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Crecy Museum Bow & Arrows

Aug 20, 2020
1 min

Crecy Museum Bow & Arrows

Well here it is! The culmination of many months of work, for the fantastic Crecy museum. ______ Five heavy birch military arrows with Type 9 war bodkins, and six ash arrows with a variety of heads from the time period - Type 8 bodkins, Type 7 bodkins and Type 14 broadheads. ______ Each arrow has a 1/2" head and 8mm nock, fitted with tapered horn inserts glued with hide glue. The swan fletchings are bound with red silk into a beeswax, tallow and copper verdigris mixt

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Buckingham Old Gaol Museum Warbow

Dec 12, 2019
1 min

Buckingham Old Gaol Museum Warbow

The Buckingham Old Gaol Museum 160lb bow is now up for sale! This is an English yew copy of Mary Rose bow MR80A0451, made to identical measurements as the original for display at the Buckingham Old Gaol Museum, as part of their "Buckingham 1369" exhibition this summer. The bow was displayed alongside a number of my arrows and heads, and a beautiful example of a sidenock made by Dave Pim. This bow was originally around 130lb as it was made using very fresh timber, and has

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Spine matched target arrows

Jan 3, 2018
1 min

Spine matched target arrows

These were a brilliant challenge to make - a set of target arrows with matching spine and weight for a 45lb bow, but constructed in an authentic medieval way. The shafts are 11/32 pine from Chris Boyton, and they have a nice slim 2" long insert of dark ox horn. The fletching compound is my usual mixture for late medieval arrows, of pine resin, beeswax and copper verdigris. The fletchings are turkey to keep the labour time at a minimum, and are white and a reddish brown, to em

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Fletchings cut to shape

Dec 18, 2017
1 min

Fletchings cut to shape

The goose feathers are now cut to the right shape and size - around 7" long, and 1/2" high is the usual approach. Just got the heads to forge now, and these will be ready for their journey to Canada. #warbow #warbows #archery #medieval #medievalarchery #longbow #longbows #medievallongbows #traditional #traditionalarchery #medievalarrows

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Goose feathers tied to the shafts

Dec 18, 2017
1 min

Goose feathers tied to the shafts

The goose primary feathers are now stripped from their quills and bound tightly into the fletching compound using pure, undyed silk thread. The compound is then reheated and this allows it to flow over the bindings and the base of the feathers, sealing everything into place. #warbow #warbows #archery #medieval #medievalarchery #longbow #longbows #medievallongbows #traditional #traditionalarchery #medievalarrows

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Verdigris compound applied to the arrows

Dec 18, 2017
1 min

Verdigris compound applied to the arrows

The lime shafts have now had their fletching compound applied - the usual mix of pine resin, beeswax and copper acetate. I'm going for a slightly thinner coat than usual on these, as I think they'll look really nice with the undyed silk binding showing through as much as possible. The lumps and bumps in the compound will all be smoothed out as it's reheated after the fletchings are bound in place. #warbow #warbows #archery #medieval #medievalarchery #longbow #longbows #medie

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Hazel selfbow

Dec 18, 2017
1 min

Hazel selfbow

Finished off a lovely little 70lb hazel bow today, here are some detail photos. The horn sidenocks are made from local cow horn, and glued to the bow tips with Isinglass (fish glue) which is incredibly strong when it goes off. The bow still has it's cambium along the back making for a really cool finish, especially when brought out using oil and wax. #warbow #warbows #archery #medieval #medievalarchery #longbow #longbows #medievallongbows #traditional #traditionalarchery #me

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New set of authentic arrows in progress

Dec 18, 2017
1 min

New set of authentic arrows in progress

Here's a set of six fully authentic arrows I'm working on for a customer in Canada. The shafts are lime, and are tapered with a torpedo profile - full diameter for most of the shaft to keep the weight and stiffness up, and then dropping suddenly towards the nock. The nock end is around 11/32 as seen on many of the Mary Rose arrows, and the horn insert is fitted using a sharp knife, running down the nock and splitting it open instead of sawing the slot. This results in a ver

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Budget roving arrows

Dec 18, 2017
1 min

Budget roving arrows

Here's a nice simple set of roving arrows as part of my budget line. These are for a fairly heavy bow, so the lime shafts are tapered from 1/2" at the head down to about 3/8" at the nock, with a strong torpedo taper to keep the weight up. The nock inserts are clear plastic - immensely strong and stunning in the right light! Long low fletchings bound with green silk top and bottom. Pipe heads based on Museum of London Tudor head fitted as standard. #warbow #warbows #archery #

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Swan fletched military arrows in progress

Dec 18, 2017
1 min

Swan fletched military arrows in progress

Here's a set of totally authentic late medieval arrows getting made up to be shipped to Canada. The shafts are lime, and have a strong torpedo taper to keep them as solid as possible. The horn inserts are a lovely blonde cow horn, glued in place with hide glue. A fletching compound of pine resin, beeswax and copper acetate is mixed up and painted onto the shaftment area, where the long low swan feathers are bound with pure undyed silk. The feathers are then cut down to the h

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Mary Rose museum replica MR82A1892/9

Dec 18, 2017
2 min

Mary Rose museum replica MR82A1892/9

Ok, this won't be everybody's cup of tea (I'm not really sure I like it myself) but here's the first of a set of "super accurate" Mary Rose replica arrows. Super accurate in quotation marks, because these are exact copies of what I personally inspected in the museum archives, so it could be argued that 500 odd years ago they looked very different. The fletching compound isn't green, it's yellow. It does contain copper acetate but only in trace amounts so as to not change the

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