new archer - introduction

[ade53]

hello & welcome nice web site liked the Will Hay page

[Little Miss Purple]

welcome aboard very interesting quest for your bow!!

[English Bowman]

Had a quick look at your site, interesting. Not sure that I agree with it all, but interesting never the less, and I wish you good luck

To answer some of you points, most judges will ignore the rule about horn nocks on a longbow, and unless you plan to enter record status shoots you should be fine with self nocks. I have seen one bow with separate hard-wood nocks instead of horn, if these were painted black then there would be no problems at all as I doubt anyone would look close enough to tell the difference.
As for the feathers these are a necessity. I completely disagree with Kevin Boone on this, not only is his advice wrong in my opinion, it's dangerous. Do not be tempted to use plastic vanes, it could end in a trip to casualty! If you shoot perfectly then a plastic vane is fine, but if you have a bad loose or get your hand position wrong then you are in trouble. With a feather it will fold up when it hits your hand leaving you with a "paper cut." A plastic vane won't do this and could slice the flesh to the bone, a bad thing in my opinion. Don't chance it.
On the subject of feathers, different feathers will give different flight characteristics. A peacock feather for instance is smoother and quieter than a turkey feather, but the turkey is more resilient. You must use the flight feathers, and cannot mix left and right winged feathers on one arrow. Good feathers are critical to good arrow flight.
Changing to a longbow from an AFB will be a challenge. A longbow is harder to shoot than an AFB. It's less consistent in it's performance, and as there is no arrow shelf, or cut away, loose, arrow spine and hand position are all more critical. Saying that the satisfaction in my opinion is much greater.

Sorry for rambling on so much and as I said good luck and I hope you enjoy your shooting

Daniel

[tronster]

Welcome to the site..

[alanesq]

My AFB doesn't have a cutout or arrow shelf and I am using plastic fletched arrows! - I have not had any problem yet but I have only used it on one occasion so far
I have a target to practice at home but I am not yet confident of hitting the target so I have resisted the temptation so far ;-)
I have some kevlar gloves, after what you say regarding the arrows I may wear one of these on my bow hand?

Cheers
Alan

[jeduffey]

Alan, welcome.

I read through your page on the vegan longbow. I certainly agree with you on the major point of your writing, when you choose to do a certain thing in a specific way, because that is what you believe to be right, every manner of objection and obstacle will raise its nay saying head. I find the simple choice which generates a complicated twist to solve quite entertaining and energizing in my own life.

As to your material choices.
Shed antlers, the fresher the better, can in fact be used to tip the nocks of bows. Albeit the anter is generally used in a laminated fashion, rather than a taper and socket arrangement. I have some pictures if you can't find any. It may be possible to use some chemical treatment method to strengthen the softer antler material and make it function better.

Fletching. There is nothing functionally wrong with using plastic vanes on your arrows, even wooden ones, shot from any kind of bow. If you are worried about cutting your hand, wear a glove. Even with feathers, I have a bow that needs a glove worn, or I get my knuckle cut. Should you choose to compete the events that require feathers, you need to use feathers. However, just because TrueFlight and Gateway only use 4 specific feathers off of any given bird, and then quality control eliminates the lesser of these, that is no reason to say that all other feathers are non-functional. All other feathers will be less than the finest quality money can buy, but it isnt' about the money. It is about your choice to do it your own way. So, yes, just about any feather will work. A few better than most. You will most likely want to learn to split and grind your own full length feathers, for cutting into fletching. It is realatively easy and passes the long Winters, as well as adding to the satisfaction of use. Around here, New Jersey USA, there are lots of Canada Geese that drop feathers in the parks. My son likes to collect them. I plan on using some of them to make a new set of arrows for one of the kids bows I use for the little ones. Experiment, have fun with it, your choice kind of demands it.

There are some feathers that money cannot buy and will land you in jail. Eagles, Owls, Hawks, other protected raptors, and any of their being including feathers, at least in the US, are not permitted to be in the possesion of any person who is not a properly licensed falconer. That means that only falconers who are also archers can have arrows fletch with feathers from these incredible flyers. I think a set of shafts stained very dark, footed in ebony wood, and fletched with feathers from a raven would be a sight to behold. So to would a set of arrows in white and cream, fletched from an owl, so that the edge of the feather is not altered, to protect the special silencing design of these birds, would be very cool. Alas, I will not likely become a falconer.

On the other hand, who is to say that peoples of history have always used feathers? Who can tell me that never has an archer been hungry, without proper gear, and gotten creative enough to make arrows fletched with leaves, or specially treated cloth like a starched silk, or some other interesting concoction?

Again, these options may not suit a certain league with specific rules. However, I am fairly certain that a nice set of arrows with experimental fletching, in a woven basket quiver, with a woven arm guard, next to a longbow that you made, would put one permanently stained grin on your face.

If you get bold, you could make a set of these arrows and join one of the arrow trading deals. Yours would certainly be unique.

Also, try out the Bowyers' Journal site. They are very focused on how to make archery gear, in the way that you want, just because you want to do it.

[laminatekid]

an epoxy resin mixed with charcoal and applied to the end of a self nocked bow will look just like horn when polished and even feel like horn......

[jeduffey]

Originally Posted by laminatekid

an epoxy resin mixed with charcoal and applied to the end of a self nocked bow will look just like horn when polished and even feel like horn......

Hey, that's cool. "The look, for less."

[currie1014]

welcome and enjoy

[alanesq]

Thanks for the support :-)

In fact I have been so inspired that I have ordered myself a self nocked longbow !
its only a cheap one and probably wont be very good but at least then I can say I own one ;-)

Once I manage to start hitting the target I may have a try at making some wooden arrows (at the moment metal ones are very handy as we can find them with a metal detector if all else fails)

I am finding that my aim left to right is reasonable but up and down I am all over the place !

BTW - the epoxy resin trick sounds very interesting, I may give this a try at some point ?