Process of Making a Traditional English Longbow From Scratch - Start To Finish
In today’s video we meet Robert Geddes, a professional bow maker that brings history to life through his craftsmanship while maintaining traditional ties with artisans who wielded transformative influence through weaponry. Fascinated by the meditative nature of working with wood, Robert meticulously crafts english longbows that echo the craftsmanship of bygone eras. Employing hand tools, he peels back single pieces of wood, gradually revealing the shapes required for these medieval weapons. The process is ancient and deliberate, involving constant testing to ensure the bow's strength and optimal range. Please enjoy.
📢 Important Information:
In order to demonstrate and film the various stages of the process in the time we had, we started cutting oak; roughed out already seasoned elm; finished the tillering on yew. The wood is also dried for 3 years.
🏹 Robert’s social media:
• Facebook: / robertgeddesbowyer
• Instagram: instagram.com/string_on_a...
📚More info about Robert and his longbows:
www.raretradescentre.com.au/p...
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:33 - Cutting down the tree
1:53 - Stripping the bark
2:30 - Split in half
3:11 - Weigh and dry the wood
4:10 - Cut to length and shape
6:05 - Applying cow horn nocks
7:27 - String making - using a reverse twist Flemish loop
8:47 - Apply serving
9:11 - Tillering process
12:50 - Applying the finish (linseed oil & beeswax)
13:30 - In the field (shooting)
#EnglishLongbow #MedievalLongbow #Longbow #Woodworking #Bowyer #Craftsmanship #Artisan #Bowandarrow
📸 Copyright © 2023. Process Maestro. All Rights Reserved
Nice work on your yew longbow ❤
Nice, but none of the 3 pieces cut looked like yew to me, I fact the first one had oak leaves on it....
In order to demonstrate and film the various stages of the process in the time we had, we started cutting oak; roughed out already seasoned elm; finished the tillering on yew.
@@robertgeddes5417 thanks for the response, I thought my eyes were playing tricks!
@@robertgeddes5417thank you for clarifying that Robert 🤝🏼
@@robertgeddes5417 What is the width to depth ratio of the limbs?
This is how I prepare for my holidays to France as well!
Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!
beautiful
One of the best videos I've ever watched. I'm 73 been working wood all my life, as my father before me did. Was "into" archery fifty years ago as a teenager. What I like and appreciate is the soft background music, great camera work, and NO endless chatter like so many woodworkers do in their videos; j Just the wonderful sounds of a true craftsman at work. Thanks a million, I'm a new subscriber as a result of stumbling on this video. PS: your canine friend is a nice touch too.
My favourite and most relatable bit of this is 07:30 when we inevitably end up in the kitchen doing something we'll inevitably get in trouble for later... 😀
Every DIY job no matter how big or small, ends up being finished in the kitchen😅
Hello, I'm Jordan. One of Robert's students from Lake Bolac and I wanted to say, this is amazing! Seeing my favourite teacher in a video is absolutely flabbergasting, even one of my classmates were astonished from this. I was actually the first to see this by the way in my school. Again, I, along with the other classmates were flabbergasted and amazed 👏. I also like to thank the people behind the scenes who're shooting an incredible video, our teacher is absolutely inspiring.
Master Bowyer! I love watching craftsmen at work !
Beauty , simplicity and wonderful craftsmanship.
Wow! It's truely an honor to watch a true master craftsman at work.
Nice to see a bowyer's knot being used. I can make a good bow string but have trouble making it the right length. A bowyer's knot simplifies that.
I've recently finished reading Bernard Cornwell's books in his Grail Series, and the longbow is a key player in these stories. Great to watch one being made.
now all we have to do is stand with our arms out until sunset, for the strength we'll need. Onward, the White Company!!
Wow - now i have an idea of how my bow was made. i don't know where i got it, but it's about 6', has a D cross-section without those horn points (just notches), no arrow-rest, just slightly thickened in the centre. it doesn't have a heavy pull - maybe 30lb at 1 yard (the full length of the arrow) - but plenty for me (i'm 5'2"). i've only done target with my local SCA Barony with it, but i've developed a weird way of using it: it's tilted about 30-45° to the right, so the arrow can rest on the bow next to my hand, since it doesn't have a spot that will hold it. Hey, it works! Love the craft-ship and craeft-ship of this. Beautiful!
Absolutely amazing. You're ability to see quality timber, the ability to turn that timber into a piece of art and simply knowing how to work with your hands leads me to believe you're a master craftsman. Not a claim that can be made by many these days. Well done, I wish I had half your skills and ability. Great video as well, thank you for sharing.
You just remove the parts that aren't a bow.
I wish this was an hour long, could watch this all day.
Absolutely enjoyed watching every second of this, great skills beautiful bow, thankyou for the upload
What a great fascinating video....excellent work and craftsmanship!
Thank you very much!
I really enjoyed watching this, thank you. It’s inspired me to have a go at making one myself 🏹
Go for it!
Impressive craftsmanship.
I have a seven foot piece of Osage Orange, that has been aging in my garage for twenty years. I cut it from a thicket where it had been forced to grow tall and straight in low light, with slow growth producing fine grain. I always intended to use it for at least one bow, but I have grown old and have too much arthritis to do the work, not to mention shooting a strong bow. I wish I knew a bowmaker to give it to. Michigan, USA, near Detroit.
Good morning Mr. Burnett. I would LOVE to have that piece! I'm willing to pay the shipping cost, and give you something as a handling fee! Let me know if you're interested. Thanks, Nate. 😃
@@Master...deBater Burnett here. I don't have a social media account. Your message about wanting my Osage post came to my email box. When I tried to send you a reply, it ,did not go through. We need a way to communicate better.
Always good to see a bowyer at work. Good vid. Clean the face of the dial, I couldn't see what the draw was. The traditional English Superglue was a nice touch!
My absolut respect for this skills 🙂
Beautiful thanks for sharing with us 👍
My pleasure
Wonderful ❤ all my life i've been waiting to see all parts of the art of making longbow. My father build me my first bow when I was 6yo and that how it started :) grandfather was a woodworker so wood is the material that man can fall in love with 😂 i have been waiting very long and now Im happy. Best regards from Poland 🙌
Wow. Just amazing work. Thanks for sharing this with us!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Outstanding. Thank You. And the bird calls make me homesick too.
Watching this has made me want to go back and read the Thomas of Hookton Grail quest by Bernard Cornell,thank you
Great book
Fun to watch a boyer work the craft. Even more so doing it. Especially like his shave horse design and that of the tillering machine.
Hats off to the bowyer for patiently explaining to many commentators the reason why three different wood types can be seen in this video. If people bothered to read through the comments before adding their own then there would be a lot less duplication.
Y si se explicara,nadie tendría que preguntar,genio.😊En el video,Por ejemplo,o en Subtitulos,o voz en off....ir de listos no le gusta a nadie,así no harás amigos😂
Yeah that drying part can take a year or more or something. To get your staves dried.
Why didn't they explain it in the video itself
@@yann664 I thought it was oak, going by the leaf shape. Didn't look anything like a yew tree.
ok, your idea of a tillering tree is pure genious. I'm sorry but I'm stealing that lol.
Tree? What
@@pedroclaro7822that was the apparatus that had the ropes that he was using to test bend the bow to see if the two leaves were bending equally. The process is called tillering.
Excellent. Imagine the maker of all the cutting tools back in the 1100's ??!
Love the longbow
Lovely. Though it didn't seem clear for those not acquainted with the process, which side of the biow is heart wood, and which is newer growth as this helps give it the killer spring.
What an awesome video.
Well done. Beautiful.
Thank you! Cheers!
Awesome. Made it look so dang easy. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching! ❤️🙌🏼
нормальный пригодный к практическому применению лук так сделать не получится, только игрушка для детей
Yorkshireman here. Thank you for making this video. Our histories tell us that the bow is made to the height fof the man for the purpose of being able to step inside the bow to cock it. The action of cocking the bow after stepping into it is to to place the string across the shoulder and push the bow forward with both hands while at the same time holding an arrow. When the bow it stretched to the length of the arms the left arm is locked at the elbow preventing the bow releasing. With the free hand place the arrow and hold it in place with the fingers on the stock and hold the string on each side of the flght with other hand. Thus the arrow is now holding the stretched bow. Step out of the bow carefully and the arrow can be shot at the target. This needs practice. A strong man can cock a bow to fire an arrow hundreds of metres. This is a deadly weapon and is propbably better than any othe type of bow because in the hands of a strong professional bowman it can deliver arrows at a fast rate.
I'd likely end up shooting myself and not the arrow. NB, I've NEVER heard of this before, let alone seen it being done, but then I've only been shooting since 1959. I'm still trying to figure it out, TBH.
It is mentioned in Trevelyan's English Social History. Master of Trinity College Cambridge if you want a reference, but making the bow to the height of the man is common folk wisdom. When you see the size and weight of arrows and arrow heads of the middle ages on display at York it is easy to understand the power needed to fire such and the long bow as I described it is the only way to effectively launch a long heavy arrow.@@tacfoley4443
Parabéns. Excelente trabalho.
Absolutely spellbinding...needed to see that. *Heads off to the garage to check what timber I have lol
What a great skill just found this channel
A madeira do arco é teixo.A das flechas não me lembro. Pode me dizer qual é? Muito bom seu trabalho!
I loved the video, just wished there was explanation of what/why you were doing during the process..
Lovely sound of he bow.
Proper chap!
What kind off wood is suitable or the best to make a longbow ?
What craftsmanship
Lovely bow. Well done.
Inspiring and beautiful film. Thank you! Worry not about what others say. I am sure you don’t.
Very sweet. Great skills
Yep.. really interesting to watch.. and in the day..was certainly a game changer.. ie Battle of Agincourt..
I'm here to watch the old guy make the bow and where is he?.
we was off stealing trees from other peoples land. Like this guy
I assume hide glue was used in medieval times for attaching the horns? Superb video. Useful to know that the wood had to be aged/dried for 3 years. I wondered about that after seeing Robert record the date on a new piece of wood. I also wondered what tools were used all those years ago when pull-gauges, metal rasps etc. weren't around. (I assume that's what the markings were for on the post.) Thanks for a very entertaining, informative and thought-provoking film . . . . AND not a trace of dreadful A.I. narration!!!! Hurrah! 10/10
Thank you!!
hand wood tools even today are a different type of iron from machine wood tools.
@@user-ov4mk9ox8y - so what?
Metal rasps date back 3,000 years or more, and drawknives / spokeshaves at least 1,000 years. Pull gauges certainly would not have existed in medieval England, but the draw weight could easily be checked by hanging known weights on the bowstring when set up on the tiller.
Didn't know that about metal rasps being so old (historically speaking), but obvious when it comes to known weights . . . just that it never occurred to me. Thanks for the information.@@jackx4311
Excelent... Perfect...
I thought a traditional English longbow had to be made from a specific section of the Yew tree with a mix of Heartwood and a springier outer section for compression and stretch as I wanted to make one in Woodwork class back in the 70's but the Teacher was not about to provide a suitable Yew section so I was given a scrap length of Plywood School desk which did not survive one pull!
and a draw of 110 lbs. takes a lot of upper body strength. this bow maybe 60 lbs draw i imagine. not a war bow to fight the French at 300 meters. maybe good for deer at close range.
up near the treeline on the west coast (UsA and Canada) the loggers push all the slash into large piles . We'd go up to pull out the yew wood (and some interesting other woods) and cut cants and send them to Herters' Outfitters for wood crossbows . You needed a magnifying glass to count the growth rings. Now the bark is medicinal, but back in the 80's the logging would simply burn the slash piles. as required for fire reasons. It would cost more to pull the wood down to the highway.
English yew was not considered the best for longbows, back in the day, as our climate is too moist, so the annual rings are quite thick. The finest was imported from Italy, where the much drier climate made for much narrower tree rings - as you describe on timbers cut from up near the treeline. That very dense grain gave Italian yew the best combination of strength and toughness - especially for warbows, which usually had a draw weight (when drawn right to the ear) of about 140 lbs.
@@jackx4311 thanks; I took Archery in college from a US Olympic coach. I couldn't imagine even as a farm boy pulling 140 lbs.!!! i.e. when I went to LA I did 79 pullups and the next closest student did 25, then 14, as I had been pulling hay in all summer by hand!! (grade 8)
Nice video. Reminds me of everything we do on my own bow making courses. That horn nock came up schmick, very nice.
Doesn't he just made it look to easy?? I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
Thanks
wonderful work, what wood is it made of?
In order to demonstrate and film the various stages of the process in the time we had, we started cutting oak; roughed out already seasoned elm; finished the tillering on yew. The wood is also dried for 3 years.
I see you cutting down the oak 'saplings'. But you're in Oz presumably? So do oaks grow out there like weeds??? How about the yew? Or are they from imported timber (the elm is imported, right)???
Very Nice job!!!👌💯👍
Nice work.
Beauty job
Cuts an oak and finishes with yew... The is magic ! Nice work though.😊
In order to demonstrate and film the various stages of the process in the time we had, we started cutting oak; roughed out already seasoned elm; finished the tillering on yew. The wood is also dried for 3 years.
Nice to see him using a froe for splitting. There are not too many of those around any more.
I admired your leather draw knife cases. What is the maximum range of a longbow?
That was peaceful. It stokes up my interest in trying another longbow. I have some yew but maybe not enough time. Maybe my son can. Thanks
I hope you and your son can get it made together
Thanks. That would be great. I should dig out that yew wood to see if it's still any good. I too hope my son and I can work on it together. I would like to get a deer with it.
Yes you should 100%, the best of luck with it!!!
@@Cookinoutdoors Thanks for the encouragement. God bless ya.
@@leh3827and you brother
What wood is being used?
Very nice work! What kind of wood do you use?
Nice video well done.
The finished bow is yew the footage of the cuttings are oak. Very nicely made as well.
In order to demonstrate and film the various stages of the process in the time we had, we started cutting oak; roughed out already seasoned elm; finished the tillering on yew. The wood is also dried for 3 years.
Great video. I am in Brisbane area and wondering what woods you suggest that grow here in Eastern Australia. Thank you again! -Rob
Respect. Such a beautiful design.
Здравствуйте. Спасибо за видео. Как называется дерево, из которого вы делаете лук?
Nice work
Is it not surposted to be in the heart and sap wood of the yew? to be traditional?
really nice job. I have a recurve bow for hunting. I would like to try a longbow someday. Kiss from France.
Thank you!
Love the video mate. Do you sell them?
Beaty as an example for a long bow- I have been working on an old yew stave and turning it into a bow. Appears that there are cracks showing on the back opposite the handle. Guess I can only make the bow more uniform and thinner and hope for the best. I think Osage orange works better if you're going for a flat bow. 😂
what sort of timber did you cut down? was it Aussie wood or some kind of introduced, feral wood? Just found your answer which you need to edit into your introduction please. There's going to be a lot of people asking this question over time: To fit the filming of examples of stages in the whole process into the one day: started with cutting oak; moved on to roughing out elm; finished tillering on a piece of yew.
Thank you Josephine. I went ahead and added that crucial information to the intro subtitles at around 0:20, as well as the description. 👍
@@ProcessMaestroChannel subtitles are not available : / Can't just say what kind of timber you use?
goog job, what kind of wood is?
lovely to watch. Were those Yew saplings ?
Very nice
True craftsman sadly something the world is loosing :( great video
What kind of tree was used in making these bows?
great
What woods are you using ? I believe the preferred materials to make the longbow was yew, although ash, elm, and other hardwoods were also used.
In order to demonstrate and film the various stages of the process in the time we had, we started cutting oak; roughed out already seasoned elm; finished the tillering on yew. The wood is also dried for 3 years.
@@ProcessMaestroChannelThanks.
Lots of complaints from these chair dwellers. I enjoyed watching that process and look forward to my own project even more now thank you.
Hi! May I ask what kind of wood did you use? Ty🙏
In order to demonstrate and film the various stages of the process in the time we had, we started cutting oak; roughed out already seasoned elm; finished the tillering on yew. The wood is also dried for 3 years.
Great to watch! 😊👍 I wonder what wood he used and how strong the bow was.🤔
In order to demonstrate and film the various stages of the process in the time we had, we started cutting oak; roughed out already seasoned elm; finished the tillering on yew. The wood is also dried for 3 years.
Are longbow staves not allowed to dry for some period before working them?
In order to demonstrate and film the various stages of the process in the time we had, we started cutting oak; roughed out already seasoned elm; finished the tillering on yew. The wood is also dried for 3 years.
what kind of wood does he use?
Is an English long bow really a Welsh long bow?
Do you not come to Sweden and shop down our yews, haha. I know where they grow :) Jokes aside, this bow does not work well in the extreme cold. For that, the Ash flat-bow works better, for it does not break in cold as easily. Also the Composite bow made out of horn, wood, sinew and glue, would not work, for the rain would delaminate the bow badly. The flat bow from the stone-age made out of Ash or better Scots Elm, would do the thing, certainly well if impreganted in blood, animal fat or flax-oil. Of cource your bow is beatiful, I just wanted to tell some history. Of cource with a friendly eye :)
Let me know the bow tension force. Is it an oak ?
badass
Interesting but where was the old guy in the thumbnail?? And superglue not traditional!!
I'm into my local woods to do some chopping now 😅
Yet another video that would be great if it had audio on what he was doing
noted. Thanks
beautiful, what kind of wood is it exactly?
The classic one is yew.
Do they have apprentices? I know many would be willing to learn, if they're willing to teach!
What is the wood used for this? Long bow ..... what it's tree called.?
Nice