Life's been full of new in my life lately...new house, new baby...I haven't had a ton of time for Ranger-related projects. Thankfully, someone else was hard at work for me.
Gondian, as you know, is a bowmaker. His products are available through Kult of Athena in a package deal, seen here:
http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp ... ongbow+Set
These bows are Ash which are stained partially to appear like the constrasting colors found in authentic Yew bows.
This review does not cover one of those, but it DOES cover a bow made by Gondian. That information is simply there for those who are intersted in his bows. Thankfully, you all have an additional way of contacting the bowyer...private messaging.
At any rate, here we go.
I contacted Gondian about a custom longbow a good while back, and I had some very specific requests. I've been wanting to get rid of the last major eyesore in my kit for some time now...my bow. I've been carrying a fiberglass recurve for several years as a part of my Ranger kit, and I'm tired of being so glaringly inaccurate. I approached Rocky about building me a D-section longbow with horn nocks that was significantly shorter than the average longbow.
A moment about short bows. The longer the bow is, generally, the smoother the draw will be, the less it will stack, and the less of a set the limbs will take over time. A shorter bow will tend to show bad qualities such a these, which will in turn affect performance and create bad habits in the archer.
In short, if you'll pardon the pun, I was taking a little bit of a risk, but I had faith in Gondian's abilities, and little tolerance for a fullsize longbow in the woods.
The specs I gave him were as follows:
As close to 58" as possible without the bow exploding.
As close to 60# draw weight as possible without the bow exploding.
As close to 27" draw length as possible without the bow exploding.
D-Section
Horn Nocks
He succeeded, but there were a few hiccups along the way, which I am only going to bring up to show what great customer service he provides.
He had my bow ready to go within a timely manner, no issues. However, before he could ship it, he had a renaissance faire that his stall was set up at. While he wasn't looking, someone working in his stall had been misinformed about my bow being a showpiece for the day, and sold it. Whoops.
I wasn't in a big hurry, so it wasn't a big deal...frankly, it was highly complimentary to me that someone would like my nonstandard longbow so much that they'd buy it on the spot without seeing it ever before.
So he got to work on a replacement, and a week or so later messaged me that it was finished. There were a few complications, though. Not all pieces of wood are created equal, and this one had found itself pulling aorund 40#, rather than the 60# ballpark I had requested. He offered it to me, and said if I didn't want that one, he could get started on a replacement.
It's not legal to hunt with a bow under 45# in most states, so I compromised. The images he had sent me of the underweight bow were lovely, and I decided to send him payment for an additional bow, and take both of them. It's always handy to have a backup, I'd love to teach my wife to shoot with a heavier bow eventually, and I trek with people who don't own bows sometimes, so having a loaner never hurts.
He got back to the drawing board and cranked out yet another bow, and finally, it was time. Once shipped, the bows arrived promptly, in exceptional packaging.
The limb tips were wrapped in bubble wrap on both ends, and strips of foam along the length of the box held the bows floating in place, away from the sides and ends.
Once out of the box, I took some measurements, to see how close to spec we got. In my initial request, I picked the length of 58" because it was 10" past the length of my last one, and in my head, 5" on each end seemed manageable in the woods. The bows wound up at 62", which is still quite short for a historical bow, though modern glassed longbows wind up around 62" commonly. Still a manageable length in the woods, I've found. I'm pleased.
The specs were within reasonable tolerances of my requests. If I paid $800 each for these bows, I'd have expected them to be closer. I've paid $200 for bows, and they've been further away from my requests than this time...and I paid less for these. In short, considering the difficulty in hitting a draw weight accurately with the materials and type of bow requested...I'm sold. Rocky knows what he's doing.
The horn nocks are gorgeous. He was nice enough to use a deep oxblood red horn on the lighter bow, and a mixed black and amber horn on the heavier bow, so they're easy to tell apart from across the room. The top nock on a bow is traditionally longer and stylized, but I asked him to just make a matched pair of bottom nocks on both ends...the longer ones just aren't my thing, so forgive him for that. If you look at his bows on Kult of Athena, you'll see that they are done in the traditional manner. The wood itself shows a few minor toolmarks here and there, visible only upon close inspection, but that just encourages me that they are truly handmade, and I din't see that taking away at all from their appearance. Just adds to the authenticity to me.
Bows made from a single piece of wood also have a tendency to, if made poorly, not line up well with themselves. That's kinda hard to describe...they get a bit "snakey" so to speak. The easiest way to check this is to see how it lines up with the string, like so:
As you can see...not a problem.
Tiller is a HUGE potential issue with handmade longbows. If the limbs don't curve evenly, they will accelerate at different speeds, destroying accuracy. In addition, if they curve too sharply at one point along the limb, called a "hinge", it compromises the structural integrity of the bow...and it'll blow up. The tiller on these limbs is stunning.
And, of course, if the rest of the images didn't prove it yet...the bows are just stunning looking from top to bottom, and fit in with my kit very well.
On to performance.
I expected a little bit of stacking (sharp increase in draw weight) in the last few inches of the draw, but encountered none. The arrow speed is respectable for a non-glassed longbow, and overall I'm very pleased. Due to their lack of a cut-in arrow shelf, you'll have to make sure that you have arrows that are appropriately spined for the bow if you buy one, but I have yet to find a true flaw in either of them.
If you're in the market for a longbow, I'd highly recommend these. A longer, more historically appropriate bow by this same maker will, I'm sure, shoot even smoother than mine.
-Greg
