Hi, my name's Kevin Hicks welcome to my Youtube channel the History Squad. Now today's film,
video call it what you will is very short and it's been requested by Sandy Higgins, one of my Patreon
members, on how do I prepare my bows for shooting. And it's all very straightforward so I’ve got one
or two tips. Now don't forget I’ve been shooting for I suppose including my childhood 60 years
but professionally 25-30 years, so I know one or two little things but this is how I do it.
Don't get confused if there are professional bowyers and fletchers what they do
this is what Kevin does. First of all always keep your bow in a bag
mine's a nice linen bag and I was told many years ago don't lean it against stone, now some say
you should have it horizontal some upright mine are leaned in a corner quite happy against wood
down in my basement, now let's remove the sleeve. Now this is my old bow, 20 years old and this was
my main stay at Warwick Castle I have a string keeper here which is very simple it's actually
the top of a thumb from a gardening glove that's all it is, didn't need to spend a
lot of money on it. Now to prepare me bow I’m going to take the string off
now when you do this just check the knot, is it going through is it all right? This one, still in
good condition so perhaps another season with this bowstring. Now when you take him off don't just
throw him down look after him yeah your string is as important as your bow now I’ve got a couple of
kinks here so I shall be checking those out, yeah they're all right, so lay my string down.
Now this bow let's measure him up because I’ve got people saying oh that's such a weak bow, so at the
centre it is in circumference four and a half inches just under. A bit further up on the limbs
it's just over three and a half inches, this is Kevin's bow people say what's the poundage of your
bow, I don't care when it was made I think it was way up there but I don't care this is Kev's bow,
now let's have a look at what we've got so 20 odd years of shooting so we have the heartwood
the sapwood and if anybody sees my bow, oh you've got woodworm no these are the nicks
from thousands of arrows I’ve shot on the speed shoots at Warwick Castle and other places this
is just damage and you can live with it. So let's start up here, the horn knocks I’ve replaced these
because these take an awful lot of strain so I have replaced them it's an easy job you can
either buy them as they are or you can buy a piece of horn and fashion it. Me being me, I just simply
buy replacements but there's some interesting things about this bow. I’ve shot so many arrows
that I was wearing a groove almost the depth of an arrow so I bought a piece of uh
mother of pearl from the famous Richard Head Longbows and inserted it there, but it's these
bits I want to show you. Tis being a a u-bow the heart and the sapwood the sapwood will sometimes
lift it's just a tiny little split up it comes, glue the beggar down and then bind over it.
Once you've glued the binding in then wax it treat it as part of the bow this as I say has lasted me
for well over 20 years and I’m very proud of this bow, but now looking at it checking it all out I’m
quite happy with it so what I’m going to do now is I’m going to oil it and this is something I,
I am very religious about and I’ll do it two or three times a year. All your bowyers have told
me you know oil it until it kicks it back now what I use is nice artist's linseed oil this is pure.
Equal measures
It's like mixing medicine isn't it and here we have the turpentine the dangerous
watches it's poisonous stuff so do me a favor don't drink this. Put the two in, now I’m gonna
put the caps back on because I’m afraid I’m clumsy and I know me I’ll knock you over give it a stir.
A bit of the old paper here.
Nothing special, I don't use a brush I just use a bit of paper, dip it in and I liberally
spread it on, all over, all over the repairs the horn knocks really
wet it. What you can do if you've got a very dry bow is you can actually drop this,
squeeze it on there, and let it sit for an hour or two let the wood soak it in. Covering those nocks,
and all the while I’m checking the bow out and this is one of the lovely things is,
get to know your bow, get to know all of those little nooks those little
knocks, especially if it's a a self bow you know a yew bow. Now simply turn him over.
I’m doing the side here and I really am soaking it in,
it's important and I think it was uh Don Adams who actually said that the bow will kick back,
it won't soak anymore. So if you've got a new bow and it's dry literally soak it in that oil
until it kicks back, he doesn't want any more. So as you can see a lot of
the oil on my boat here it sits on the surface because this is regularly oiled.
And I’ve just got it set on a bit of leather in between two vices here.
You don't need fancy stuff too you know people buy all kinds of things you know
they buy supports they buy racks they buy this. I learned very early on lean your bows in the corner
uh Richard Head says don't lean them against stone, so I don't lean them against stone.
That's pretty much it now here we go
so I will leave this bow. Now I’ve got a bit of a scratch there I’ll have a look at this,
no, that's all right, just a mark on the wood and I’m going to leave him.
in the corner to dry. That's the strange thing because it doesn't actually really
dry so we've let my main shooting bow soak a little bit and there's a couple of dry spots
so I’m just making sure there's plenty of oil around it now while we're on this,
most importantly when you string this if you want my opinion, don't do it the way they did
with knights in armour.
I started off shooting the bow and stringing him with me foot, with the bow against me foot, let
me show you I’m not going to do it because it's how I actually broke a bow. So in the old days
put the foot of the bow in there hold it push him back and then slip up the string,
don't do that. Get yourself a piece of cord, strong enough to support the bow.
Then we'll hook him in. If there's not an extra groove in your nock like this,
so you've got a second groove there on the top, you need to put one in.
So we've looped the stringer over the second groove,
we bring him round put me foot dead centre, bring him up,
loop on that string. And the very last thing I’m going to do get myself a bit of beeswax
and wax that string and while I’m doing it
check that string out, make sure that string and the serving here is okay.
I’ve already checked the knot.
There we go. Finally, fistmele, just slightly under so I would remove the string and twist
him up if I was going to shoot just to bring him up a little bit but that
is my bow is nicely oiled, so am I. The string is good and waxed
and that's really all you need to know this is how I do it, other people probably do it differently
but hey. So I hope you found that uh video helpful you bow people out there uh if you did
thumbs up like share and subscribe and uh don't forget to turn on the notifications so
you know what videos are coming down the line but for now, thank you very much and bye-bye.