Traditional
Traditional archery, or intuitive archery refers primarily to the fact that you shoot with neither sights nor other technical aids on the bow. The shooting process or the technique is mainly concentrated on the awareness of the body and personal experience - ergo: the intuition of the archer. Furthermore, the word "traditional" also refers to the build of the bows and in this context also the material of the arrows. Wood, or rather wood imitation, is the preferred material, especially because it ties in with historical models.
Due to the more traditional construction method of the bow, the demands on the string material, or rather on the method of string making, also change. Therefore, there is a separate section in the "Traditional"-category for strings.
But not only in the category of strings you’ll find traditional-related products, in this regard the BSS category "Traditional" summarizes in general all suitable and mostly traditionally designed equipment. Bow covers, quivers, shooting gloves, other protective equipment as well as accessories that have a more natural, or leather-ish style, are listed here to give you a better overview of everything revolving the "tradition".
If you are interested in the different types of bows that you can find in the category "Traditional", keep reading below!
Due to the more traditional construction method of the bow, the demands on the string material, or rather on the method of string making, also change. Therefore, there is a separate section in the "Traditional"-category for strings.
But not only in the category of strings you’ll find traditional-related products, in this regard the BSS category "Traditional" summarizes in general all suitable and mostly traditionally designed equipment. Bow covers, quivers, shooting gloves, other protective equipment as well as accessories that have a more natural, or leather-ish style, are listed here to give you a better overview of everything revolving the "tradition".
If you are interested in the different types of bows that you can find in the category "Traditional", keep reading below!
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Traditional bow Types & Terminology
Longbow:
The form of the longbow is historical. Today the word "longbow" is considered a generic term for all simple, stick-shaped bows, but there are a few decisive characteristics that make up a longbow. The cross-section of longbows is usually profiled. Not to be confused with flatbows, which have a rectangular cross-section.
Types:
Probably the best known type of longbow will be the "English Longbow". This type is also known as the "Mary Rose". Traditionally made from yew or elm, this type of stick bow achieved its fame in the late Middle Ages. They usually have a length of over 1.80 m and a round belly, or a deep D shaped cross section. Later English variations of it may also have a flatter belly.
The "Holmegaard" type is a longbow whose limbs extend flat from the grip to about 2/3 length. The cross section here is flat, oval up to the limb tips. The Holmegaard bows are a series of selfbows found in the marshes of Northern Europe and date back to the Middle Stone Age. They are named after the Holmegaard area in Denmark, where the first and oldest specimens were found.
The professional terminology for a Japanese longbow is "Yumi" (jap. 弓) and is still used in traditional Japanese martial arts such as Kyudo or Yabusame today. The yumi bow comes in different sizes (e.g. 大弓, daikyū, literally 'large bow', or 半弓, hankyū, literally 'half bow'). The possible bow lengths are standardized and vary between 2.12 - 2.45 m. The shorter bows are designed for limited indoor conditions. A special feature of the yumi, for example, is the strong asymmetry of the limbs. The lower limb is strongly shortened, while the upper one is very long.
Horsebow
Horsebows are types of bows specially designed for horseback archery. Depending on the region and the shooting technique, shapes and construction methods may vary. Most often you will find shorter recurve bows, which have a high poundage in proportion. But these bows are not always short. In the Japanese Yabusame, for example, the archers use rather longbows, the so-called Yumi, as already described in "longbow".
You can certainly use a horsebow without sitting on a horse. However, if you are much more interested in only shooting with a traditional bow in a e.g. forested environment, there are certainly more suitable bows for you to find in either the "Longbow", "One-piece Recurve" or "Take-Down Recurve" sections.
One Piece Recurve
A one piece recurve bow is basically nothing more than a longbow with the tips of the limbs pointing away from the archer. One piece means, that the bow can’t be dismantled but it can still consist of a composite material. One piece recurve can be seen as an opposite to a takedown recurve. The "recurved" limbs, compared to straight limbs, have the effect that more energy can be transferred to the arrow under the same conditions. For this reason alone, the arrow can fly faster with a recurve and has a flatter flight curve over a longer distance.
However, this does not mean that a recurve bow means a "better" shooting experience. When shooting with a recurve bow, a somewhat different type of force is exercised compared to shooting with a longbow, which correspondingly causes a different „feeling“ while shooting. There are no better, or worse. It’s up to your own taste, which one’s feeling is more to your liking.
Takedown Recurve
A takedown recurve bow is a dismantleable bow. That means that the handle and limbs can be separated from each other after loosening the string.You could say that a takedown recurve bow in the "Traditional" category is an attempt to mix innovation with tradition. In general, takedown recurve bows made with modern (composite) materials are an already canonized construction method in Olympic archery (see category "Recurve"). In the category "Traditional" this is certainly, like many other things, to be seen as a 'performance optimization attempt', without having to give up on a 'traditional' look, or a 'natural feeling' as far as possible.