Part 1 (2/2)
Another weapon now in the Museum of the United Service Inst.i.tution came from the same vessel. Probably the oldest specimen extant of the English long-bow is in the possession of Mr. C. J. Longman. It was dug out of the peat near Cambridge, and is unfortunately in very bad condition. It can never have been a very powerful weapon. Geologists say that it cannot be more recent than the twelfth or thirteenth century, and may be much more ancient. Indeed, from its appearance it is more probable that it is a relic of the weaker archery of the Saxons than that it is a weapon made after the Normans had introduced their more robust shooting into this country.
Before the discussion of the practical points connected with the bow is commenced, it must be borne in mind that these pages profess to give the result of actual experience, and nothing that is advanced is mere theory or opinion unsupported by proof, but the result only of long, patient, and practical investigation and of constant and untiring experiment. Whenever, therefore, one kind of wood, or one shape of bow, or one mode or principle of shooting, &c., is spoken of as being better than another, or the best of all, it is a.s.serted to be so simply because, after a full and fair trial of every other, the result of such investigation bore out that a.s.sertion. No doubt some of the points contended for were in Mr. Ford's time in opposition to the then prevailing opinions and practice, and were considered innovations. The value of theory, however, is just in proportion as it can be borne out by practical results; and in appealing to the success of his own practice as a proof of the correctness of the opinions and principles upon which it was based, he professed to be moved by no feeling of conceit or vanity, but wholly and solely by a desire to give as much force as possible to the recommendations put forth, and to obtain a fair and impartial trial of them.
The English bows now in use may be divided primarily into two cla.s.ses--the _self-bow_ and the _backed bow_; and, to save s.p.a.ce and confusion, the attention must first be confined to the self-bow, reserving what has to be said respecting the backed bow. Much, however, that is said of the one applies equally to the other.
The self-bow of a single stave is the real old English weapon--the one with which the mighty deeds that rendered this country renowned in bygone times were performed; for until the decline and disappearance of archery in war, as a consequence of the superiority of firearms, and the consequent cessation of the importation of bow-staves, backed bows were unknown. Ascham, who wrote in the sixteenth century, when archery had already degenerated into little else than an amus.e.m.e.nt, mentions none other than self-bows; and it may therefore be concluded that such only existed in his day. Of the woods for self-bows, yew beyond all question carries off the palm. Other woods have been, and still are, in use, such as lance, cocus, Washaba, rose, snake, laburnum, and others; but they may be summarily dismissed (with the exception of lance, of which more hereafter) with the remark that self-bows made of these woods are all so radically bad, heavy in hand, apt to jar, dull in cast, liable to chrysal, and otherwise p.r.o.ne to break, that no archer should use them so long as a self-yew or a good backed bow is within reach.
The only wood, then, for self-bows is yew, and the best yew is of foreign growth (Spanish or Italian), though occasionally staves of English wood are met with which almost rival those of foreign growth.
This, however, is the exception; as a rule, the foreign wood is the best: it is straighter, and finer in grain, freer from pins, stiffer and denser in quality, and requires less bulk in proportion to the strength of the bow.
The great bane of yew is its liability to knots and _pins_, and rare indeed it is to find a six-feet stave without one or more of these undesirable companions. Where, however, a pin occurs, it may easily be rendered comparatively harmless by the simple plan of raising it--i.e.
by leaving a little more wood than elsewhere round the pin in the belly and back of the bow. This strengthens the particular point, and diminishes the danger of a chrysal or splinter. A pin resembles a small piece of wire, is very hard and troublesome to the bowmaker's tools, runs right through the bow-stave from belly to back, and is very frequently the point at which a chrysal starts. This chrysal (also called by old writers a 'pinch') is a sort of disease which attacks the belly of a bow. At first it nearly resembles a scratch or crack in the varnish. Its direction is always diagonal to the line of the bow, and it gradually eats deeply into the bow and makes it appear as if it had been attacked with a chopper. If many small chrysals appear, much danger need not be feared, though their progress should be watched; but if one chrysal becomes deeply rooted, the bow should be sent to the bowmaker for a new belly. A chrysal usually occurs in new bows, and mostly arises from the wood being imperfectly seasoned; but it occasionally will occur in a well-seasoned bow that has been lent to a friend who uses a longer draw and dwells longer on the point of aim, thus using the weapon beyond its wont. Another danger to the life of a bow arises from splinters in the back. These mostly occur in wet weather, when the damp, through failure of the varnish, has been able to get into the wood. Directly the rising of a splinter is observed, that part of the bow should be effectually glued and wrapped before it is again used. After this treatment the bow will be none the worse, except in appearance. Yew and hickory only should be used for the backs of bows. Canadian elm, which is occasionally used for backs, is particularly liable to splinter. It is obvious whenever a bow is broken the commencement of the fracture has been in a splinter or a chrysal, according as the first failure was in the back or the belly; therefore in the diagnosis of these disorders archers have to be thankful for small mercies. The grain of the wood should be as even and fine as possible, with the feathers running quite straight, and as nearly as possible consecutively from the handle to the horn in each limb, and without curls; also, care should be taken, in the manufacture of a bow, that the sap or back be of even depth, and not in some places reduced to the level of the belly. The feathering of a yew bow means the gradual disappearance of some of the grain as the substance of the bow is reduced between the handle and horn. A curl is caused by a sudden turn in the grain of the wood, so that this feathering is abruptly interrupted and reversed before it reappears.
This is a great source of weakness in a bow, both in belly and back.
There should be nothing of the nature of feathering in the back of a bow, and it is believed that the best back is that in which nothing but the bark has been removed from the stave. Any interruption of the grain of the back is a source of weakness and a hotbed of splinters. A bow that follows the string should never be straightened, for the same reason that anything of the nature of a carriage-spring should on no account be reversed in application. The wood should be thoroughly well seasoned and of a good sound hard quality. The finest and closest dark grain is undoubtedly the most beautiful and uncommon; but the open or less close-grained wood, and wood of paler complexion, are nearly, if not quite, as good for use.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1.--A GOOD BOW UNSTRUNG.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 2.--A GOOD BOW WHEN STRUNG.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 3.--A BADLY REFLEXED BOW THAT BENDS IN THE HAND.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 4.--A GOOD SHAPE FOR A NEW BOW.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 5.--A BOW THAT FOLLOWS STRING: STRUNG AND UNSTRUNG.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 6.--A REFLEX BOW: STRUNG AND UNSTRUNG.
(Figs. 5 and 6 show the different distances which the limbs of well-shaped and of reflex bows have to go to their rest when unstrung.)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 7.
_Doublefish_ _Singlefish_]
The self-yew bow may be a single-stave--that is to say, made of a single piece of wood, or may be made of two pieces dovetailed or united in the handle by what is called a fish. In a single-stave bow the quality of the wood will not be quite the same in the two limbs, the wood of the lower growth being denser than that of the upper; whilst in the grafted bow, made of the same piece of wood, cut or split apart, and re-united in the handle, the two limbs will be exactly of the same nature. The joint, or _fis.h.i.+ng_ (fig. 7), should be double, not single.
The difference, however, between these two sorts of self-yew bows is so slight as to be immaterial. In any unusually damp or variable climate single staves should be prepared; and in the grafted bows care should be taken in ascertaining that they be firmly put together in the middle. A single-stave bow has usually a somewhat shorter handle, as it becomes unnecessary to cover so much of the centre of the bow when the covering is not used as a cover to the joint, but for the purpose of holding the bow only.
In shape all bows should be full and inflexible in the centre, tapering gradually to each horn. They should never bend in the handle, as bows of this shape (i.e. a continuous curve from horn to horn) always jar most disagreeably in the hand. A perfectly graduated bend, from a stiff unbending centre of at least nine inches, towards each horn is the best.
Some self-yew bows are naturally reflexed, others are straight, and some follow the string more or less. The slightly reflexed bows are perhaps more pleasing to the eye, as one cannot quite shake off the belief that the shape of Cupid's bow is agreeable. Bows which follow the string somewhat are perhaps the most pleasant to use.
The handle of the bow, which in size should be regulated to the grasp of each archer, should be in such a position that the upper part of it may be from an inch to an inch and a quarter above the _true centre_ of the bow, or the point in the handle whereon the bow will balance. If this centre be lower down in the handle, as is usual in bows of Scotch manufacture, the cast of the bow may be somewhat improved, but at the cost of a tendency to that unpleasant feeling of kicking and jarring in the hand. Again, if the true centre be higher, or, as is the case in the old unaltered Flemish bows, at the point where the arrow lies on the hand, the cast will be found to suffer disadvantageously. If the handle be properly grasped (inattention to which will endanger the bow's being pulled out of shape), the fulcrum, in drawing, will be about the true balancing centre, and the root of the thumb will be placed thereon.
Considering a bow to consist of three members--a handle and two limbs--the upper limb, being somewhat longer, must of necessity bend a trifle more, and this it should do. The most usual covering for the handle is plush; but woollen binding-cloth, leather, and india-rubber are also in constant use.
The piece of mother-of-pearl, ivory, or other hard substance usually inserted in the handle of the bow, at the point where the arrow lies, is intended to prevent the wearing away of the bow by the friction of the arrow; but this precaution overreaches itself, as in the course of an unusually long life the most hard-working bow will scarcely lose as much by this friction as must, to start with, be cut away for this insertion.
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