Pacific Yew bows in Stock

Please ask for pictures by email. unless otherwise stated all bows can be used for left or right hand shooters and 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.

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,

.