Bow X1-3 - The last 'mean' wood warbow?

[meanewood]

Just finished a replica myself and have a few interesting observations.

I started with the premise that the tip with the shamfered face is the original tip and made both my tips the same.
I went for an overall length of 1850mm, which assumes 140mm has been cut off the original.

My stave was Elm instead of Wytch Elm and the weight came in at 725 grams and pulls 80lbs at 30inches
This is a lot lighter than the replicas Alistair and Jeremy made with Wytch Elm.

What I found really interesting is that I don't need any nocks! The linen string that I made has a bowyers knot on the lower limb and a running loop on the upper limb and they tighten up nicely under tension!

I started with a binding around the place where the shamfer ends and expected the loops to slip down onto it but to my surprise they didn't move even after shooting many arrows, so I just took them off.
The shamfer is about 30mm so there is plenty of room to use a stringer as well.

The string is starting to leave a slight indentation in the wood but nothing to get worried about at this stage.

Even though this bow is only 80lbs it is really fast and seems to pack a real punch!
I'll post some pics soon.

[Yeomanbowman]

That's really interesting.  I can't wait to see how the tiller came out when you used the dimensions, or close to.  When the original was inspected there was no trace of any crushing at the tips so you experiment is very useful as it eliminates a possible scenario, being that the bow is complete and was shot in the method you have used.  It is possible that this is how it was strung and the bow was never shot.  If you have any data on the arrows you were using and the distances, that would be very interesting too.

Jeremy

[adb]

Pics of your bow would be awesome!

[meanewood]

Yes , I suppose this could be a stringing method and the bow found was hardly used!
It seems most of the bows from the' Mary Rose' would appear to be unused due to the lack of wear at the arrow pass.

[meanewood]

Photos of replica!

[meanewood]

And more

[meanewood]

[Del the cat]

That full draw shape looks really good, it respects the shape of the stave nicely.
Del

[Yeomanbowman]

That's a really nice character bow and quite challenging to tiller so well too.  A great experiment
Brian's having a stave sale at our next shoot if you want to try some wych elm.  It would add about 20lbs to the draw i'd estimate.

[meanewood]

Thanks Del and Jeremy

It amazes me how forgiving Elm is as a bow wood. I didn't even heat treat this bow and some areas of the limbs are working very hard to achieve a reasonable tiller with no hint of crystaling!

[Yeomanbowman]

Sorry, I thought you were UK based for some reason.  Good luck with the new project.

[Badger]

  Several years ago I made a 154# @ 32" 72" long  osage Elb syle. The bow took no set but was doggy.  Looking back I suspect high mositure as it was much thicker than I thought it should have been.

[dobson]

I live not far from Leeds and have visited the Royal armouries quite a few times, I assume this is the bow that they have on display in the main hall? I always wondered if the bow was Yew or not and the cross section of the stave, thanks for shedding light on this, was an interesting and enlightening read! 

[Yeomanbowman]

Hi Dobson,

I have not seen the bow since it went up to Leeds but the really distinctive features are the flat belly, crowned back and truncated ends.  If it has these, it's your man!

[meanewood]

Just thought I'd give an update on the performance of the 'shamfered face' nock idea.

I've made 3 Elm bows with this type of nock and string setup and all is going great after extensive shooting.

The initial indentation of the string on the tips is only minor and does not get worse over time!

The more I look at the close up photo of the 2 tips of X1-3, the more I'm convinced that the shamfered end is original
 and I believe my experimentation shows that this was the method of self nocking used on this bow and perhaps other 'Meanewood' bows of the period.