This bow is made for my friend Alpe. He was invited to an archery competion at the Haitabu museum area (see here: http://www.schloss-gottorf.de/haithabu ). So he needed an adequate real bow, not the glassbows he was used to use …
I had no yew at that moment, the right wood for viking bows, so I decided to use elm. But dang! The next available was this elderberry.
The stave has seasoned for 3 years, it has a natural kink in the mid of the upper limb. String alignment was 1″ off, the limbs had a twist 30°, which I heated out. The bow is heattreated to about 3,5″ reflex, now it holds about 1,5″ after resting. Outer sections of the limbs are stiff, slight bending handle. Handle is hemp binding, back is dyed with different colors, paintings on the belly side are hugin & munin (odin’s ravens). The runes say ALPE
length ntn: 66,5″
drawweight: 55# @ 28″
