We may have pacific yew bows in stock. Most bows are custom ordered and have a wait time of about 2 months until its in your hands.
Please ask for pictures of bows by email for bows in stock.
are made of yew wood.
Yew Bows
Each of our bows is meticulously crafted using the same
two hands from harvest to finish. Natural archer have reached
a level of primitive elegance seldom found now a days. Inspired
by bowyers from another time and place where a bow was the
hunters sacred tool the feed the family , and the warriors
optimistic partner in the darkness of battle. Our bows are
brought in the world as a rugged companion for its caretaker.
A bow forgiving in aim, and dependable at the end of a long
day of hard shooting that will smile proud in the moment
of need. Our bows are meant to be admired and caressed around
the campfire and pushed and shoved threw the bush on a wet
day. It will take its place among the finest bows in any
tribe. Modern Timesaving techniques and tools have there
place in the world but not in the making of our bows.
Pacific Yew is the wood used. High elevation yew from the
ideal habitat in British Columbia is carefully chosen, havested
and seasoned by the bowyer. Yew has ancient roots in traditional
archer for thousands of years. It was the bow wood that
won wars in Europe in Medieval times At the same time on
the other side of the planet yew was being made into bows
of all shapes and sizes for war and hunting.
The secret to a Yew bow strength and beauty is its heart
and sapwood. The heart wood is where the power comes from,
its ability to be compressed and return back to its original
shape is almost unmatched in any other wood. The sapwood
of the tree is superior under tension and protects the heartwood
from being able to break also adding beauty. This is why
some native north american tribes believe this tree was
put on earth for the making of bows and referred to it as
the chief of the forest being a small tree mostly almost
vine-like under towering Old Growth forests.
Vine maple is the bowyers 1st choice of second string woods.
Vine maple staves are split from a log havested and seasoned
by the bowyer. These bows are mostly backed in rawhide.
The simplicity of self-backed self bow , its natural
beauty, its feel in the hand and sense of satisfaction after
the arrow is loosed on the target, thousands of years of
development the wooden bow saw small changes being made
that would be tested for generations and impoved one centery
at a time. The wooden bow has proven its ablitys the world
in over and has shaped whole nations. It had cultural signifagance
to almost every human that has exsisted and still does for
a great many archers today. There is perhaps nothing more
satisifing to some archers than the plucking of wood bows.
English Longbows.
Horn nocks, leather handles, 72 inches long on average. 30-65 lbs, up to 32 inch draw.
Character Yew Bows
Flat bows- Western North American Native Style Bows- Our
Flat bows and Semi Flat bows are made with designs from
various Native tribes of North America Most of these bows
have always been made with Yew. Yew was as important as
a bow wood where it exsisted as it was used for Europe.
Many different uses of these bows and different climate
conditions developed many different bow styles coming in
all sorts of shapes and sizes. Flat bows were not all flat
or short. The typical almost rectangualr cross sections
made wood more efficent, the appication of animal sinews
to the back of the bow made it more durable, strong and
tight, the reflexed tips added strenght to the bow and allowed
it be smooth shooting. The bow could also be much shorter
now that it has been refined so much thus making the tool
easy to handle in real hunting and war situations with peoples
that did not line up and shoot from a distance. They could
shot from many postiions even laying on there back. There
pride in there bows was as great as all peoples pride in
there bows the craftmans ship would have been something
unbelivable to us now a days. some of the nations perhaps
had a deeper contectivness than most people the world over
with there bow as spiritual item and a personaly symboic.
Native people stuck a very delicate ballance with there
bow, making there bows as fast shooting and efficient as
possible with just the draw weight for its purpose and of
course as less a carrying of long distances burden. Every
bow would have been different. All we can do assume from
reserch some general designs of these bows and add our origiaal
finishs and artworks inspired by them.
Longbows – British Style bows. These were bows designed
so they could send heavy long hardwood arrows with heavy
steal tips accross a couple hundred Yards and pierce the
steal armor. Yew was the most important wood for these bows.
They were typicaly as tall or taller than the archer, thin
in width, with a D shape cross section, the bow was very
thick. This design allowed the bow to have massive strength
and the extreme length of the bow made sure it was not bending
in one spot very much. The D Shape put the strength of the
bow along a very small amount of wood along the center of
the belly thus making big heavy limbs light in a sense.
Bows back in the day would be so strong that it would take
years of training to pull one back and even then would be
a very tiring and painfull expereice. Even the most modern
bow would not do the damage of these bows, the draw weights
would be imposible for the recreational hunter.. You can
see why large numbers of archers training from age 4 and
pulling these monsters back would be the most effective
army around. The horse mounted steal covered knight with
a sharp soard could be taken down by a peasants arrow at
100 yards easy. The French Crossbow men would be loading
there bow while the english archer would have 3 heaver arrows
already in the air much more accurately.The same bow of
course developed as a recreational item that could be shot
comfortably by even small children The tradtion of english
longbow haves been preserved so well that it is safe to
assume that we are historicaly accurate with these bows
when we want to be.
Custom Bows
Woods pacific yew or vine maple harvested
by the bowyer. Other woods can be purchased for use in your
bow.
Nocks are of elk antler (fancy
or plain), horn, hemp cordage, self nocks, hardwood
overlays, bone overlays
Handle can be bare wood, leather or hemp
cordage or perhaps other.
Finish can be with a water based stain
in basic colors and natural with several coats of a clear
hemp seed oil that brings out the natural beauty of yew
without altering its character. Waxed.
Strings we use B-50 for standard strings.
True Hemp can be used but the cost is an extra $20. We make
our own strings using the reverse twist or endless loop.
Extra Stings are $15 for reverse twist and $7 for endless
loop.
Artwork on bows backs – We like native
north american designs and are insipired to use them on
bows or create our own patterns from this base. The art
from Vancouver Island up to Hadia terrritoy is
Backings - rawhide, hickory or hemp,
.