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Posts: 6441
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
Archery
The town where I live, has a long history of archery from medieval times. I fancied a hobby that took me into our large garden, and as my wife is doing the growing, I await delivery of a traditional, Eastern recurve bow.
In the meantime, I wondered about how bows are made so I bought part one of the bowyer's bible.
After many pages discussing wood, curing, profiles and angles it goes on to say that a pretty decent bow can also be made in a matter of hours. Which is like saying a flamenco guitar uses wood cured for years and takes weeks to make but anyone can also knock one up with green wood in a few hours.
I gave up on it when it was obvious to me that with all the pseudo-science, each bow can be very different, even from the same wood following some basic rules.
It completely lost me when this American book explains that a particular English bowyer could trace their ancestors back to the Stone Age
Anyway, I might make a longbow (it is in my English blood, after all), but I am going to learn how to shoot one first.
The archery festival in my town
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Cool Simon! In my young youth I made bows and arrows… even a crossbow. I stoppen when I shoot a fiend and graze his neck. Blood, crying, and punished by my father. My mother broke the bows and arrow. His father and big brother came to do the punishing all over. This Robbin Hood was also a fast runner in that time…😃
Archery is zen according to the Japanese. I like that.
Cool Simon! In my young youth I made bows and arrows… even a crossbow.
Excellent. I was also into bows and arrows as a kid, as many were. My dad brought me a knife back from Denmark when I was about 8 years old and I promptly cut my thumb to the bone, making an arrow.
I don't have a yard, so I make do with a rubber band and a cat. It's the poor indoorsman's equivalent to archery.
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You might like to get hold of Longbow, by (the actor) Robert Hardy. He was the foremost English expert on the subject, and was consulted by the archæologist responsible for raising the Mary Rose.
You might like to get hold of Longbow, by (the actor) Robert Hardy. He was the foremost English expert on the subject, and was consulted by the archæologist responsible for raising the Mary Rose.
Yeah, I was appalled when they broke one in testing to extreme angles that were not warranted (driven by a myth) as the bow strings they found put the bows at around 50-100lbs in draw weight. No more.
I found another piece of wood by the road today, nice and straight and already dried out. Close grain with few knots but I don't know what tree it is from.
I might try that one while the first one dries out.
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