Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Cleaning up the archery area, I saw with fresh eyes my cheap Chinese horsebow-ish recurve I started with ages ago:
While not a good Middle-earth persona match I think, It's absolutely perfect for a quick jaunt in the woods. I confess I grab it at least as often as my longbow, just 'cause it's so handy and such a manageable weight.

... but it does look awful farby.

I'm considering as a winter project recovering it for more of a Deep Western European Forest feel. What came to mind then was following the general look of the recurves used by Starks and others in the Game of Thrones show.
This is the best picture I've found as an example: has anyone else already been down this rabbit trail and have good pictures of bows and quivers on hand?
It needn't be a perfect match to any show prop, but since the generally good GoT production team has already been down the "make asian recurves look like they actually belong in a Euro-fantasy environment" I figure there's no sense reinventing the wheel.
Thoughts?

On the range where I fling arrows from time to time, I know several members of an Asian Archery Association. They shoot with beautiful recurved horsebows, primarily with thumb rings.

Remember, your prey or opponent will be more thankful of your bow's light drawweight, than even yourself.

For my part, they don't seem to be as comfortable to shoot as a longbow, but they are very interesting.

My Scythian horse bow is my absolute favorite. It is much smaller than the longbows I have, yet it packs equal punch. Mine is 50# at 28", like most of my others. Best used with a thumb ring, although I can and do use the three finger draw with it. Great for thick brush and tight places.

Eledhwen

I find recurves incredibly smooth to shoot, and those short limbs much easier to get through the trees than a full-size longbow.
I've heard in our real world they never took off in northwestern Europe because the glues weren't up to the damp climate, but I don't know if that's true or a just-so story.
Regardless, the cheap modern fiberglass ones are a dream, farby-ugly as they are.

Again, it's not a good "in character" bow, but for just an afternoon in the fall air hunting stumps it's a delight.
I'm thinking a bit of stain on the siyahs and some goatskin cleanly stitched over the limbs with linen will westernize it enough to not feel too weird amongst the oaks and maples.

It would depend on the glue used. Some of them weaken or fail when very wet. The Steppes get a fair amount of rain, as does the Taiga. Europe might have been a bit too wet, hard to say.

The Vikings did use eastern bows. They have found fittings for them at Birka, along with bits of bow. Exactly how early is another matter. The 'Turkish' bow was used by Europeans...although we don't know what exactly it was. Theory seems to run that they are the horse bows as these came back with Crusaders. I haven't researched it deeply enough to be certain, however. Interesting thing to look into.

Eledhwen