[Regia-NA] viking bows

[Carolyn Priest-Dorman]

Wulfhere wrote:

>I don't know of any bowyers in the states who will sell a wood bow without 
>a stress cover on the back.

My husband and I have been involved in traditional archery for over 15 
years; he's a Grandmaster Bowman in the SCA, and I was once a master 
bowman.  Over the years he's had loads of bows blow up or become unusable 
in his hands:  fiberglas crossbow prods, aluminum crossbow prods both 
covered and uncovered, homemade fiberglas laminated recurves, flat wooden 
recurves, D-shaped wood longbows, bent-stick bows, and even a D-shaped 
longbow he made from rattan, at weights from 15lb all the way up to around 
150lb.  Never has so much as a splinter injured him as a result.  He has 
also been a line marshal when bows have blown up and has (knock wood) never 
seen an injury.

Obviously, we've gotten a lot of bows from a lot of US bowyers, and are 
also familiar with the products of bowyers (both US and otherwise) that we 
haven't personally patronized. ;>  In all that time we have never 
encountered a bowyer who insists on selling linen-backed bows of any sort.


Carolyn Priest-Dorman              Þóra Sharptooth
  http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html