Bow – cross section
This is an Oak longbow with a pine face.
It has an 80lb draw so it’s fairly powerful and is 6ft tall. It draws to full stretch with no creaking.
Oak was a traditional English Longbow material, however, Yew is more widely known for building bows.
To add some additional spring to the bow I laminated it with pine as shown in the sketch.
Once it was all glued up I shaped it with a spoke shave, testing the draw and balancing the weight and flex until I had a bow with a matching curve at the top and bottom.
I shaped the handle to suit and added some leather to protect the bow. I still need to add something to stop the arrows wearing on the side of the bow.
The arrows are ash and fletched with pheasant feathers (all I could find!, Goose feathers would be better).
This took about 5 hours to make.
