Warbows and rawhide backing

[ScottRoush]

Hi folks.. I thought I'd start a different thread on this since the topic might have more general interest.   I'm in the preparation phase of my Pacific yew warbow and am wondering about a few things.  The last heavy(er) weight bow that I did was an osage orange flat bow and I left it at 85-90 pounds.  It started as a selfbow but I never felt fully confident in the ring I chased due to ring density and knots.  So I backed it with thin deer rawhide.. which didn't hurt my feelings because I really like the look of deer rawhide.. especially with a bit of alcohol based stain.  This is the bow by the way...  A monster that for some reason is the most accurate bow I have. Just showing the view of the rawhide to keep on topic...



Anyway.... I'm curious about what folks know regarding the use of rawhide in English bows.  And if it is considered something useful to do when you have potentially flawed sapwood.   For the purposes of this bow.. If I were to use it.. I would think to use the thinnest, most transparent stuff that I have and no staining.

For that matter.. I've also wondered about the 'linen' backing you sometimes see in the cheaper, modern reproductions.

[WillS]

I say go for it if you're worried about sapwood integrity! It's clearly a material the bowyers would have had access to in those times.  You usually don't actually need to back yew sapwood even with violated rings - I've got an old yew warbow/longbow hybrid with horrible ring violations and knots on the edge and black streaks of rot running through and it still shoots at 32" with no problem.

There is no evidence either documented or on any of the finds of any yew warbows of backing, using any material, but that's not to say it wasn't used I guess?

Personally I don't like it, and it wouldn't pass the specs if you wanted to shoot one at an official warbow shoot, but if it's just an experiment or you prefer them, why not?!

[ScottRoush]

well in the case of this particular bow I'd rather keep it as historical as possible.   I've just always had an interest in the use of rawhide in general throughout history as the ultimate repair material.

[adb]

What are the specs on this bow?

[ScottRoush]

well there are none other than that it's still a 77 inch stave.  I've been timid getting this started. :-)  I was just curious about the rawhide.  And I was also waiting for my spring scale to arrive... and it has. So this project will commence shortly.  To keep me in the mode I've been working on a d-profile character osage self bow that I started over a year ago.   Will probably be in the #50-#60 category.. so I guess it's not relevant to this forum. But it will be very pretty.. sort of 'elvish'.