Welcome To the Roost

After a few comments by friends and scribbling of notes in lots of different places and then losing the order of them, I though it would be easier to keep this blog. So let’s get things started.

Welcome to the Raven's Roost, this will be a blog that will follow through my archery career, though never know I might branch out to other things from time to time. I officially started archery about eleven months ago now, but before then I've always been interested in it growing up with various versions of Robin Hood and war gaming.
Out of all archery it was the longbow that finally drew me in, I had watched Olympic archery on the television and well I was never very impressed. Oh don't get me wrong the archers are very skilled but its the bows they were using, loaded down metal, carbon and fiberglass with sights, counterweights, spirit levels, finger slings, shooting carbon arrows with specially designed flights and nocks that spin the arrow gaining more accuracy. That’s not a bow, that’s a complex rifle in bow form. I appreciate other bow are out there and other people prefer different things. But out of all the different types to me the longbow is the greatest, I mean it made England what it is today.

I went on a course to learn how to make longbows and arrows, not a long one just over a weekend. It was at 'The Potter's Barn' (bit of advertising for you there guys) and was run by a friendly guy called Mark Cooper. Overall it was a good course but the downside is the tools used were a bit worn your might say, took an age to cut any bit of wood. Though a hard couple of days it was fun and met some nice people, I didn't finish my bow over the weekend but I had a rough shape which I worked on at home.......then broke. Well I was excited and eager, but despite the breaking I started again and this time succeeded, I even went on to make myself a bundle of arrows. Downside being I never really got to use it due to limited garden space and the local police would not look kindly on practicing in the local park.

Eventually my last year of uni rolled around and due to being in mechanical engineering, it gave me the opportunity to find a use for my bow. I researched the history of longbows and became more in awe of this wonderfully simple and versatile yet deadly weapon. My free time I'd be in the library or in the nearby museum which happened to have a section on bows (lucky me). I'd call into the lab and run tests on it, as well as be in the computer rooms drawing it out on 3rd and changing materials and forces to get the right stresses. Overall the project turned out well, could have been better, but then again the university could have helped more and not been so limiting.

Next we carry on a few months more and despite having only shot my bow a few times on the odd occasion it was mostly lying in my room waiting to be used. But while researching longbows I came across an archery club not to far from me, so quickly put my name down for their beginners course (unless you've been with a club/society for a while you have to go through it). While on the course I was taught the 'proper' way to stand and hold/shoot a bow for target archery, and made me smile when on the first lesson one of the instructors said "You've done this before haven't you". Despite me wanting to use the longbow, the beginner course was taught with recurves, well can't have everything. When it was finished I asked the instructors about longbow and they were saying, "Oh, well we recommend the recurve for 12 months to get your technique right. But talk to .......... they know about longbows and so does ............. he makes his." Not really what I wanted to hear, except about people that shot longbow, so I watched them, noticing the differences in techniques and talked to them, asked questions as you do and promptly wishing I'd brought a pad and pen to jot down notes as some long bowers are able to talk a lot about longbows.

So on the last day of my course without hesitation I joined the club and not regretted it, and ignoring advice left the recurve and picked up my longbow and arrow bundle, makeshift bracer (learnt the hard way how much that is needed), and previous Christmas had myself shooting gloves, and since I do leather work I had made my own quiver, so was ready to go within a few weeks of joining.

As I turned up with my own bow and arrows and greeted by members and welcomed, I lined up my first arrow and promptly missed the target........well I was a beginner after all. It took me a few months to learn to hit the target lets just say my shooting was a bit erratic. Going from hitting golds at the end of the beginners to not hitting the target at all is a bit depressing, and eventually when scoring yourself your counting off; twos, ones and misses, while standing next to experienced recurve archers counting off; 10s, 9s and the occasional 8s is like being kicked while your down. But I just reminded myself mine was a longbow theirs were recurves with their 'cheating' counter weights and sights, etc.

But that was just over ten months ago and things are different now, my bow for one is a new pro made. Mine broke mid-draw and despite replacing it with a recurve as a temporary measure until I made a new one it never felt right. So a couple weeks later on an impulse I bought a pro-made longbow and made new arrows seeing as work space is limited where I am, longbow making would be far off but arrow making is manageable. Not only has my archery improved but I've won my club's handicap medal for two months in a row, and come close to winning the monthly longbow medal, and managed to achieve my third classification and put in a score for my second class, and helping my club with the postal leagues longbow team. Good going for eleven months I'd say.

Before I finish this post reader's might be wondering why I called this "Raven's Eyes". Well basically when I made my quiver I was looking for a design and came across a necklace with a raven with Celtic style swirls, within two days I’d transferred this to a black and white image and embossed the leather with the design, and soon followed my arrows with a similar raven crest. Plus seeing as I shoot with instinct judging distances with my eyes (kind of I’ll explain later), I'm shooting my raven crested arrows 'Ravens' with my eyes, hence "Raven's Eyes". Hmmm bit long first post, but if you've stayed with it I hope you'll come back for more.