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i finally made my bow (Read 2351 times)

Arthur the great

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i finally made my bow
Sep 12^th, 2012 at 12:01am

it has been awhile since i posted or even been on here but im back for now so how is it going

any way i finally got around to making my first bow for the most part i followed the tutorial a poorfolkbows.com/oak.htm
here are the pics

the string is from a 900 lb 3 ply rope gutted be cause i cant get access to b 50 dacron at the moment

it was not until i started taking these pics that noticed that my lower limb was a whole lot weaker than the top

it pulls about 40 lbs at 28"
maybe less

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Rofriedrich Senior Member Offline Psalm 140:7 Posts: 273 Texas Gender:	Re: i finally made my bow Reply #1 - Sep 12^th, 2012 at 12:31am I don't know much about bows, but it sure looks nice. Way to go!
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Mauro Fiorentini Forum Moderation Offline Forge your future with the hammer of your mind! Posts: 3442 Ancona, Italy. Gender:	Re: i finally made my bow Reply #2 - Sep 12^th, 2012 at 1:12am Looks like you have sanded the left half too much, Arthur. Adding this topic to the Index too. Greetings, Mauro.
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Dan Interfector Viris Spurii SlingingGuide Moderator Offline Slinging Rocks! Posts: 3974 Gender:	Re: i finally made my bow Reply #3 - Sep 12^th, 2012 at 7:47am Looks good for your first bow. Keep up the good work!
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Bill Skinner

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Re: i finally made my bow
Reply #4 - Sep 12^th, 2012 at 11:31am

If your bow bent exactly in the middle, each limb would need to be tillered exactly the same, but it doesen't. It bends the width of your hand above the center, which puts more stress on the bottom limb. So the bottom limb needs to be just a slight bit stronger than the top limb, we are talking about 1 pound to 2 pounds (1/2-1kg) more. You can leave it as it is or scrape about 5 scrapes off the top limb. Or you can start on a new bow in a few days or weeks. But be careful, bow building is like slinging, it's addictive.

My first bow broke, as did my second and third, my fourth was suitable for a weak six year old, my fifth held together for about 200 shots, then exploded. And I was using hickory and osage. For a first bow, you did an outstanding job, much better than I did. I had to sit down with a guy who walked me through my first bow and then later, I had to go back to someone else who had to teach me to tiller correctly.

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LukeWebb

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Re: i finally made my bow
Reply #5 - Sep 15^th, 2012 at 12:34am

My dad is actually a bowyer, while he makes all wood laminated bows I have been making stick bows from saplings, usually green then allow to dry and some slight retillering due to the change in wood density usually one limb bends a little less than the other after it dries. I only actually made my first bow last year and surprisingly it did work out great but was only about 20-25lbs. Since then I have made about 10 more, broke 3, 2 need fixing up, (bark seperating on back from around small knots,) but the rest I am currently shooting, some have bark on back some I removed the bark, you can leave it on if the bark dries hard and it is somewhat smoothe and knot free and intact all the way along, with something like sugar maple you can just leave it on as long as you don't have a lot of knots near the center of your bow back or it will peel off around them.
After you have made a few you will find it get's easier, I made two sapling bows just this afternoon and was shooting them, maybe four ours work and over 40lbs. draw each, they still need to dry and be retillered a little and be finished up but they are shootable. I find the indispensable tools are a very sharp axe for roughing it out and a hand plane, I use a small one for tillering and a large wood block plane for heavy removal, sometimes I will use a drawknife for heavy removal but the block plane works better usually depending on the wood. Rasps and files also are handy for final tillering.
That's a great looking bow and I doubt it will explode on you the way it is. Did you put any backing on it?

See my work and friend me on Facebook!&&https://www.facebook.com/luke.webb.56808

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Morphy Slinging.org Moderator Offline Checkmate Posts: 8221	Re: i finally made my bow Reply #6 - Sep 15^th, 2012 at 6:22pm I agree with Bill that is a very good first bow. My first 10 bows were not great. I think I remember one breaking at full draw and smacking me in the face. So if you got out of this first attempt with no bruises and a working bow, I would call that a success.
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