My First Time (first warbow experience)

After I joined my college archery club in the fall of 2009, I began to explore the world of archery.  I began rifling through videos on youtube, found some amazing archery forums, and got to know and learn from a  professional bowyer.  Throughout my explorations one form of archery kept me most interested, the English warbow.

The English warbow drew me in like it does most folks, with its draw weight.  Ranging from 70-180 lbs, I was astonished to see men pulling these bows with such ease.  The minimalist design of the warbow struck me as beautiful.  So simple yet so very complex.

My first try at loosing a warbow came after a typical friday practice with my club.  We had been shooting for around two hours when the owner of the property, who is also the bowyer mentioned above, came out to shoot with us.  Him and I began talking and the conversation moved onto English warbows.  He mentioned excitedly that he had one ready to go for a customer and that he would allow me to try it out.  In my excited stupor I happily agreed and waited while he fetched the bow.  When he returned, he held in his hands a hickory backed yew, English warbow with a #90 draw!  My adrenaline was racing and as I held the bow for the first time the bond was sealed and I knew this was the type of archery I was made for.  Using what knowledge I had gained from watching countless youtube videos, I took my first shot.  The power of the bow felt immense!  Compared to my #55 pyramid longbow, the #90 lb'er felt like a cannon!  As mentioned above, my adrenaline was racing and I drew the bow without a hitch.  When I loosed the arrow, it bolted away like a laser, and buried itself to the fletchings in the target.

I was hooked, and now there is no turning back!  I have since immersed myself into the warbow culture and community.

here is a link to the bowyer mentioned above, Rudderbows Archery:
http://www.rbows.com/index.html

Good News! Starting a Rivited Maille Project!

Hello all and thanks for dropping by!  My birthday recently past and I was graced with some wonderful gifts one of which is some rebar tie wire.  To those of you medieval hobbyist out there this means one thing...RIVITED MAILLE! Yes, I have in my possession several hundred feet of blackened, annealed, 16ga steel rebar tie wire. 

Yes, it's beautiful but what it is to become will be even more spectacular.

The process:
I will wind the wire around a 1/4" mandrel into large coils about 1 foot long. It then look like a large spring. I will cut the ring individually with a pair of modified bolt cutters. The modification allows me to cut the rings so that there is an overlap.  Then I will re-normalize the rings and begin the flattening process. That steel bar in the photo will be used in this step. With a tube just big enough to accomodate the bar I can place a ring at the bottom of the tube upon a steel surface and proceed to drop the bar upon the ring and flatten it. This will give a nice uniform flat ring. Then I will either punch a hole in the ring and use a cylindrical rivet or drift a hole and use a wedge rivet. The wedge rivet is more historically accurate, however.

So thats the crash course on rivited maille. I am so excited to start on this! Once I have a large enough piece of maille I plan on conducting some long range (50-100yards) armor penetrations test with my warbow :)

Thanks again for viewing! feel free to comment, ask a questin or two, and please let me know your reaction below!