Best Type Of Wood To Make A Longbow

Even if the bow survives tillering it s probably not going to perform well or be durable.

Best type of wood to make a longbow.

Sas pioneer traditional wood long bow. Generally woods you want to avoid are softwoods like pine fir spruce and cedar because they re really tension weak. How to choose the correct bow woods for your longbow. Medieval bowyers used yew almost exclusively for making the famous english war bows which were the staple of england s armory for about 400 years.

These bows are usually made from just one shaft. Measuring gluing and cutting this video goes through the main part of taking a 1 x 2 and making it start to look like a bow. Types of wood for bow making recurve bows. The wood must be able to bend without breaking.

Pacific yew is extremely strong under compression and sam harper of poor folk bows calls osage the ideal bow wood. Longbows are the most common and simplest type of wooden bow. Recurve bows can be made of several different woods including hickory yew osage orange and lemon wood. Nowadays archers become more interested in traditional bows.

Similar to yew the bows elm yields are short lived and have a. Really just about any wood will make a bow if you design it right whether that design is practical is the question. Yew is typically regarded as the best wood for making longbows. Woods that are best used for the stave include maple yew ash or hickory.

Ash is another well known bow wood from history but like wych elm it made a far better broad limbed flat bow than a d section longbow. However as individual bowyers have their own preferences some choose to make longbows from white oak red oak hickory red elm american elm osage orange or rock maple instead. Ash is a ring porous hardwood and the early growth wood is coarse and stringy with the late growth wood being harder and stronger. Here is a list of different types of wood that are up for the job.

Softer woods to avoid would be aspen cottonwood poplar balsa and pine. Best wood for bows. Yew very popular for centuries throughout europe this lightweight wood is good for simple short lived bows with a. The two most commonly used bow woods are pacific yew and osage orange.

Best longbow reviews top 12 models 1. Hungarian flagella longbow horsebow editor s choice. Elm creates short stout bows with thick limbs.