Jan. II, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
49 
An Archer’s Confession of Faith 
By E. J. RENDTORFF 
S INCE the publication in Forest and Stream 
of my letter tO' Dr. Weston, numerous in¬ 
quiries pertaining to archery h.ave been 
made. Archery literature is replete with dis¬ 
sertations on the beauty of the sport and of 
The bow must be stiff laterally, with the 
two halves equally balanced. The relative 
strength of the two limbs should be so pro¬ 
portioned that the free period of vibration of 
each is the same. If the lower arm is the 
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fiT‘* CV-'i 
FLIGHT SHOOTING. 
its ancient history, but to my knowledge no 
serious attempt has been made to give the art 
a scientific foundation. It is for the above 
reason that I submit this article on our glori¬ 
ous craft—the sport of kings and king of sports 
—of a nature somewhat different from our 
classical essays on archery. As I am self- 
taught, my rambling remarks will probably 
abound with errors, but if something can be 
saved from the wreck of criticism that will 
be useful to my fellow archers, the object of 
this paper will be attained. 
The ideal bow would have the arrow 
nocked at the middle of the string and re¬ 
leased at the center of the bow. Tbe'two limbs 
of the bow w'ould then be made of equal 
strength to insure a symmetrical cast. This 
would, however, give no room for the position 
of the hand. If the arrow is nocked at the 
middle of the string, the grip must be some¬ 
what below the center of the bow, making it 
slightly topheavy. If, on the other hand, the 
grip be placed at the center of the bow, the 
nocking point would be above the middle of 
the string. Both methods are undesirable, but 
also unavoidable. A combination of these 
methods might be used, the grip being some¬ 
what below the center of the bow with the 
nocking point a corresponding distance above 
the middle of the string. As this is a choice 
between three evils, it is difficult to decide 
which is the least objectionable method. For 
my share. I prefer the second, though I am 
free to admit that it has serious objections. 
shorter it must be relatively weaker, and vice 
versa. The bow should be stiff in the middle, 
the greatest flexure occurring in the end one- 
third of the limbs. 
When the bow is strung and fastened in 
a vise, so that the plane through the string and 
its central axis is a vertical plane, then the 
back of the bow should everywhere be hori¬ 
zontal. or else symmetrical with regard to the 
horizontal plane. If it is not so, take a file and 
a small Stanley level and remove all skew, or 
eccentricity, from the back. A heavy or strong 
bow is not necessarily the one giving the sharp 
cast, or imparting a high velocity to the arrow. 
It is a question of stiffness, elasticity and 
length of bow combined. The elasticity of the 
wood would be improved through scientific 
seasoning methods, but these are beyond the 
control of the archer. 
The selection of weight depends upon the 
strength and the willingness of the archer to 
work. On the whole, a heavy bow gives a 
lower and smoother trajectory to the arrow 
and eliminates to a great extent the flirting and 
wobbling due to an uneven release of the string. 
It also overcomes the eccentricities of flight 
introduced by the feathers on the various arrows 
not being glued on at the same angle, or not 
possessing the same curvature. Arrows which 
insist on wobbling with a 40-pound bow, fly 
true as a line with a 55-pound bow. 
The sharpness of cast is enhanced by short¬ 
ening the bow. I have a 5-foot Q-inch, 40-pound 
bow that gives a decidedly sharper cast than a 
6-foot 2-inch, 4S-pound bow. This is due, hot 
to a difference in the wood of the bows, butVo 
the physical law that the period of vibrati\ 
of a bar varies inversely as the square root 
its length. I believe a 5-foot lo-inch bow wil 
gi\'e far better service than one of the standard\ 
—6-foot—length. 
It has been stated on good authority that 
practically any bow will do, provided the 
arrows, aim and release are accurate. I cer¬ 
tainly cannot agree with this statement, and 
insist that for record shooting the bow must 
approach the physical ideals. 
There is another element entering into the 
construction of bows that seldom is considered; 
that is, its efficiency. Efficiency is generally 
defined as the ratio of the energy put into a 
bow, when the arrow is drawn, to the energy 
imparted to the arrows on their release. For a 
perfect bow this ratio would be 100 per cent., 
a condition that never holds. When an arrow 
is drawn, potential energy, or the energy of 
rest, is stored up in the fibres of the bow. The 
amount of this is the product of the length of 
the draw of the arrow multiplied by the aver¬ 
age force exerted by the bow. When the arrow 
is released, the energy of rest is transformed 
into kinetic, or the energy of motion. Its 
quantitative amount is one-half the product of 
the mass multiplied by the square of the ve¬ 
locity imparted to the arrow. That bow is 
efficient in which the two types of energy are 
most nearly alike. 
The efficiency of a bow depends mainly on 
the past history of the wood and the methods 
employed in its seasoning. A wood that is 
green will have a sluggish cast, be inefficient, 
show great variations under different weather 
and temperature' changes, and will soon get a 
permanent set to the shape of the bow. 
The seasoning of wood consists in remov¬ 
ing from the green wood fibres some of the 
moisture and sap essential to its growth and 
life. This is generally removed by methods 
that aid in the saving of the required time, as 
the use of the steam kiln. Wood so seasoned 
is generally inferior to that dried out in a 
longer time at a lower temperature, and the 
belief is common that time is the chief element 
of success. The high temperature produced by 
the steam induces certain harmful chemical ac¬ 
tions, and a destructive distillation of the coal 
tar products of the sap. 
I'he proper method for seasoning wood, in 
my estimation, is not attained by increasing 
the temperature, but by removing the air pres¬ 
sure in the surrounding space and having the 
consequent water vapor absorbed by drying 
or deliquescent agents, such as concentrated 
sulphuric acid or calcium chloride. The wood 
for bows and arrows should be placed in a 
strong air-tight steel cylinder, held vertically, 
with the drying agents introduced in the bot¬ 
tom of the tube, and the air with the following 
water vapor removed with an air pump. This 
