Carbon longbows- why not?

[King Custard]

Just what-iff'ing....

Why, oh why dont we have laminated carbon longbows - two ( or even three)piece -put together segments????
(or do we)
Is it just a 'trad thing? - or is there a future in this? - imagine a mere 40lb longbow making " recurve type trajectory" 100 yard shots ...maybe even with ACE's.........and why not?

Over to you Border Bows - and yes I do have some mental ideas as to design ( but no idea on materials)

- guess I'm toying with going for a longbow - but can't get my head around the 'low-tech', side of things... I at least want a bit o' carbon in there somewhere!

[pHz]

glass is used in flatbows (and the grozer 'longbows' use glass too) but i dont know of any carbon longbows

given the shape of a 'trad' ELB i guess you would need a foam core with carbon and wood laminates ?

interesting concept though - a short foam / carbon / bamboo ELB shooting carbons off a 'fastflight' string

slainte rob

[N.Vodden]

i doubt theres any physical reason why this couldnt be done, but i think it would apall most of the longbow fraternity

while it would be more efficient, faster, harder wearing ,longer range and all the things that go hand in hand with modern bows.... thats not the point of a longbow

The LB is a piece of history and i believe it is that pedigree that makes it appeal to so many people. It is made of traditional materials by hand to keep it as close approximation of an old bow as is possible.

[NeilM]

Kyudo bows (and arrows) are made of carbon, as well as traditional bamboo, and by comparison, the ELB is 'modern' compared to the age of Kyudo.

On the flip side; Take a longbow, work carbon and other modern materials into it, make it a three piece and maybe for efficiency make the riser of aluminium. Flatten the limbs a little for better cast and ease of manufacture and OH! I think that's been done hasn't it?

[BorderBows]

We currently make our GL flatbows with no glass fiber as it makes them alot quicker... if carbon is used.
We do a ELB and we also make a replica (clear glass) version for durability. Full "d" sectioned.


The Longbow we make is hickory backed bamboo.

There is no reason why we couldnt swap the clear glass for carbon and save some weight.

Though, we do give a guarentee for fastflight on all our bows including the allwood bows like the raven and ELB. This is because the limb is so long, and the bow is very slow. The impact on the limb is not like that of a recurve!

The only down side, if it is a down side is the black stripe you get from carbon down the side of the bow...

The horn nock, and chunky limb ends make these bows slower than flatbows.

havent made a carbon version of our ELB...
Though im sure we would take orders...

[Haywain]

Although it would not be impossible to make a longbow with carbon inserts, would the bow be legal in your society for the longbow class. NFAS longbow class states wooden bows only, anyone with one would have to shoot in another group.

[King Custard]

point taken - no - it wouldn't be your traditional longbow...
but it would likely out-perform and out score, outlast and out-price (once set-up) the usual bent stick.
I'm sure it would find interest, at least with the more 'competitive- target score driven' -or- 'equipment efficient' archer.

True many bowyers would feel snubbed, their livelihood threatenned - but a bow of this type could never replace the history and feel of the traditionalists bow.

It would offer a new 'class' of performance longbow though - something between the efficiency of target recurve and the original-authentic (if primitive) strung stave. It might be nice to have the choice- and lucrative to offer it.
And - having this as an option - it would be easy to tell just how much a talented longbowman was being 'held back' by the inconsistent materials utilised in trad manufacture...beautiful as they are.
And in a yet unexploited market, it would only have to do little more than hold together without snapping to be considered a success!

[TJ Mason]

There's a guy on the Yorkshire scene who is notorious for his suspected use of carbon fibre in his longbow. He can hold at full draw for a suspiciously long time without losing cast - a major mechanical advantage over people using wood-only bows.
One time, his bow snapped at full draw. The other longbow shooters tried to gather round to have a look, but he got that bow into his car at breakneck speed and was gone before anyone could see his laminations!

[King Custard]

Originally Posted by Haywain

Although it would not be impossible to make a longbow with carbon inserts, would the bow be legal in your society for the longbow class. NFAS longbow class states wooden bows only, anyone with one would have to shoot in another group.

Ah! rules....i hate rules.
and wasn't aware that they had to be wooden bows only....

You won't now be watching me on 'Dragon's Den' pleading for finace to manufacture a competition longbow...that can't be allowed into competition.

oops....so how does border get to use glass?... on some bows?

Any chance of a link to Border's longbow section please - i get pretty lost whenever i try to navigate the site.

[Ceri Jones]

I do know of a person who tried to make one using carbon fiber and a 3D printer, the finished piece would have worked if anyone had the nerve to draw it back themselves.
It was tested on a realease system they built and got up to 70lb at 32" sad to say that on realese the bow shattred at the nocks, but the arrow also left shavings were the speed of it leaving the bow had sanded down the area that rubbed along the riser.
I dont know what happened to his work, but he is now a sports car designer somewhere in asia and has something do to with the use of carbon fiber laminates in cars.

i used to use a 3D printer in school and you could make anything on them, if the carbon block to be used was pre laminated and then cored with a carbon of higher solidity then the idea might be valid, and as 1 big 3D Printer would easily be able to churn out 3/4 bows a day (before failures) the only real cost to cover would be set-up, making the laminted carbon blocks and maintence of equipment.

And as long as it conformed to the GNAS rules of what a longbow is (somithing about width and thickness) it should be coverd in the longbow class.