Making a yew longbow measurements for 50# at 29"

Centrehit

New member
I have a stave to make a yew self English longbow. I am struggling to find a chart for the dimensions that I should be roughing it out to.
Anyone know of any websites with charts for longbow dimensions.
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
Google "Bowyers Diary", the search facility on the blog works quite well and there is plenty of stuff on there and you can follow many bows from stave through to finished (or exploded!) bow.
Here is a link to one of the posts:-
Bowyer's Diary: Roughing Out Figures and Technique
I've also done a complete youtube build along for a Yew English Longbow, there 10 parts, here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgG0M--KCZE&list=PLBz2tD9476KQFyMBLEylQGh952tBT_mZB
It covers absolutely everything from a quarter log to a finished bow including detail of horn nocks arrow plate inlay etc.
My blog started as an aide memoir but became a useful resource for one and all.

BTW, you can't make a bow from a stave "by numbers", so beware of any chart that implies you can. It's a different matter with nice even slats of machined timber for a laminate bow, you can get much closer to finished dimensions much quicker.
The biggest thing to learn is to go slow, spend at least as much time thinking and looking as you do removing wood. And keep away from power tools once the stave is flexing at all!
Del
PS, Just remembered, in January I made a Yew longbow 50# at 30", you can follow the whole build starting from here:-
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/a-visitor-and-some-staves.html
 

Centrehit

New member
Thanks for your info, I will have a look at your website. I will not be using power tools and will be going very slow. as I don't want to make a pile of expensive firewood:). But I'm good with my hands and once I get the rough dimension cut, the fun will begin. Cheers
 
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