Ad'lans Photo Guide to Making your own Self Bow

[Ad'lan]

All right, All right,

Tommorow If I wake up early enough I'll go get some work done on the bow , If not I'll.... er lets see busy sunday with the missus, up at 5:30 on monday for school, hmmm. Maybe tuesday, If I'm feeling nice


Thanks for the interest guys.

[SamuraiBobX26]

Great post Ad'lan.

I have a question. Have you ever made a laminated recurve bow or laminated long boy? IF you have I am curious as to what types of wood do you use in the construction of one and how many layers of wood do you use?

Sorry to ask so many questions, but you seem ot be very knoledgable and all I have shot are compound bows (I have 2) and some shot fiberglass bows.

[Ad'lan]

No, I never have, but I know people who do, and how they do it. If you want to start yourself, you need a laminating box, and a press, and all sorts of gear. More common is people buy the billets ready laminated, and then work it just like it was regular wood.

My own Longbow is a lamination of Hickory (2 layers) and a wood I've not come across before or since called Dsenge (De-Sen-Gay), I think the guy who sold it to me might have written down the name wrong, as I did buy it third hand. (It used to belong to a guy named martin walker, who used it to win the nationals).


There are lots and lots of different woods. Any hard wood will do, but the most common are:
Yew ,
Osage Orange,
(Both of which are more favoured for self bows, but osage appears in composites)
Maple (favoured by some manufactuers)
Lemon wood
Purple Heart
Hickory and Ash (if used in laminations will be used to back the bow)
Hornbeam, (I've never seen this, only heard about it)

[phoenixmastm]

No, I never have, but I know people who do, and how they do it. If you want to start yourself, you need a laminating box, and a press, and all sorts of gear. More common is people buy the billets ready laminated, and then work it just like it was regular wood.

My own Longbow is a lamination of Hickory (2 layers) and a wood I've not come across before or since called Dsenge (De-Sen-Gay), I think the guy who sold it to me might have written down the name wrong, as I did buy it third hand. (It used to belong to a guy named martin walker, who used it to win the nationals).


There are lots and lots of different woods. Any hard wood will do, but the most common are:
Yew ,
Osage Orange,
(Both of which are more favoured for self bows, but osage appears in composites)
Maple (favoured by some manufactuers)
Lemon wood
Purple Heart
Hickory and Ash (if used in laminations will be used to back the bow)
Hornbeam, (I've never seen this, only heard about it)

Osage, maple, and Ash I can find readily. Yew is kinda expensive around here, lemon wood & purple heart I've never heard of. I think hornbeam is another name for hawthorn, but I'm not sure.

Edit: Wiki FTW! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Hornbeam

[Ad'lan]

Osage, if you are gonna build a bow your self, use osage. If you can get it at a reasonable price. It's also known as hedge wood, Bois d' Arc and some other names. I belive it's often used as fence posts, and if you could find one of them thats got a straight grain and no cracks, you can probably get it at a bargin price.

I'd even say, if you are building the bow your self, choose osage over yew, as it is a lot more forgiving.

And, as you live in a place that gets cold, osage suffers less from changes in draw weight in the cold, whereas yew can shatter if it's too cold, and will definately change significantly in draw weight.

[phoenixmastm]

There's an apartment complex a few blocks over that uses Osage as a street plant.

It's a very pretty tree, but the fruit is a pain to drive over.

How easy is it to work with? And you need to start posting us with the carving/molding of the bow, so I can get this whole thing put into a file.

[Ad'lan]

I worked on it some yesterday, I just need to upload and find the photo's.

There's not much though. I really need to build a tiller.

[phoenixmastm]

I worked on it some yesterday, I just need to upload and find the photo's.

There's not much though. I really need to build a tiller.

Something's better than nothing. And wtf is a tiller?

[RogerK]

These three threads rock!

I made a crappy longbow (several decades ago) that I actually killed a deer with ( and no, I didn't beat it to death ).

But man Ad'lan, you tutorial is freakin' GREAT'

Now how about arrow shafts

And fletching

[Ad'lan]

When my New Bow arrives from the US, then I'll do a guide on arrow making.

As for a Tiller, wait and see for tommorow.

Here is what I got up to in the snow on saturday before work.

Get the Bow out of the shed, with my crook knife, and sit on a stool in my nice, cold, snowy garden. As you do.



First, I inspected my bow all over, to see how it had faired with the stay in the shed, and to refresh what needs doing.

All was fine, apart from one small thing.


A stonking great wet patch, caused by some stuff someone had piled on top of my nice, dry storage area.

So my first task was to take the crook knife to it


And see how far the water damage went. Fortunately, not very deep, and shouldn't affect the project at all.

So, the rest of the work is just shaping 'tillering' the bow.


(please excuse the wonky photo, my sister took it, and is an 'artist')

Tillering is shaving the bow down, bending it a little, then shaving a bit more, till it bends just the way I want it to. You'll see how useful a tiller is tommorow (if I have everything I need to bodge one together).
But for now, bending by hand and working with the knife is about all you can do.

Hope people are enjoying this and find it useful, sorry I'm slow about updates.

[SamuraiBobX26]

Thanks Ad'lan. I really appreciate it and again, GREAT POST.

Ad'lan for the WIN

[Raven927]

Nice, not to ask to much but, do you think you can post videos as well?

[Ad'lan]

Buy me video camera and of course I will.

I'll see what I can dow with the one built into my digi cam and the one on my phone, but, no, I don't really think I can.

I'll try though.

[phoenixmastm]

Almost done Ad'lan, then I can get going on condensing all this.

[kevintorvalds]

*

[Ad'lan]

So, here we Go. Stage 1.

Selecting your Bow Wood.

1st, kill one tree....

In the Paw, I suspect seasond timber will be hard to comeby, so you will need to cut down, and season your own. I am not however, a lumber jack, and so I have only a very basic knowledge of this. Cut down your tree in the winter, and saw or split it into planks, and store it in a dry place for a couple of years.

Sorry, I really don't have much more knowledge than that. I'd suggest searching online, there will be some experts out there with good advice.

But leaving it in a warm dry (and reasonably ventilated) place should do. Oh and cap the ends with resin or glue (PVA) will do. This stops splits developing from the ends.

[Ad'lan]

Okay, I expected to have a wonderful and illustrated post of my days work.
However, when it comes to upload my Camera pics. What do I find? Bullshit corruption and weirdness means I barely manage to get a quater of my photo's, and even then I doun't get all of them.

So I apologise in advance if this isn't upto the usual standards in clearness.

Today I made a tiller stick, to aid me in tillering my bow.

My Tool List was:
Crook Knife,
Carpenters Saw,
Black and Decker workmate,
Wood Rasp,
Hammer,
Nails,
Pencil,

Also needed are the bowstave and the string, a Large Plank of wood measuring about 4' by 4" by 2 to 1/2" thick. And smaller bits of wood (a Plank for the base, and something for supports).

First things First, I took my Large Plank, and worked one end with the rasp till it was smoothly curved and the bow belly fitted comfortabley in it.

Till it looked like this:


This will stop the bow jumping off the stick when we bend it.

Next, I simply marked out on the Tiller stick where the Notches would go, these notches hold the string, so should be rounded not to damage it. I placed one every 4" or so, I can always add another in between each notch later if I want. The Final Notch should be at the Draw length you want the bow to be when finished.

A Notch Part cut.

The finished plank with notches finished.

I then Built a support for it, to keep it stable (not essential) And so I shan't bother explaing it, as I decided against putting it on (as I'm not building a pully, nor expecting the tiller stick to last for more than a couple of years).

It's fairly simple carpentry.
Bottom plank, two side struts to anchor the main plank to the bottom plank.

Then, and I do apologise for the photo, the Tillering stick is fisinished and in useage.


Shit photo I know (told you didn't I), and even worse is the photo dosn't even show it working very well because muggins here, in the particular shot, had forgot to put the string properly into it's notch, and so the taughtness is not bending the bow as it should.

A tiller stick allows you to stand back from bending the bow, and see where it is bending well, and where needs more wood removed. It is very useful, and the project, though not done by a long shot, shall continue.

[andygates]

So now you take wood off and draw it back repeatedly until you've got it looking right at full draw?

[Ad'lan]

Thats the Idea, we want it to bend nice nd evenly throughout it's curve of limbs.

[Valarius]

Ad'lan. I speak as an American university student whose only experience with an actual bow of any sort lie in the Turok: Dinosaur Hunter video games.

You are to bows and arrows as Doc Simon is to first aid kits. Ad'lan for the win!

I'm damn sorry I never told you until now. When I have the free time, I will make a bow from scratch, using your guide.

[Ad'lan]

Ad'lan. I speak as an American university student whose only experience with an actual bow of any sort lie in the Turok: Dinosaur Hunter video games.

You are to bows and arrows as Doc Simon is to first aid kits. Ad'lan for the win!

I'm damn sorry I never told you until now. When I have the free time, I will make a bow from scratch, using your guide.

Thanks, thanks a lot, I think thats one of the biggest complements I've got. For Doc Simion is a might force indeed.

But, I'm not. I'm just an enthusiastic amateur. I love archery, but there are plenty of people about who know more than me. For real experts, vist somewhere like http://www.bowhuntingtalk.com or some of the other Archery forums.

It'd be very cool if you follow my guides, let me know how you get on, and if there's any thing I can help with.

[Mbelasko12]

Hey Ad'lan you wouldn't happen to have link to your arrow head guide? Your bowmaking guide so far eclipes the one Wiseman's SAS survival guide

[kevintorvalds]

*

[invicta]

I can't believe I didn't spot this thread earlier. This is awesome!
I'm definitely going to have to do this! Perhaps even this spring.. ..or when I have a new house and some workspace.

Excellent guide so far, Ad'lan!!