You're welcome all, I've been reading the arXiv blog a lot longer than I've been flinging pointy things around (bit of a techie-geek in some ways. ok, massive techie geek, the 'Dr' bit isn't a nickname, there's an actual thesis with my name on it gathering dust and going yellow in an unused basement in a university library somewhere
), and it's the first time I've ever seen archery appear there so I thought I'd share it, especially as it was a pretty good bit of work too, I figured you trad lot would like it.
Dorset Lass - nope, haven't read it, I'm sure it's good though, he definitely knows his stuff, it's because of Mr Duvenay and his youtube channel that I now own a Korean trad-ish horsebow (a Kaya 40#), it was his videos where I first came across the Korean style bow. One of his Hwarangs would be lovely, it'd be very nice to have a bamboo bendy stick to go with the bamboo pointy sticks I've just made (also the first arrows I've made ever) but they're a bit pricey for me, my other bow is NOT a Border
a book I can stretch to though.
I've been wondering about the 'complex machine' bit too, can't think of anything that works without getting deeply pedantic, and that includes the boomerang but not the lever, they are after all, both examples of the implement known technically as "A stick"
Them lot down under didn't half complicate the technological history of the species by skipping over the entire 'wheel' stage and going straight for 'wing' instead.
I disagree about the
compound bow vs other bows distinction, given that the trad horsebow essentially gets it's performance by the same principle as a modern "two wheels and three strings"
compound bow does, most of the bend is in one short part of limb (near the middle) and the rest of the limb stays pretty much the same shape all the way to full draw, ie it acts as a lever and not a spring, and thus it 'compounds' the effect of the bendy bit by virtue of being stuck out on the end, modern 2&3 compounds just use a pulley system instead of straight levers to get the same effect, apart from that they're no different IYAM, take a look at the shape of the string at full draw (the string
with an arrow stuck to it, that is
training wheels
) on a modern compund bow and a trad 'horse-bow' type, they're persuasively similar.