Bow Makers  Words and Phrases I Had to Look Up

Bow Makers  Words and Phrases I Had to Look Up

American Longbow – A longbow with a limb whose cross section is generally more flat than round, often rectangular or trapezoidal, and thickens to a deep handle.

Arrow Plate – A piece of material such as horn or leather set in or on a bow at the arrow pass, to prevent wear.

BTH  Bend through the handle. 

Brace height – The distance measured from the string to the strung bow’s grip throat (deepest part of the grip on the belly side). 

distal taper – When the limb is made thinner from the pivot going towards the tip.

ILF stands for “international limb fitting.” This universal system lets archers mate an ILF riser to ILF limbs.

Piking – shortening of the limbs to raise draw weight

POC – Port Orford Cedar is wood that grows in a select region of the northwestern United States has long been prized for producing the best wood arrow shafting on the planet for decades. 

Siyhas  – tips of a bow that are stiffened like on a horse bow. A recurved section that does not bend as easily. 

String follow – When an unstrung bow’s side profile shows its limbs bent toward the string side so that the tips are behind the front of the handle, they are said to have string follow, or follow the string.

Set – The result, generally due to belly compression/compaction, of a bow’s inability to return to its original shape. For instance, if a bow was constructed from a bow stave with 3” of reflex and after tillering, shooting in, and unstringing, the bow then shows 1” of reflex, the bow is said to have taken 2” of set.

Sinew – Animal tendon dried and shredded longitudinally. Sinew is used for the hafting of arrowheads, arrow feathers, and often as a bow backing or twisted into bowstrings or cordage.

Stack Height – (Core Thickness) – The thickness of a laminated bow’s limb material measured at the butt end of the laminations.

Stacking – When a bow gains substantially more draw weight per inch of draw than it did in any inch previously, it is ‘stacking’. The most common cause of stacking is a limb tip/string angle that exceeds 90 degrees.

String follow – When an unstrung bow’s side profile shows its limbs bent toward the string side so that the tips are behind the front of the handle, they are said to have string follow, or follow the string.