[Ansteorra-archery] Bows from boards update

[Sylvrfalcn at aol.com]

Greetings fellow archers,
  As many of you know, I've been fiddling around making my own bows. Today I
reached a new milestone. I successfully taught one of our young archers how
to make his own bow.  He'd been showing a keen interest in doing just that,
so right after this morning's archery practice, off to Lowe's we went.  There
I taught him what to look for in a proper piece of wood, and, after much
digging through stacks of boards, found one that was just lovely.  He marched
out with his new "longbow stave", having just laid out the grand sum of eight
dollars and twenty cents for it.
  From there we headed to the Shire's fighter practice to sit in the shade
and work on the bow (if you're gonna make a pile of wood shavings, it's best
done out of doors).
I showed him how to use my hi-tech equipment (plastic ruler and felt tip pen)
to lay out the dimensions of his bow, pretty soon he was ready to start
carving.  At that point he gained a new understanding and appreciation of the
enduring toughness of the mighty oak tree. His knife wasn't exactly biting
into the wood, more like nibbling at it.  After a while I took pity on him
and handed him my homemade belt knife, with it's exquisitely sharp blade of
Norwegian steel.  Then the chips really started to fly!
Three and a half hours of carving, sanding, and nock cutting, later, he no
longer held a board in his hand, but a bow.  Maybe not a fully finished bow,
but finished enough to be strung and test fired.  Not surprisingly, the
string on my long bow was a near perfect fit on his, so off to the range we
went (no kidding, we were racing the setting sun to get there in time).
  At the range he was a bundle of nerves, convinced that since he'd made the
bow himself it would most likely explode in his hands the first time he tried
to shoot an arrow from it. I reassured him as best I could, and with a look
of frozen terror he determinedly nocked his first arrow.  The bow arced
gracefully through the draw, then twang, thump, there was an arrow growing
out of the four point ring where none had been before. A smile slowly spread
across his face, like butter melting in a hot skillet. A few more arrows
downrange and the smile had elevated to jubilant laughter and shouts of
exhilaration. Having taken the bowmaking "plunge" just a short while ago
myself, I knew exactly what he was experiencing.  It's a terrific feeling to
make and shoot your own bow, a wonderful sense of accomplishment. I was proud
to share that with him, and proud to know I'd passed on an old skill in the
old way.
  Here in Middleford, we now have five people shooting wooden self bows.
Bows with hand twisted Flemish strings, shooting hand made, self nocked
arrows.  It's not "like" medieval archery, it IS medieval archery.  I
couldn't be happier if a Guinness truck wrecked in my front yard ;-)

   Cheers all,
Robert of Yorkshire