Crafting an English Longbow
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- Опубликовано: 27 авг 2024
- A few points on English Longbows: shardsofthedark...
For a detailed post on the project, look over here-
shardsofthedark...
Hand crafting an English Longbow with simple hand tools.
Wood- Red Oak
Backing- 2 layers of sheetrock tape and outer layer of linen bonded with Titebond II wood glue
Finished with 3 coats of Danish oil
Approx. 40# at 30"
68.5" length
String making- shardsofthedark...
Making a Laminated Longbow- shardsofthedark...
For more projects, visit my blog at shardsofthedark...
Find us on Facebook:
/ lastapocalypseforge
/ nineworldsworkshop
Music by Ensiferum
-By the Dividing Stream, the Longest Journey
Album- From Afar
I watched it at least a hundred times since it came out - sometimes I simply play it in the background. I can almost exactly tell what sound a tool at a specific point of the video ameks and the songs you play will never be good enough without the noises of your craft. Keep up!
Cheers mate! It's been a while since the last video but I am in the process of getting far more heavily involved in filming. Don't want to jump the gun but hoping to have more regular content in the near future
This was by far the most British thing I have read all day, thank you
A real pleasure watching a craftsman at work, first bow or not. Thanks for posting.
I appreciate the music you've chosen for this, very appropriate for an English longbow video, It immerses you into the time period to start out and then progresses as you do. Thanks for the video.
Cheers
It's nice watching someone skilled work with hand tools.
This is unbelievably cool. Beautiful craftsmanship, and great music. Thanks for this!
Great music, great bow, great craftsmanship and camera work. Too many bloody fades that go on forever.
That's been 15 minutes well spent from my side. Really interesting seeing the process of this. Totally subscribing.
It's GREAT to watch Craftsmanship at work & know it STILL exists! thank both you & youtube
Dude you're an artist and it's easy to tell you're a perfectionist when it comes to your ART. Love the vid, and you have inspired me to make this. Thanks for the posting. Jim
Thank you Jim! Encouraging others to venture into craftsmanship, whether for the first time or not, is the highest compliment I could receive. I'd love to see what you come up with!
will do...
that was a beautiful piece of work, im more into that primitive style of crafting "getting into" but that was by far amazing keep up the good work!
Great vid, great choons but my one bugbear that I tell kids about every day - don't place your plane flat on a surface, it dulls the blade. Sorry, one of my many OCD's but keep on crafting!!
Thank you very much! Part of the reason I enjoy creating things is that it sometimes inspires others to do so. I highly encourage you to give it a go!
I have no Idea what an english long bow is or isn't. I just Love reading all the comment from Englishmen who actually speak the language properly. The comment section of this video alone could be the premise for an entirely New Monte Python film. So thanks for that. and very nice work making the Bow that is rather Long and slender and undoubtedly made by an englishman whatever you wish to call it is fine by me
Glad you enjoyed it! The bow is ~58 inches nock to nock, with a 2 layer sheetrock tape backing and 1 outer layer of linen for aesthetics. The glue is Titebond II, although Titebond III works equally as well.
Good luck with your bow!
plenty of knowledge and skills equals a fine bow like yours !
I ordered some shafts a while back, but they are yet to arrive. I have been reprocessing steel through a hearth furnace to forge the arrow heads from, and collecting feathers for the fletching. Also I am working on a quiver to hold them. I truly value the worth of hand made objects and the passion behind them, whether by my own hands or another's, and through them I hope to better my quality of life and those of the people around me.
After several months' battle with the system, I can finally post comments again. Thank you everyone for your support!
LastApocalypseForge you should craft your own arrows to go with it me and my father use to make are own before we went to field archery competitions. you also get to explore different type's of arrow heads
That's actually something I've been working around with lately. Once I'm satisfied with my sockets, I'll be making a video :) So far I've only looked into bodkins and firecage heads, but I have a bundle of shafts and a fair number of goose pointers for when it's ready!
LastApocalypseForge is a bow basically just a piece of polished wood with string and handle
+Duksing Chau No, a bow is a piece of wood engineered to take incredible pressures without fracturing and to efficiently turn that pressure into arrow flight. It doesn't have to be polished but the strength of each limb must be balanced both along its own curve and with the other limb. The grain and type of wood must be just right, but in the case of this video, the wood is being helped with fiberglass. If the bow in the video breaks before 100 shots or so, it is a polished piece of wood with a string, not a bow.
+LastApocalypseForge Nice bow friend ! ....would have been nice to see it in action thou .....just saying :) ....
Super job! I cannot imagine facing a sky full of arrows in battle.
That's incredible! Great work! with only simple hand tools! I'm an traditional archer and in my opinion your labour is absolutely fantastic!!! Compliments!!
p.s. beautiful musics!!
I have always loved archery, so I had a basic understanding of the mechanics. To make it, I just sat down one day and had at it. Patience and precision are key. A good place to start is getting a copy of the Bowyer's Bible by Jim Hamm. It is 4 volumes I believe, and has everything you will need. I also wrote a blog post about making a bow. I just put a link to it in the description. I tried to detail as much as I could. Hope this helps!
Thanks mate! I just started making my own bowstrings, which I just put a link to in the description. During construction, I used a length of braided nylon rope I had lying around and shot with it only a few times. Anything that can withstand the load without stretching should do fine. Sheetrock tape is fairly common, but not essential, and the linen is purely for aesthetics. You could use horn, silk, denim, sinew, paper even, or another thin piece of wood. Hope this helps!
I enjoyed your video, and learned a lot about bowery. Friendly advice, if you want your tools to last longer; Lay your jack plane on its side when not in use instead of setting it down on the cutting blade, and only run your files and rasps in the direction that they are cutting in.
Sure this been pointed out several times already but the english longbow is made from a stave of yew wood, a natural laminate of soft and hard material. It's as long as a man is tall, has horn on each end to take the force of the bowstring, draws 100lbs++.
I see what you are saying. Yes, it would certainly be a different bow. I thought you were talking about adjusting the weight while making it. As far as altering the draw weight of finished bows, the only way that I know of doing so without actually changing the bow itself is to change how far you draw, with the limit being the maximum it was built for. It shoots rather well, especially considering this was the first bow I ever made. Fast and not too much shock.
Traditionally, yew was a very common and effective wood for making bows. However, there were several geographic alternatives. Although the English popularized the design, bows of this form have been used all over the world for hundreds of years!
You are a bright intelligent talented young man.
You are quite welcome, I am glad I could have been of help. Best of luck to you!
Very nice cratsman skills and superb music. I appreciated it very much! Greetings from Germany.
Mace Midgard Cheers mate!
Absolutely. In the next few months, I'll have a little more time, and a laminate is certainly on the list!
Excellent job. Great craftsmanship!
Absolutely! This was more an experiment with hardware store materials than anything, but there are certainly better materials in my future.
This is the MOST EPIC SONG I believe I've EVER HEARD! I love the video in its entirety but DUUUDE! THIS SONG IS KILLER! thanks so much for posting!
faultroy I understand. I feel the same way about hip-hop, pop, country, and rap.
Ensiferum - the longest journey :)
George Z. Well atleast we share a hatred of rap.. but I am puzzled, how can you like "music" that sounds like someone gouging their own throat out with words... I don't understand how anyone could find that remotely musical.
That part doesn't matter. It's the instrumental part.
You are an excellent bowyer sir!
Thanks mate! This was actually the first bow I ever made. Since, I have made a few more, but only with red oak. I have a stave in the works that I hope to laminate with either hickory or bamboo.
I've put this video on so many times for the background music that the actual album sounds weird to me now without the tool noises.
Thank you very much for the kind words. It is one thing to hear the feedback, but another entirely from one who practises the arts I pursue in craftsmanship.
True craftmanship well done.
nice, that was my only gripe about this build, you really did a good job on the longbow.
that is the most alternative metal ever.
Walter Morgenroth it’s pagan/Viking metal. Isn’t it good?
Amazing video, very well done you showed everything you need to do in a simple consice approach I am impressed. thank you for sharing your work.
My respects. I can see that you love what you are doing, keep it up thank you Sir.
Lucas Marrero Cheers brother!
Though undeniably a well crafted bow
One from oak would not last as long as yew
It's why so much was spent shipping yew up from Southern Europe to England to craft the bows
Oak would either follow the string (stay bent) or even just break. This is why yew was used as it had duel properties that helped it last longer
Great skills shown in the making but certainly not an English war bow
If you don't like people saying "this is not an English longbow", then don't say it is English.
P.S. The only thing that bow has in common with an English longbow, is the leather handle.
Very nicely done. And it looks like a longbow to me.
Tillering helps determine the weight, the farther you plane down the limbs the weaker it will be. As a general rule, width is less important than thickness (why flat bows are so wide) when it comes to poundage. The string has more of an effect on the smoothness of the release and how efficient the energy is transferred to the arrow. And then there is the shape of the bow itself, the materials, laminates and composite bows, etc. that can wildly change the poundage.
I've never tried to make a bow with anything from that side of the world, but Osage should be fairly common down there. If you can't find that, possibly try pink ash, spotted gum, ironwood, some variety of soapwood, or Masaranduba. Bamboo or rawhide will work well as backings if you choose to go that route. I'd recommend just trying a few and if they do not work, don't be discouraged and try again with something else. Hope this helps!
I wish there more people in this corrupted world like you.. Ensiferum, awesome attitude to the crafting, ideology (as you said in the comment) and so forth. Thor sure did give you something.
as a bowyer, i like your attention to details and your love for what your doing however i build longbows out out of stave ( preferably yew ) and the procedure is quiet different as far as tillering. You have a perfect piece of lumber and a yew stave is never perfect.
Thanks for sharing your passion with us, keep up the good work and I enjoy seeing more videos as your skills improve. Technically this would not class as an English Longbow with that sort of backing, but that would only really affect you if you tried to use it in a Longbow (English) competition.
It is approximately 40# at 30 inches. I never studied under anyone, just sat down and worked out everything I could not learn from books until it came out right.
That depends on what you mean by adjusted. The process of tillering is where the draw weight is determined. The limbs can be shaved down farther to make a weaker bow, but the only way (that I know of) aside from adjusting the geometry of the bow itself to make it stronger is to make a laminated bow or back it with horn or other stiff material. Also the draw length effects the weight, but drawing past what it was made to shoot is a good way to break it.
love ensferum so mutch. great video and I must admit idk if I could ever make a long bow.
Absolutely! I actually just got around to making a proper string for it, so I should have one soon
Provided it does not stretch, it will work, although polyester is a more common choice of synthetic string material. String serving material is usually nylon (the part that wraps around the strong where the ends loop and where the arrow nocks).
It is. The tape is cheap, easy to find, and effective at preventing the splinters from lifting. The only thing is, it is relatively ugly, thus the linen to cover it.
Never seen a bow tillered like that before,but I like it👍
You're welcome! If you want to make another bow, more complicated and powerfull, I suggest you to make an laminate bow! (an bow built with different woods: one light and flexible and one more heavy and strenght glued together)
Good job mate, beautiful workshop too.
Very nice! My love for crafting things and your amazing "how to" video make me want to try this myself. 😃
Please do! I would love to see what you come up with!
you sir have a great skill. that bow was great as for the music choice. it was great as well.! keep up the good work
Thanks mate! For the grain, it is best to have it running completely along the length of the stave with no ends running off the edges. That way, it will be more difficult for splinters to lift and for the bow to shatter. Also, you want to have more late (winter) growth rather than spring growth. The lines will be thicker and farther apart. One indication is better boards will be heavier. You also shouldn't see rings on the wider face, that is the worst thing you can have. Hope this helps
Cheers!
I enjoyed watching this and thank you for taking the time to post it, but instead of having a bloke with a sore throat shouting through it I would have preferred a narrative on what materials you were using and explanations of the different stages. 👍
+Glenn Ford That's why I wrote a detailed blog post that has exactly that ;)
It is not a traditional english long bow. They used yew wood because it had 2 separate layers. The separate layers made it bendable but strong, which is why its effective range was 300 yards. But it looks very nice.
The shape is the way it is because it preserves material better from the trees, which at the time were too scarce to cut flat boards from. Instead ,the English used the D shape because it was more efficient when cutting lengths from a circular beam (tree trunk) for the strength of the bow. I agree, they are more work to get right. The length really depends on the draw weight and how thick it is, ranging from the 6'+ to very small like crossbow limbs, although those were usually composites.
In metric units, about 1.8m x 3.8cm x 2cm. The starting dimensions may be larger depending on the strength of the bow, and can always be made smaller. Much smaller than that, however, and you would likely need to glue another piece of wood on for a handle.
Thanks alot. Should be getting my board tuesday. Hopefully ill be able to hunt with a bow i made this season.
This is cool! Thank a lot for your channel :)
The English longbow wasn't derived from the welsh design it was from the danish invaders (vikings) back in the Saxon period it was widely used from then on until the 11th century when the Normans were so scared on the longbow anyone found in possession of one who wasn't a noble and didn't either have permission from there local duke or from the king was executed and then the people in the village or area they lived was punished. William the conqueror didn't destroy the Anglo-Saxon heritage or way of life but integrated it with Norman aristocracy. It was only in the 13th century mainly 1252 that the king and nobles and military figures remembered the devastation the English longbow did to their mounted knight they then created the ‘Assize of Arms’ which meant that by law all men between the ages of 15-60 had to be equipped with a longbow and arrows. The Plantagenet King Edward III took this further and decreed the Archery Law in 1363 which commanded the obligatory practice of archery on Sundays and holidays! The Archery Law “forbade, on pain of death, all sport that took up time better spent on war training especially archery practice”.King Henry I later proclaimed that an archer would be absolved of murder, if he killed a man during archery practice. The victories over the French at Crecy, Agincourt and Poitier's were directly due to the expertise of English archers and the longbow. Skill in the use of the longbow took considerable time. The English invested in the time required - the French did not. Up to this point the skills and weapons used by a Knight were deemed to be worth 10 ordinary soldiers - hence the French reaction to defeats by the common peasant.
There are a few ways, depending on the style of bow. If I were to make a similar bow stronger, I would simply leave the limbs thicker. The roughed staves are probably in the 150# range, but I have never tested them before doing a little tillering. You could also, without changing the geometry much, do a laminated bow with the backing having a much higher bending strength (think bone) or wood such as bamboo or hickory.
The sheetrock tape helps prevent the bow from splintering. The grain is not perfect, being a hardware store wood, so the ends will try to lift on the flat, which is under tension.
Oak is not that unusual, but it was all I had available at the time. I'm gathering materials to begin a composite longbow, probably with hickory and oak. It is a common enough wood that it can be found most places for a relatively low cost, especially when speciality retailers are quickly disappearing.
English longbows were crafted from a triangular wedge of yew, taken from a tree. Not a 1x1 furring strip....
Any piece of wood can be cut into a 1x1 slab of wood...
Joshua Brown And? Thats not at all the point I was making. a 1x1 strip of wood is no where near the same as a triangular section of a young yew tree. English longbows were cut from triangular sections of yew so they had heartwood, and normal wood all on the same chunk. Heartwood is more springy since its from the core of the tree, which allows for more flex in the bow during the draw.
Taking a 1x1 stirp and carving a bow out of it does not make it an English Longbow. Its just a cheap bow.
If thats too complicated for you to understand,heres an example.
A Ferrari is a car; but not all cars are Ferraris
Robert Moore Correcting someones statement is not "shitting on someone elses parade". Not by a long shot. When did I say I didnt like the video? And how would I know until I watched it? Thats an absurd statement for you to make.
Videos of my achievements? I dont feel the need to record "my achievements", to get the validation from strangers on the internet.
But I have an entire portfolio of my work on a CV-for showing clients.
Where are YOUR videos?
Unlike you, I wipe my ass. No "shit stained underwear". Maybe because I dont drink, like your mother I assume, which is why you have such hostilities for strangers on the internet, is why I dont shit myself on my couch either.
Bet you had a FUN childhood!
Really shows, in the way you try and berate people you dont even know..on the internet..
***** sorry 1x2
+DannyWarlegs , actually English (- as well as Welsh -) longsbows were crafted in many different ways. There wasn't just a single way to do it. That goes for all types of bow, whether composite or not. The bows were crafted with available materials and the longbow were crafted in such numbers that they could not all be made with heartwood.
However, you are right that high-quality bows were crafted only by the best materials. But having said that, an English longbow was not by its term necessarily a quality bow.
To use your own analogy: Not all cars are Italien cars, but not all Italien cars are Ferrari, some Italien cars are just Fiats and no better than so many other cars. An English longbow is just that, a longbow like many others, and a number of materials could be used for a longbow, including an English longbow.
Traditional longbows are 78" long. They are not laminated. They are thicker than that.They had no hand grip on them. Oiling bows just makes the wood lose tension and reduces the power of the bow.
Thank you for the feedback, this is only the second bow I have made. Although there are certain characteristics that make a longbow an English, not all longbows are English. I agree that this is not exactly English perse, and I was largely ignorant at the time, it is still a longbow. Flatbows, by virtue of nature, are flat (thin rectangular cross sections) where this is much closer to a D. For more information on longbows, feel free to peruse the longbow-archers-association site.
Good job, man. Thanks for sharing. And your shardsofthedarkage post was a good read. I think all of the tiny-minded folks that chose, before all other reasonable discourse, to criticized you like they were like Thor's gift to archery, can, frankly, go stuff themselves.
I have never seen it done entirely that way. Tillering naturally takes care of some of that, but without gradually taking away the wood on the belly of the limbs, it is impossible to make it even. Also, bending a completely untillered bow will (and I have no evidence of this because I have never tried it before) take much more set if you draw it to the full length. Splinters are easy to sand down on the belly, but the backing keeps splinters from lifting on the front.
Can someone tell me what that horrible noise is?
Bowrude - arrowstorm
Shit
absolutely awesome and the music was surprising as well. great vid all around. kudos.
Amazing wood craft skills
You made me think my phone was ringing when the video started, Love the music ;)
Yew is a popular wood for bowyering, and although theoretically teak can produce a decent bow, I have never tried and there is very limited information about it. Yew is excellent, especially for English longbows, because of its strength. I have never tried it either, however, because around my parts it is relatively uncommon and fairly expensive.
Natural strings for ancient bows delivered a lot more elastic power than nowadays syntetic strings. Moreover you need to calculate that the target was never steady, but often a fast approaching one, like a knight on a horse for example.. that added a lot more power to the arrow damage coming from the opposite direction. ARROW-PIERCED PLATES ARE NOT A MYTH.
A course linen cut from a bolt I had lying around. The only purpose it really serves is to cover the ugly sheetrock tape. Used alone, it might keep splinters from lifting, but the weave is so loose and irregular I cannot imagine it would be too effective unless there were three or four layers instead of one.
Please have a look at what MAY be a genuine medieval arrow...
GENUINE / AUTHENTIC MEDIEVAL ARROW what do you think?
All materials can be found at a local hardware store. Just be careful selecting the wood, else it might fail under tension or result in a very low power bow. All you theoretically need is a single piece of wood, although the boards you will find are not meant to be made into bows, so the grain is not perfect. That is why I backed it with cloth, to prevent splinters from lifting. Then you will also need some sort of cloth or sheetrock tape and glue. For the bow, that is it aside from tools.
Build me a 45 pounder .... pretty please :D nicely done... real craftsmanship... keep it up!!
nice copy. but a long bow has the outer skin of the tree and the inner fibers combined. outer skin keeps it from splintering and the inner fibers resist tension , giving it its great draw strength.
Medieval bows are not supposed to have handles. An archer knows, he doesn't need to be told where to put his hand. And it helps if you want to hold the bow a little higher.
The only real limiting factors in making a bow string are its size (too large and arrows will not nock around it), and its strength. If you can meet those two things, it will work. Natural fibres are usually too thick for bow strings if they are to support that much weight, but there are a few. The best thing to do is Safely experiment, and find whatever works best for you.
An "English" Longbow has a shape traditionally English. We made them with whatever was handy, 5'6" to 6'0" long and about 2.5" square. Of course that was long before the raised the Mary Rose and found a wealth of genuine bows and bodies that had used them. Some of the skeletons were seriously deformed in the shoulders due to the regular use of high (greater than100lbs). My competition bow was 120lbs and a Hereford round (144 shots at 60-100yds) was all I could manage in a day. Even then I only did that twice. I now have arthritis in both shoulders. By the way, a 120lb bow is actually quit easy to draw, if you use the correct technique, holding it is difficult, hence fast and loose.
Wow you are good craftsman, how about more dialog on whats going on during the build so us newbies can follow along.
Great video.
That string was for the sole purpose of tillering. Since then, I have made an actual, sized flemish string (second link in the description)
Fuck yeah Ensiferum!
Perfect band for this. Crafting your bow to get ready for battle. You're brutal man. Keep it up.
sbk la Cheers!
I haven't listened to Ensiferum in years, and I've been watching a few of these crafting vids. As soon as I heard this playing, I KNEW it HAD to be Ensiferum! By golly I was right!
I never timed it, but if I had to guess, it would probably be around 7 hours excluding time for drying the glue on the backing and coats of oil to finish it.
A good effort there my friend, can we see a vid of it shooting a few arrows.
great video, great music
awesome crafting , wish you had added some text at what your doing and tools used and such ...ah well can't have everything now :) i like to have the skills to make my own as well... your vid is very inspiring ty
Link in the description is more of a tutorial, answering all the questions you might have. Tools, materials, process, etc. Thanks for the support!
A 'Traditional' English longbow is usually made from the Yew tree. It has the sapwood on the outer face and heartwood on the inner face. The English longbow however, can also be made from ash, elm and indeed any other wood, which can withstand the draw-weight, which some historians has put at between 110lb to 180lb. Normally longbows would have a draw weight of between 110lb to 130lb. In Medieval times a longbow used in combat would have to achieve a minimum draw weight of 110lb to be an effective killing weapon. The length of the bow is usually 2 yards ( 6 feet / 1,8 Metres ). Other countries have their own specifications for longbows which can be vastly different to the normal Traditional English longbow. There are so many different specifications as to what constitutes a 'longbow' it is worth the time to research your own ideal longbow. Take into consideration that a longbow was found in Somerset, England that dates back to around 2660 BC. Modern longbows modern draw weight is typically around 60 lb. Before posting responses, understand that there are many differing specifications from many differing "Experts" and historical curators. I merely picked the average of the ones I referred to. That is why I suggest you do your own research if the subject matter interests you.
+keefy I kinda hate it when people generalize like this. An English longbow is a pretty general term. It doesn't have to be a 100+ pound bow made out of specific wood. That's like saying 'that's not a chevy truck, chevy trucks are made out of this metal, has this suspension, this shape etc.. But hey lets not fight and just talk, with out name calling.
Ryan Johnson I agree, name calling is so emphatically puerile. I used the terminology, 'Traditional' English Longbow which was made from Yew wood. That is a true fact, according to English historians and longbow associations. Then I said that English longbows could be made from other woods, without the term 'Traditional', as they would only be classed as 'English longbows'. There lies the nub, I think., the term 'Traditional'. The figures I quoted were mostly averages from recognised traditional longbow historians or associations, When you think about it, the longbow was/is a single piece of wood with strong string between the two ends of shaped wood. The traditional and normal English longbow had to have a minimum draw weight for use in combat, otherwise the arrows would not necessarily puncture the opposition's armour. All other figures are mostly averages from different sources. The traditional English longbow is not so much a weapon of war but a work of art. The pale, creamy sapwood back and the golden heartwood belly when worked and oiled for protection is really beautiful.
+keefy ok I think I see your point. I really think for such a simple devise the longbow is beautiful. I've tried to make 4 so far and guess what that's 4 broken bows to the face. you don't happen to know detailed knowledge about tillering or where to find it?
+Ryan Johnson at least this guy has the sense not to put traditional or primitive or something in the title.
Ryan Johnson Lots of books out there but it is an art to be able to tiller the bow without making it significantly weaker. A good eye and lots of patience is required. I can only guess that it is your view of the bow when drawn, to see curves as opposed to flat areas along the bows limbs.. Then to remove wood and not to affect the draw weight. Time and patience are paramount. Personally I would try to use templates to establish the curves of each limb. Then to use a small hand plane, small, very sharp draw knife and a rasp file to tiller the bow before a fine final finish prior to coating. I guess you know all of the above anyway. There are workshops being run by Bowyers, I would guess that these may be expensive and whether they would go as far as tillering I do not know. The initial bow making is crucial to the art of tillering as if the bow is made with no reference to the grain rings, then no amount of tillering will make it a good bow. I really wish you good luck on your longbow making endeavours. Please let me know how you get on.
Great Work....greetings from Germany
Cheers mate!