The basic design of this bow goes back into the dim past but to bring it more up to date it is a combination of English longbow and American Indian flatbow. The length gives sweetness of draw, silence and great power to cast a heavy arrow, while the flattended square section of the limb provides speed, stability and safety.
Howard Hill, although one of the greatest archers of our time, admitted he could not have shot with such accuracy without this type of bow. The most significant factor contributing to this accuracy is the lack of parabular inparted to the arrow, due mainly to the long smooth push, as oppose to the very explosive thrust of the short recurve limb. Briefly, this means that where the arrow is pointing, as seen in the outer vision, is where it will hit, if technique is not at fault. A good archer with this type of bow will experience the magic of actually seeing the arrow leave the bow and with no apparent deviation, travel to the centre of the mark. To my knowledge, these characteristics have never before been explained in print. This is also the reason for the ability of the longbow shooter to hit small moving targets such as a coin tossed in the air, a feat practically impossible when the arrow hops from the rest as with other bow designs.


Rex Oakes - The Bowyer
As a boy I had the great fortune to have an uncle (James Hooper) with a museum, later to be recognised as the greatest private collection of ethnographical objects in the world. I took my pick of weapons considered not good enough for display, and played with spears, boomerangs, tomahawks and of course bows and arrows. The bug hit hard when I was about 9 years old, I had taken a short African bow and a few arrows to try, my target was a roof timber high in an old derelict house. As that arrow thudded into the wood and quivered with the impact, I experienced a thrill as never before, and from that time on a bow has never been far from my side and that was over forty years ago. Since then I have shot and made almost every type of bow there is, and feel my love of the longbow will last at least another forty years!

Rex Oakes