What kind of wood are longbows made of

D-shape longbows made with native woods often struggle to last, but laburnum is a good option. So for the keen amateur bowyer there are several native wood options to work with that will enable a useful learning experience at moderate cost. Making friends with a tree surgeon can pay dividends! If you read many of the old archery books you will find a number of woods listed as being in common usage, and while not all of these woods are readily available, enough are for good quality reliable longbows to be made.

If you are interested in making laminated longbows, typically the right quality of hickory, maple and ash will back bows, and there are numerous core woods that can be used, including purpleheart, greenheart, satinwood, and pau amorello, to name a few. For belly woods, the choices are far more limited, and lemonwood and osage are certainly two of the best, with osage being the king of bow woods. Now for a cautionary note — all of the hardwoods that are available today were available when these books were written, but the reason you do not see woods like bubinga used to make longbows is simply because it is totally unsuitable.

Bamboo has no historical precedent for use in English longbows, while it was widely used in the far east. What is not commonly appreciated is that there are around species of bamboo. Around five or six of those species have a historical precedence as being good bow material.

You may have heard that tonkin cane can be used as a good material, but tonkin cane covers up to perhaps different species of bamboo, as it refers to an area from which bamboo is harvested, not a specific species. Most of these species of bamboo are good enough to make split cane fishing rods, but not bows. You will see bamboo sold in garden centres for making wind chimes and other garden ornaments, which are probably the best uses for it as the garden centre has one specific requirement of the bamboo they buy — the cheapest.

I have heard of people using patio decking wood for making bows, as various species of hardwood are used to make decking, but a word to the unwary. In the wood trade wood is graded, the highest quality wood goes for furniture making and other high value uses as exotic hardwoods. At the bottom of the list of uses for wood come building materials, and then right at the bottom of that, garden decking. Be careful about where you source your wood, but otherwise, experimenting with your own bow making with native woods can be both cost-effective and rewarding.

Most UK-grown woods are better suited to making flatbows than longbows, particularly ash, hawthorn, and fruit woods. This article is very helpful. I notice that american oak red and white were not mentioned. As your article was about home grown woods, may I ask your opinion about american Oak and two African woods, Iroko and madagascan ebony to be used as bellies.

None have been any good most explode. Yew can pull just as hard at other modern woods without getting the smoothness and speed of Pacific Yew.

The closest medieval replacement was Wych elm or an ash…all much weaker machines without a substantial compressive push from the Yew heartwood. It was active from but sank This makes no appreciable difference as to anything I said, but you should get your dates right. It is no longer 15 years ago. Yew has returned to its historical apex partly via testing of various types of wood strength and resilience, partly via…probably increased 21st century experience with it as the presumed-best bow wood.

Take care of your wood. I have made bows from English yew, ash and oak. I work with troubled teenagers, and offer green carpentry sessions in a forest school environment. In my experience, I have not found English yew to be as resilient as that of the imported yew bows exhibited on the Mary Rose. The heart wood of English yew, does not compare to that of its Mediterranean counterparts. Composite wooden bows—made with several different materials—can actually use different wood for different parts of the bow such as the riser, limbs and grip.

Making archery bows requires several characteristics for the best performance. Wood provides these physical characteristics and also provides several other benefits. Overall, the wood must be flexible enough to handle the bending and stress applied during every shot. Maple, for example, can be consistently found in good, clear grades and is a hard, dense wood with a straight grain.

The wood is yellow or ochre and is notably hard and heavy. Obtaining long and big pieces might be challenging. But some companies sell it in France and Turkey. Naturally dried logs tend to crack lengthwise. So maybe it needs to be split or sawn into staves, painted, sealed, and left in the bark. Due to its high density, it might require very gentle drying. This tree has white or beige colored wood which is very hard and has great mechanical properties. It is difficult to season and can crack in a matter of minutes.

It is dense and hard. In the past, its uses were similar to those of the Spindle chess pieces, spindles, and other small strained parts. I have only worked with small pieces for tuning pegs and it is super hard. It appears to be similar to Boxwood in its properties.

It should dry without any major issues. But when working with unknown wood, you should leave the bark on and seal the ends. If cracking occurs, then all exposed wood on the sides and belly of the stave must be sealed too.

This is less known as bow wood but it has been used in the Mediterranean, Malta, and Italy. Buckthorn is a very invasive species and it has great mechanical properties. You can make a remarkable bow if you get a sufficient piece. Although it grows the biggest in the Mediterranean region, it is native to the Central British Isles.

Its related trees in North America tend to make excellent bows as well. It has the lowest hysteresis; so low it goes off the scale. It grows along the rivers and its vibrating properties are unmatched by any other wood.

The trees can be found tall and smooth, suitable for multiple staves. Black cherry is related to plums and cherry but it has an acidic smell, like applewood. It is strong in compression, but rather weak in tension, which makes the bow prone to snapping. It may be worth experimenting to see how great it is in tension to make a low-stressed war bow design.

Longbows in sporting weights around 50 lbs made from this wood outshoot everything else— including laminates. Sometimes you want to make a longbow but the popular bow woods are hard to find in your area. If you have had this problem, consider it solved. All the above woods can result in some super awesome longbows.

And you can make the poundage as high as you want. Be careful to follow the instructions so you can avoid frustrations. But first… Note : All parameters are rated from 1 to 9.

This leads many modern craftsmen to use more than one type of wood to construct the bow. They will use one wood for the bulk of the bow, and use another type of wood as a back.

One of the reasons that yew is such a suitable wood for longbow construction is that it is a good material for both the back and belly of a bow.