What decides the lentgh of a bow

[Saxon]

Hello all,

I was wondering what decides the length of a longbow. Is it set for some reason or is it an individuals choice? Or is it governed by your height / weight etc?

Thanks. Carl.

[Biggles]

They should normally be about a foot longer than you.

[grimsby archer]

Originally Posted by Carl.1

Hello all,

I was wondering what decides the length of a longbow. Is it set for some reason or is it an individuals choice? Or is it governed by your height / weight etc?

Thanks. Carl.

Did you know that generally, people are as tall as the distance between the fingertips of their outstretched arms!

[jb.68]

It's roughly height plus fistmel.
But it depends on archers height, drawlength, weight of bow and the bowyer making it.

[Saxon]

Thanks fo rthe replies folks.

Sooo, my impression here is there is no set length to height, but more a subjective length dependant on the bowmaker that will be your height plus a bit?
I thought perhaps there would be a set formula that all bowyers would work to.

Carl.

[Biggles]

No, whilst there is no set length, a longbow, by it's very name, is just that, but the poundage and draw-length does not depend on bow length, in our group, we have one chap of 5ft who pulls a 6ft bow of 100lb, I pull a bow of 7ft which is 80lb.
It does not matter who makes it, the length and poundage is up to the user, not the bowyer, he gets what he can out of the wood being used.
The user would usually pick a bow of his choice, not the other way round.
The length, for a grown man, less for a child obviously, is usually reckoned to be about a foot longer than the man, and the fistmel, which is a clenched fist with thumb extended, is the normal height of the string when braced.
I only shoot longbow now, and that is at re-enactments, and re-enacting contests, and have done since leaving Tollgate Bowmen in the early 70s.

[English Bowman]

If you want to shoot GNAS competitions then the following rule applies
"The bow shall be not less than five feet in length for an arrow of less than 27 inches and; not less than five feet six inches in length for a 27” or longer arrow, this being measured along the back between the string nocks."
If not then the shorter the bow is for a given weight the faster it will be, but the more likely to break, and the harder to pull. The longer bow will be smoother, and safer but slower.
I have two bows made by Pip Bickerstaffe, one is 5' 6" and the other is about 6' 4" they are both the same wood, and both 70lbs. I draw to 28" The short bow is much faster to shoot, point blank is 20yds further out, but if I don't shoot every week I can't shoot a full round with it and not get tired, the longer one is no bother.
So to answer your question at last, the draw length and wood decides how long the bow should be. (and if you want to stick to the rules for GNAS, which I know isn't a consideration for everybody.)

Daniel

[alanesq]

As I understand it, there are two reasons a longbow is as long as it is

a. There is a limit to how short you can make any given bow before the wood will be over stressed and fail (or at least take a lot of set)

b. A short bow will tend to stack (as the angle between the bow and string gets too high)

e.g. Hungarian bows can be very short as they use animal sinew etc. rather than wood which can take a lot more stress but they have to be heavily recurved to stop them stacking

BTW - There is also another advantage of having a longer bow in that you can shorten it at a later date to increase the draw weight

[jb.68]

Originally Posted by Biggles

and the fistmel, which is a clenched fist with thumb extended, is the normal height of the string when braced.

It is used as a basic way of measuring many things, not just brace height.
And to be honest I have seen very few bows that are a foot taller than the archer

The weight is upto the user, however I would not expect to tell the bowyer what length it needs to be unless I had a specific need for it to be a certain length. He knows what length it needs to be from the weight and timber that it's made from.

[Artemis]

Having read all the answers I did not see anyone mentioning the arrow length. (sorry if I missed it) The crucial criteria is what length of arrow you are drawing. Traditionally the bow should be 2 1/2 times the length of the arrow. If you think about it, the longer the arrow the more stress to the bow so the longer it needs to be.

BTW a longbow is so called to differentiate it from the crossbow (which is held horizontally as opposed to vertically.) In early time it was not called a longbow, but the English bow, the noble bow, the hand bow, the bend bow, the crooked stick. You will only see it referred to as a longbow when the crossbow appears in the same sentence or the same ordinance listing.