It all started on a drizzly saturday morning when I was bored and reading something on
www.primitiveways.com. In the article, "How to make a bow from a sapling.". I read many key details. I wrote down a list of these details, found my saw, and memorized from my book what a white ash looks like. Having done all of the necessary steps, me and my brother walk out into the woods with only a saw and our border collie. I looked around for nearly a half hour until I saw a small stand of about eight or ten white ash. I found the two smallest ones, about five inches in diameter at the thick end, and carefully chopped them off at the base. This was after I carefully examined and scrutinized the structure of the bark, the trees health, and how tall it was. Me and my brother then portaged the heavy logs home, about 2 miles.
When we got home, I brought out my axe, and we split them into quarters. Then we carefully peeled off the bark and examined the outer growth ring. It appeared that only two staves of the eight would work. They were about 120 degrees, quite a bit more than the 90 I wanted.
These two were shaped and hacked and filed until they roughly appeared like bows. Then they were painted with waterproof latex paint on each end and allowed to dry.
Almost a month and a half later I brought them from my closet and examined them. One of the bows might not work. It had a knot about the size of a grape I somehow didnt notice when I cut it, maybe I didnt care. The other bow was too light, only thirty pounds.
I did some reading and found out that most of the Great Plains and Eastern woodland natives made their bows only fourty two inches long. This was good to know. It meant that one of the staves with a large knot in it would not be wasted.
The light bow I tillered until it was good and spiked it four inches, two from each end. This made the draw more suitable- I also sinewbacked it with hemp cord.
The other bow I cut nearly nine inches from each end. Then I shaped it with my hatchet, and large kitchen knife (glad Im not in great britain, where they might outlaw them). I then cut Indian nocks, which I have come to favor. These are much like regular slit nocks, except instead of a rectangular piece of wood above the slit, it is diamond shaped, well filed and smoothed to fit the string and to ensure longevity, as there is little wear. I strung the fourty- two inch weapon and found it to be off tiller, not badly, but bad enough to make me angry. I drew it anyway and was astounded. It must have been almost eighty five pounds of draw. This was going to require a lot of tillering...
Later that night I worked until it was nearly one in the morning, carefully cutting, smoothing, trying to equalize the tiller. I then almost fell asleep in my workroom, which wasn't very good because if you are tired you shouldnt be working with blades.
Two days later, when the small cuts and scrapes on my hands healed, I picked it up and still wasnt satisfied with the draw. It was too much. I wanted it about fifty-five pounds so I could shoot it maybe fifty times at a stint without tiring.
When I did chores that morning to feed the livestock, I found a large piece of glass, with very square edges. It was about perfect, so I brought it to the house and scraped the bow with it. It was better than sandpaper. I perfected the tiller and took off about ten pounds of draw. Then with 400 grit sandpaper I smoothed the whole thing out and rubbed linseed oil into it.
Now I have to make some arrows....
I was wondering (in detail) how anyone else in this forum has made his or her bow, either longbow, shortbow, recurve, maybe even a bundle bow.
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How I made my Bow (Read 8006 times)
