In the December 1931 issue of Ye Sylvan Archer the writer discussed from a non-technical point of view the question of the "proper" cross-section of a bow. This article was written after a season's satisfactory experience with a design of bow based on Dr. Hickman's analysis which was presented in the January 1932 issue. The starting point of the design was the theoretical shape shown in Fig. 3a of the Hickman article. So many questions have been asked me, both personally and by letter, about the bow with rectangular limb section, that it has been possible only to acknowledge the inquiries, and to hope that more complete and detailed answers might be given in Ye Sylvan Archer than could be done in individual replies. The present discussion is intended to give such information as has been requested, and to point the way to the amateur archer-craftsman towards achieving his ambition of owning a bow of high efficiency.

An impression seems to prevail that the new form of bow is much easier to construct than is the bow of traditional form. The reader should be cautioned that this is not the case. In fact, the construction of a bow of the new form, having predetermined specifications as to length and drawing weight, is as difficult, if not more so, than is the case with the conventional bow. The prospective owner of the new type of bow should also be cautioned not to expect a bow of high efficiency to be the cure for sick scores. It will not enable the archer to make his usual eighty-yard score at a hundred, nor his sixty-yard score at eighty. He can be assured, however, that a properly constructed bow having theoretically proper limb-section has possibilities of becoming a major factor in improving his long-range scores. It will enable him to use the same bow at all standard ranges, for the long range bow will not be too heavy for him to draw throughout an entire York or Metropolitan round. It will lower his point of aim if that is desirable. In the case of the woman archer, it will provide her with an implement of combined low drawing weight and low point of aim.

Reviewing the characteristics of the new type of bow, we may recall that its limbs bend in true circular arcs, with uniform stresses throughout; that the limbs return from the drawn to the braced position in shorter time than do the limbs of any other shape about which we have information; that there is less wood in the limbs than in a corresponding bow of conventional limb-section. The fiber stresses, i. e., the tensile and compressive forces to which the limbs are subjected, in a given weight bow of the new form, are less than in a cor-responding bow of the conventional type, which permits the new bow to be made shorter if the archer wishes to have it so. That, however, is a matter of his own choosing. Many archers with good reason prefer a long bow.

We are assuming that we have a good stave to begin with. The ability to select wood with the assurance that it has desirable properties for its intended use is a matter of long experience; and even the experts appear sometimes to be fallible in this respect. At present there seems to be no other way than to carry out the construction of the bow nearly to completion before it is possible to say whether the wood is good, bad or indifferent. Many of us are inclined to generalize about some particular kind of wood on the basis of very limited experience. It requires careful study of many bows of different kinds of wood before a valid estimate of the relative merits of the average of any particular kind can be reached. What we need in archery is someone who has the inclination, ability and time to work out a detailed method whereby a test-piece may be cut from the stave, and measurements made upon it which will remove all guesswork about the quality of the raw material. Such a method would, on the one hand, save much work on wood that cannot possibly make a good bow; on the other, it would prevent much butchering of really choice pieces which deserve the best there is in craftsmanship.