What makes a longbow `authentic?
A. An authentic longbow is a stick with a string — not like the ornamental versions that many bowyers now offer for sale. The bows that you can see in the Lord of the Rings movies are not longbows. Longbows were designed to be disposable, and never lasted long enough to become family heirlooms. The handle will be wrapped with leather or cloth and, because a longbow was designed to be shot `off the knuckle’, there will be no arrow rest or shelf (see below). In England, longbows were usually made of ash, because it is easy to work and grows prolifically. However, most modern bowyers — in England and elsewhere — prefer to work with yew, lemonwood, osage orange (`hedge apple’) and purpleheart. Of these, only yew is a native species in the UK, and even that is not particularly suitable for bowmaking. Medieval Egnlish bowyers frequently imported yew wood from Spain. Purpleheart is a tropical wood, and is unlikely to have been used in a mediaeval longbow. Bowstrings would probably have bee
Related Questions
- I just got my first longbow, a week ago, i enjoy, it so much all i want to do is practice, but i was wondering, is there such a thing, as shooting, my longbow to much
- I just got, my first longbow, a week, ago, i enjoy, it so much all i want to do is practice and was wondering, is there such a thing, as shooting, my longbow, to much
- How long will a Longbow Last?
