by 25% for 1 inch of set and you will find yourself with a much better bow. Some woods however just dont wanna work, and thats across all species of wood.
100
Shooting and Hunting / Bare shaft tuning: Why are the arrows nosing down?
« Last post by WhistlingBadger on May 24, 2025, 08:19:19 pm »
Bare-shaft tuning some arrows for my new bow.  Spine/length tuning is going as usual, but my arrows keep turning nose-down, no matter where I put my nock point.  I've gone from extremely high to extremely low, and it gets better or worse (I actually went high to the breaking point of an arrow), but the arrows land nose down no matter what.  I don't remember ever having this happen before; usually I can pretty easily find a nock point where they hit straight and don't porpoise.  Weird.

Any ideas what's going on?
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