Wooden bow

[Cazza47]

I have just found a wooden bow in the loft, it is five and half foot long has the number 28 on it, plus Muir Edinburgh and M.W.W.
Anyone know anything about bows please, will it have any value?
Carol

[youngtug]

You have a very good find, Probably a yew longbow by Muir. the 28 is 28lbs pull and could be about 130 years old

[youngtug]

I have a 6ft 32lb one by Muir and worth over £600. To buy a new longbow made from yew will probably cost a lot more than that.

[Cazza47]

It is darker wood one side and lighter wood on the other.
Its got a red velvety grip in the middle.
Carol

[Flattybasher9]

"I have just found a wooden bow in the loft, it is five and half foot long"

How big is the violin

Regards

Malky

[youngtug]

The yew is cut, or rather riven, along the grain and the bow is carved from the heartwood and the sapwood junction. The sapwood, or outer wood is "springy" under tension, the heartwood is "springy" under compression, so you have two forms of "spring" in one piece of wood, a natural laminate in effect. The two different colours of the bow show this. It should be of a "D" section. The heartwood is the darker wood and will be on the inside of the bow, the "D" part and the sap wod at the front, the flat part.

[youngtug]

Don't try pulling it, at least before making sure the wood is moist again, if it has been in the attic it as probably dried out and will be likely to snap. I would also treat it with linseed oil after after getting some moisture into it.

[ThrelfallYorky]

What a wonderful thing to just "find" in your loft! How could something that size be mislaid? It may be possible through a museum or expert, to find out how best to care for it. Does the firm "Muir" who made it, still exist? Off hand all I can think of it the "Mary Rose" museum, for there were loads of longbows on that, although a lot older - and isn't the actor Robert Hardy ( the one who played a vet in "All Creatures Great and Small" decades back, and Winston Churchill more recently, supposed to be something of an expert on them?
As "Youngtug" says, conserve it, don't do anything with it without real expert advice. Will you be taking up archery soon?

[youngtug]

http://www.angelpig.net/victorian/archery.html