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Re: Is it possible to make a bow... (Read 11857 times)
beaverbutt8
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Dec 12th, 2005 at 10:41pm
 
Quote:
without the knowledge of caving wood? I'm not particulary good with wood, and I really want to make a homemade bow. If its possible, I would like know how to make one.


I think it might be. Buy a stave that's dimensions are as close as possible to what you are planning to make. Cut notches in it, and string it. I don't know how well it will work, but why not try carving? It's not a hard thing to do. Practice on some old pine sticks. Take small chips out of the stick, and try as hard as you can to make the stick look like what you want it to be, small wooden figures are easy to do. This is a very good way to practice. If you want to make a bow out of a stave cut from a tree you need

A hardwood tree, such as Hickory, ash, elm, oak, pecan, maple, etc


axe ( to cut down tree, for your own good - use a chainsaw )
hatches ( to rough out wood )
drawknife ( to tiller stave )
knife ( probably not totally neccesary, but good for small details)

I strongly advise you practice carving first



Hope this helps Smiley



Mike
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #1 - Dec 12th, 2005 at 10:51pm
 
ask hellfire he seems to know a bit about this I know how but myself never executed it
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beaverbutt8
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #2 - Dec 12th, 2005 at 11:10pm
 
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #3 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 12:00am
 
Thanks, I'll try your suggestions. And about carving, what kind of knife will I need?
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #4 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 2:38am
 
It is totally possible to make a bow at home.  Many here have done so.  Johnny posted some really cool pictures of some of the bows he made.

http://www.slinging.org/forum2/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=other;action=display;num=1114...
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Hellfire
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #5 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 7:46am
 
I sure do like to make bows. What kind of wood do you have access to? Tools? How about bowstring ma terials?


Use a hardwood like elm, oak, ash, hickory, maple, most any hardwood will work. For a first bow, buy a five dollar 1by2by6 (actually 1 1/2" by 5/8" by six foot) foot piece of red oak. Make sure the grain lines on all sides of the board are striaght and there are no knots. You can work down a bow with a hatchet, or a chisel, if you dont care about finished appearance. If the store has maple available, use that also.


Bow Layout

Take the six foot redoak board stave, and find the middle. Measure 2 inches on either side. This is your handle. If you have a big enough hand, leave the handle full width. If you have difficulty doing so, you may narrow it an eight of an inch, but not any more than that. These are directions for a 45 pound bow, at 28" of draw. A regular old pocketknife will work.

Make the tips of the bow 1/2" wide. Dont cut in nocks just yet.

Now comes the difficult part. Tillering is basically making wood bend by making it thinner. For a good, efficient bow, you will want to make the entire bow bend equally at full draw. Like this pic, of an elm bow I made.

...

Therefore, you want to remove a lot more wood near the midlimb of the bow, than you would near the handle. So procede on doing exactly that. If you want something to work on, make the handle full thickness, and the tips about 1/2" thick, and draw a straight line taper between those two points. Take a jackplane (if you have one), and leave the handle alone, plane a little on the immediate wood by the handle, more wood further out, and test the bend of the bow by setting it up, and pushing the limb, so the tip rests on the ground. If it is correct, with no "hinges" or areas that bend too much, or stiff spot, areas that dont bend enough. Make sure you leave the tips stiff, and the wood right by the handle stiff or barely bending. This is to reduce set, which is the tendency for wood to remain in a bent position after unstringing.

The tiller on that elm bow is good tiller, it hasn't taken much set, even though it is not much more than an inch wide, and 45 pounds. It is plenty enough weight to kill a deer with, and I think that at 10 grains of arrow weight per pound it may shoot something like 147 fps, based on shooting tests.


I have to get going, I'll finish this later today.


While you are waiting, here are some excellent sites to look for. When dealing with topics like archery, it is better to learn as much as you can, and just go out and make a bow, learn from your screw-ups, and dont ever lose your determination. So while you all wait to know how I make bows, here are some othere peoples sites where I learned from.


http://www.primitiveways.com/sapling_bow.html

here is a good one on tillering

http://www.primitiveways.com/sapling_bow.html


You should dig in the archives on this one, jam packed full of info. Took me about four hours to read a lot of it.

http://b16.ezboard.com/bpaleoplanet69529


Another good forum

http://www.xsorbit4.com/users/buildabow/index.cgi


George Tsoukalas is a great guy, been making bows for a long time. Here is his website. Check out all the bow making parts of it.

http://mysite.verizon.net/georgeandjoni

Millions of threads about bows here

http://www.bowsite.com/stickbow/tf/threads.cfm

Hope you like all the websites.

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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #6 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 12:06pm
 
If you do not have special wood carving knifes, any knife will do. Even the cheap little potato peeling knifes.  

But a knife that fits well in your hand is easier to work with. The length of the blade is not important, it needs to be long enough that you can reach where you need to work, with a little bit left over. If you use a foldable knife, make sure it has a lock to prevent closing and use it.

Keep the knife sharp, less chance of cutting yourself. And start with carving away little slivers. Better a lot of little bits than one to big one. (Later you will know how big a sliver you can handle with this knife.)

Willeke
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #7 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 1:06pm
 
Another good bow wood, supposedly the best is Osage Orange. The good thing is that the shavings can also be used for dyeing material.
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #8 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 3:35pm
 
Its not that hard to tell you the truth, Its easy in fact if you have a draw knife Smiley

have a look at the How to make...thread.
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #9 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 3:42pm
 
Welco to the site,
Try this:
http://groups.msn.com/ferretsarcherywebpage/welcome.msnw
Hope it helps Wink
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Hellfire
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #10 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 4:58pm
 
Another good bow wood, supposedly the best is Osage Orange. The good thing is that the shavings can also be used for dyeing material.

Osage is just the most elastic bow wood in North America. Sure it is good bow wood, you can make the limbs quite narrow without much set, but a properly designed and made bow out of hickory, hackberry, ash, elm, any of those, will be just as fast and smooth shooting a bow. And often it will be faster, because a whitewood bow often has tips as narrow as an osage bow, but osage weighs more. Which means that the tips of a whitewood bow have less mass, and therefore greater net efficiency.
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #11 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 6:18pm
 
An easy bow to make is what I call the half-tillered bow. Just take a straight stick 1"-1.5" in dia and 6'-6.6' long. Then, for each end third of the stick, carve away a quarter of the wood on the back (part facing the shooter?) of the bow, so it sort of looks like a circular round "U." I hope this makes since. Basically, it is easier to minimally tiller like this because there is less chance to mess up and take off too much wood, and it won't break as easily. The one I made is pretty sad- 25# pull, but if you make a shorter, wider bow with a better wood than maple, it should be more powerful.

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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #12 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 7:02pm
 
Thanks for all the help, I haven't had time to check the websites yet, but just a few questions. The wood that is closest the the dimensions that Hellfire posted was 1"x4"x8'. Do you think a hardwood round that is 3/4" in diameter and 6' in length would work? Also, what type of material would I need for the drawback string thing? (Sorry, not really sure what its called)
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Hellfire
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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #13 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 7:52pm
 
Thanks for all the help, I haven't had time to check the websites yet, but just a few questions. The wood that is closest the the dimensions that Hellfire posted was 1"x4"x8'. Do you think a hardwood round that is 3/4" in diameter and 6' in length would work? Also, what type of material would I need for the drawback string thing? (Sorry, not really sure what its called)


Well, then buy a nice piece of that lumber, and ask a neighbor if he will rip it down its length with a bandsaw. The bowstring should be made of dacron, linen, silk, sinew, hemp(real hemp, not abaca), polyester artificial sinew, rawhide, nettle. 

What kind of bow do you want? Just for fun? Hunting?

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Re: Is it possible to make a bow...
Reply #14 - Dec 13th, 2005 at 7:54pm
 
Hm...I gotta see if my neighbors have a bandsaw or not. :/ Anyways, think the hardwood rounds would work? And where would I be able to buy the materials for the bowstring? And the bow would be just for fun, since I'm only 12. >_<
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