Best Type Of Wood To Make A Longbow

Generally woods you want to avoid are softwoods like pine fir spruce and cedar because they re really tension weak.

Best type of wood to make a longbow.

These bows are usually made from just one shaft. 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. Yew is typically regarded as the best wood for making longbows. Really just about any wood will make a bow if you design it right whether that design is practical is the question.

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. 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. You can also use wood like hickory white ash green ash black cherry but oak is just fine.

How to choose the correct bow woods for your longbow. Woods that are best used for the stave include maple yew ash or hickory. The sas pioneer is one of the best traditional longbows with some unique. Softer woods to avoid would be aspen cottonwood poplar balsa and pine.

Two important characteristics determine the suitability of wood for bow making. Elm creates short stout bows with thick limbs. Ash is a ring porous hardwood and the early growth wood is coarse and stringy with the late growth wood being harder and stronger. Even if the bow survives tillering it s probably not going to perform well or be durable.

Here is a list of different types of wood that are up for the job. Recurve bows can be made of several different woods including hickory yew osage orange and lemon wood. The two most commonly used bow woods are pacific yew and osage orange. Types of wood for bow making recurve bows.

Yew very popular for centuries throughout europe this lightweight wood is good for simple short lived bows with a. Hungarian flagella longbow horsebow editor s choice. Sas pioneer traditional wood long bow. 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.

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. Longbows are the most common and simplest type of wooden bow. Best wood for bows.