[sambow]

A couple of years ago I bought my lad a cheap junior longbow of ebay. It was american white ash but being a junior bow it only had a max draw length of 22". He loved it and used it regularly until he grew.

Recently I decided to do the same again and bought another longbow of ebay with a draw length of 27". The first time we took it out to shoot it started raining lightly three targets from the end. We were in woods and not getting particularly wet so we carried on with the shoot and returned to the "clubhouse".

When I went to dry the bow I noticed that it had gone all blotchy the finish appeared to be coming off where raindrops had landed and on the inner edge of the limbs the wood was starting to have a rough "hairy" finish.

The original bow was shot in all weathers without problems.

When I compare the two bows the original had a hard high shine finish which I imaging was a varnish of some type. The new bow had a sticky / waxy finish.

When I contacted the seller he said it had been finished with beeswax and I needed to regularly wax and this would build up its protection. Alternatively he suggested varnishing it.

What finish should a longbow have (NB I am more interested in practicalities rather than tradition)?

If I wanted to varnish it, will it be possible to get all the beeswax off becuase I imaging if there is any residual in the grain of the wood this will cause adhesion problems?