The short Longbow - fire slinger

With there being a medieval law, which is still in place today, although mostly forgotten, that states every parent or gardian of a boy aged 7 or above must provide them with a bow and two arrows for practice, and that Archie is now seven years old, it was time for me to have another go at making him a wooden bow instead of to the fiber glass one I bought him out of guilt for breaking the other one we were making (in my last post).

  

I recieved a new beech handled spoke shave (starting bids on ebay can be as little as 99p). I had lying around a piece of wood from the front of a very old kitchen unit. Which I beleave is hickory rift saw (diagonal running grain), very good for beginners. I cut off a peace 60 inches long leaving an other length of 59 inches which I think I'll use for a flat bow.

Having marked it out to the measurements for a long bow which the the depth should be 5/8 the dimensions of the width and using the spoke shave to trim it down to the marking. 

Once the shape had been roughed out I smoothed it out and the bow was floor tillered (begining to bend when pressed in the centre against the ground. and rounded it off at the back with a file.  

I then started the tillering, using the tillering stick my son had made for me (again in the last post).  This all went well this time!

 I took my time which meant exercising the limb 30 times each inch, training it to bend firstly on the long string. all seemed to go well without the need for extra tillering as the limbs were bending evenly.

I moved to a shorter string and carried on again it seemed to be going too well.

Having took it to full brace again (a shorter string using a cord from an old blind at this stage) until I get time to visit The Longbow Shop in Birkenhead a very friendly shop which I recommend anyone to visit, if it's too far away they have an on line shop www.thelongbowshop.com

I tillered it to 23 inches at about 14lbs ideal for the majority of Archie's arrows. As it had been going so well and it hadn't needed any extra wood taken off for an even bend I decided to take it further.

I took it on to 27 inches at about 20lb again it didn't need anymore wood taking off for an even bend. I felt like a bit of a cheat not having to anything more than the initial shave.

I have made Archie two arrows at 26inches with ash shafts and bound medieval style.

Before letting Archie loose on it I shot it in using his smaller arrows, as the last thing I wanted was for it to explode on him.

When he had a go I could clearly see he needed a handle to know where to hold.

Archie chose the name for the bow FIRESLINGER which is a character from his favourite game at the moment Skylander Giants.