New Bow from Gondian!

[Manveruon]

Hello again fellow rangers! A while ago (as I may have mentioned somewhere already, I can't recall) I ordered a longbow from our friend Gondian. After seeing Greg's stellar review of the bow he received from said gentleman, I was quite impressed, so I placed an order for my own, and waited in eager anticipation. Although the process took a bit longer than I think either of us planned, my bow finally arrived last week, and I could not be more giddy!

I didn't put this up right away because I hadn't gotten the chance to really test it out, and I didn't want to post without first putting the bow through its paces. I finally was able to do that tonight, and I have to say... yeah, giddy. Giddy about covers it.

So where to start? Greg's review was so exhaustive I don't think I can really live up to it, but here's what I've got:

The bow arrived nicely packaged in a sturdy box with styrofoam spacers that held the bow in place nicely. One of the horn nocks had punctured the bottom of the package slightly, but was unharmed. The tips themselves came wrapped with foam and packing tape, and overall the packaging was highly satisfying. Here are some pictures of the packaging:

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This is how the tips were wrapped - quite nicely. The one tip being longer and pointier did bust through the wrapping during shipping, but again, nothing was damaged at all, so I wasn't concerned:

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And now for some shots of the bow itself! It is a classic style deep-D cross-section Elgnish longbow - a self-bow - made of hickory. The hickory has been stained to resemble yew (which I have to say was done beautifully, and really gives an authentic feel to the whole shebang). There is a slight swell at the grip, which is smooth and very elegant (not at all like my old bow which had, in my opinion, an unattractively abrupt looking handle-area). It is along this area that Rocky put two inscriptions in Elvish. One says "Gondian fashioned me," and the other says, "My name is Stormwing." So there you have it! My bow has a name, and that name is Stormwing! And a better name I could not think of for this beauty! Gondian also included his very attractive maker's mark on the belly of the bow at the grip, and a six-pointed Dunedain star on the front. I am absolutely in love with all the markings, although I may opt to alter and personalize the star a bit in the future - we'll see.

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The horn tips of the bow are beautiful, and very traditional looking. The areas where they transition into the limb of the bow itself are wrapped in waxed linen cord (which made me chuckle, because I recognized it as the same thread Rocky uses to fletch his arrows - I ordered some of that exact cord to do some arrows of my own, on Rocky's reccomendation), which gives it a lovely rustic-but-nicely-finished appearance. My only criticism of the nocks is that the smaller, upper nock was apparently not filed quite deeply enough, so the first time I tried to use the bow, the string would slip out of the nock and unstring itself any time I loosed an arrow. I took a file to it when I got home however, just to deepen the groove slightly, and now the string rests in the nock just fine without slipping out when I loose. This was a pretty minor fix overall though. Below are a couple close-ups of the tips. I also wrapped a bit more linen thread around the transition points after taking this photo, just to smooth out that section a little.

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I found that the string frayed rather easily, and after using it a couple times I felt I should probably stop, because it was getting pretty haggard looking. Luckily though I had a different string that fit, so I just swapped over to that for the duration of my shoot, and it worked just fine. I always get new strings for the bows I order anyway, so this wasn't a concern for me really.

And now for how it shoots! Gondian said the bow should pull 55 pounds at 30 inches. I have not actually tested the draw weight of the bow yet, but honestly it feels like it could be somewhat less than that. This is actually great for me, because I was worried the 55# draw might be a bit too much, having only ever used a 48# bow in the past, at maximum. If this bow really pulls 55# it has a VERY smooth draw for that weight, and I am duly impressed! The release is similarly smooth, and the tapering of the limbs allows for a very quick arrow speed. There does seem to be a very slight asymmetrical bend to the limbs, with the lower limb being just a touch more bent than the upper one. So far this doesn't seem to cause any problems, and a casual observer would hardly notice. It doesn't appear to hinder the action of the bow in any way. I hardly notice a hand shock at all when I release, which was also a pleasant surprise. Having only really used it tonight for the first time, I was amazed at how naturally and accurately I shot. It was as if I had already owned this bow for years and become intimately familiar with it. Truly, Stormwing is a joy to shoot! It feels completely natural in my hand, and it shoots so smoothly it's hard to believe it's an un-backed hickory longbow. Overall I am VERY impressed!

And finally, here are a few shots of me at a local SCA event on Saturday with Stormwing. There wasn't even any archery at this event, but I was so excited to get the bow that I had to take it out and show it off a little, despite the possibility of being thought eccentric for doing so, heh.

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Once again, thanks a million to Rocky/Gondian for the amazing experience! Yes, it took a bit longer than expected, but overall I could not be more pleased. It's clear Rocky really takes pride in what he does. I did, of course, have a few minor criticisms of the bow, but overall they were fairly superficial, and for the price I paid, I truly cannot complain. This is BY FAR the nicest bow at this price point I have EVER seen, and I cannot recommend his work more highly!

[Peter Remling]

Love the horn tips ! Very nice bow, congrats and good luck.

[Ernildir]

Very nice! I might have to get a Gondian bow one of these days.

[Ringulf]

Ditto! Perhaps I shall start designing the Dwarven bow based on the Norman short bow I have been thinking of, What do you think Rocky? would that be a workable design for you?

[Gondian]

Thank you so much Manveruon for the review!!! And thank you for your patience, StormWings birth was a bit of a struggle! And Ringulf I would love to give it a shot!