The Story of Norseman Traditional Bows
The story of Norseman Traditional Bows began back in the mid 1970’s. From this very early age, I was making bows from whatever I could find. My favourite material was any timber I could easily get my hands on. The Willow tree at the back of our family home had many branches removed over my young years. Even though it was not a good bow wood and certainly not good when it was cut green and whittled into a bow within an hour with a builders line used for a string! These bows served for about 2 – 3 hours shooting before they either broke or took 6” of string follow. As bad as these early efforts were, they were the very embodiment of the spirit of traditional archery.
My archery experience really took off, when in 1979, at the age of 13, my father and I got into archery properly with the purchase of our first bow, a Ben Pearson fibreglass recurve. We then joined the local field archery club, and from there began the journey that has been a passion my whole life. That passion has been primarily hunting and field archery, but over time I have developed a thorough understanding of the bow needs of target archers as well. Right from the start, I was driven to make my own bows. I just knew that this was something I really wanted to do and the drive was overwhelming. Not really being sure at that young age where to go to find out more about bow making, I bided my time, knowing that one day I would walk this path. Meanwhile, for the next 15 years or so, I actively shot longbows and for a small amount of time shot recurves as well.
As the years went by the desire and passion to make my own bows never left me. I was always asking bowyers for information and read everything I could get my hands on. I was fortunate that a family friend gave us some very old English and American bow making books that were written between 1900 and 1950. These are still in my possession to this day.
After years of studying, my first longbow was made in 2003, and this was the birth of Norseman Traditional Bows. Since then Norseman Traditional Bows has individually handcrafted many hundreds of bows. Selfbows, all wood composites, English longbows and many styles of glassed American semi-longbows flow through the Norseman workshop.
So what does all this mean to you as an archer buying a custom longbow? All these years of bow making and shooting have contributed to my having a deep understanding of the longbow and what is required to truly fit a longbow to an archer. Longbows need to be custom made to be really good. This is primarily why you won’t see many longbows in dealerships. They simply cannot be mass produced. The many nuances of longbows require hand crafted attention. A good longbow is the epitome of excellence in shooting. Customising a bow isn’t merely a question of draw weight and glass colour. A bow should be tillered according to your shooting needs. For example, a target bow will be tillered differently to a hunting bow as the target archer is generally looking for a bow that will shoot a lighter arrow well and the hunter wants a bow that can load up a heavy arrow. The tiller balance of a bow is also very important. Draw length is also critical in designing bow length. A common misunderstanding is that physical height will determine bow length. Some 6’ men have shorter arms than folk that are 5’ 6”. So a bow must be designed in length according to your draw length not your height. Of course, beauty in timber and other aesthetics are important as well. Grip style and size are all fully customisable as well.
All Norseman bows are individually handcrafted in Australia in our NSW Central Coast based workshop, using the finest materials available. There is no out sourcing of any kind. Your bow will be designed and hand made by me from the first mark of the pen to the last lick of oil. Only in this way can any truly custom bow meet our very high standards.
In every Norseman bow is years of passion and experience. Let us build your custom bow for you and you can experience what a longbow is truly capable of!
An old prayer from the Viking era reads: “Save us o’ lord, from the wrath of the Norsemen”. Shoot a Norseman bow and the targets you shoot at or the game you hunt will say the same!
NICK LINTERN
BOWYER AND OWNER – NORSEMAN TRADITIONAL BOWS
PROUDLY MADE IN AUSTRALIA
My archery experience really took off, when in 1979, at the age of 13, my father and I got into archery properly with the purchase of our first bow, a Ben Pearson fibreglass recurve. We then joined the local field archery club, and from there began the journey that has been a passion my whole life. That passion has been primarily hunting and field archery, but over time I have developed a thorough understanding of the bow needs of target archers as well. Right from the start, I was driven to make my own bows. I just knew that this was something I really wanted to do and the drive was overwhelming. Not really being sure at that young age where to go to find out more about bow making, I bided my time, knowing that one day I would walk this path. Meanwhile, for the next 15 years or so, I actively shot longbows and for a small amount of time shot recurves as well.
As the years went by the desire and passion to make my own bows never left me. I was always asking bowyers for information and read everything I could get my hands on. I was fortunate that a family friend gave us some very old English and American bow making books that were written between 1900 and 1950. These are still in my possession to this day.
After years of studying, my first longbow was made in 2003, and this was the birth of Norseman Traditional Bows. Since then Norseman Traditional Bows has individually handcrafted many hundreds of bows. Selfbows, all wood composites, English longbows and many styles of glassed American semi-longbows flow through the Norseman workshop.
So what does all this mean to you as an archer buying a custom longbow? All these years of bow making and shooting have contributed to my having a deep understanding of the longbow and what is required to truly fit a longbow to an archer. Longbows need to be custom made to be really good. This is primarily why you won’t see many longbows in dealerships. They simply cannot be mass produced. The many nuances of longbows require hand crafted attention. A good longbow is the epitome of excellence in shooting. Customising a bow isn’t merely a question of draw weight and glass colour. A bow should be tillered according to your shooting needs. For example, a target bow will be tillered differently to a hunting bow as the target archer is generally looking for a bow that will shoot a lighter arrow well and the hunter wants a bow that can load up a heavy arrow. The tiller balance of a bow is also very important. Draw length is also critical in designing bow length. A common misunderstanding is that physical height will determine bow length. Some 6’ men have shorter arms than folk that are 5’ 6”. So a bow must be designed in length according to your draw length not your height. Of course, beauty in timber and other aesthetics are important as well. Grip style and size are all fully customisable as well.
All Norseman bows are individually handcrafted in Australia in our NSW Central Coast based workshop, using the finest materials available. There is no out sourcing of any kind. Your bow will be designed and hand made by me from the first mark of the pen to the last lick of oil. Only in this way can any truly custom bow meet our very high standards.
In every Norseman bow is years of passion and experience. Let us build your custom bow for you and you can experience what a longbow is truly capable of!
An old prayer from the Viking era reads: “Save us o’ lord, from the wrath of the Norsemen”. Shoot a Norseman bow and the targets you shoot at or the game you hunt will say the same!
NICK LINTERN
BOWYER AND OWNER – NORSEMAN TRADITIONAL BOWS
PROUDLY MADE IN AUSTRALIA