Bow Building season is here
 

Well Hunting is over for another year, and it's time to get out the draw knife and make a few bows .
I am planing to do a couple Yew English Longbows, an Osage recurve and Longbow, a Hop Hornbeam Penobscott and Holmgard style and Ash longbows in the Holmgard style, as well as a few kids bows from the trim on the larger staves, and some Maple boards .
Are there any others that build Self bows, or any type of bows on here? Where do you get your staves? or supplies? Whats in the Vice for this winter?
Staves are hard to come by in Alberta so if you have a source I would be interested .
Pete

IF, big if, I can find some time this spring I hope to build a couple.

I have some Yew that I got my dad to cut on his mill last spring. It was too 'wiggly' to make a decent self bow, so I was planning on laminating two strips of the yew together and backing it with rawhide.

Was going to make the first one for my nephew, and the second for myself.

Do you have any idea how to estimate draw weight with wood laminations / rawhide backing? I know there are a thousand variables, just looking for somewhere to start.

Cheers.

You can heat/ steam straighten staves as you go or Make a Snakey bow, or character bow as some call them.

As for weight estimating, you reduce the weight as you tiller. Never draw it to more weight than you want the finished bow to be.

Do you have boards or sawn staves?

Staves
 

Pete I know a fellow in BC who makes wooden bows and he was saying recently that he has lots of yew to sell/trade. He's made a lot of bows so I'd really trust his judgement in choosing a nice stave for someone.

Post his name contact info tracy. Unfortunately most guys selling staves are price gouging , I have seen poor quality small Yew staves full of knots and they were asking over $200 for them.

Windsor plywood sells hickory staves and a few others. Haven't been there in a while. But you got to order them. Bert Frelink in Pincher creek was getting some osage, don't know ifin he has any extra. He also has boo backing.
Just a thought- If someone finds a good stash of yew/osage/hhb how about group buy???
Pudelpointer - rawhide does not increase weight like sinue, just a backing. Rather than lamiating strips maybe back with thin boo or a tri-lam
Personal goal- Vine maple for the grandson he wants to help
hickory moly for myself hopefully ready for Calgary in april. But first I promised mom a new bathroom with a jet tub.
Thanks Leroy

Bert will have good staves.
Here is another source for staves in Canada.
http://www.amwoodinc.com/productDeta...JZ0jifOw%3d%3d

Pete

Good site thanks for posting. Black forest products in Calgary supposed to have stuff too. Never been there. Don't know about staves but they got quarter sawn.
Thanks leroy

Yew
 

mwnicol@qcislands.net. Here's his email, I hope it's ok with him to post. Anyway his name is Wayne and he'll treat you fairly if you say Tracy sent you.....

Saskatoon longbow and self arrows is my plan for the fall. Local staves. Cut in the spring, curing with waxed ends and bark-on for a few more months.

I tried Saskatoon, but the staves were so twisted grain they were unusable.
A 90 deg turn in 6" when I tried to split them. I will try them again, but this time I will cut smaller staves, about 1" to 1 1/2" diameter.
I have seen good bows made with Saskatoon and Choke Cherry.
Pete

I think that's the key Pete. The local natives kept their families fed with sasktoon bows, so it's been well tested. Not the best bow wood, but historically accurate for the area.

It have been told that the best Saskatoon staves come from those long branches, not the trunks. We don't have much growing here for choices in bow woods , other than Saskatoon and Choke Cherry that I am aware of.

Pete.

I picked some long straight saskatoon in february and picked up a spoke shave from Lee Valley tools (Canadian made to boot). I found the straightest longest saskatoon grows on the shady banks of the Bow river. these will be my first attempts at making bows. Who sells bow string by the foot? Pardon the mini hijack.

I have a yellow birch stave rough tillered - got busy hunting and haven't built a steam box to straighten it yet. . .

It's my first attempt at a self bow, hope to make it into a gopher getter. Looks like it could be a long cold winter. That bow might just get finished!

Twobucks, try this: wet down the stave where you want to straighten it, wrap that section in tin foil, capturing some water, and heat it with an electric heat gun until steam escapes from the foil, and you should be able to bend it that way.

Unregistered user: Three Rivers archery (google it) sells an adjustable bowstring, or spools of material to make your own custom length. Plenty of youtube clips showing how.

Thanx L B

Thanks LB - I built a jig I'm fairly confident will work for the clamping phase. I was thinking about getting a pvc pipe and building a whole chamber - the pipe and fittings would run $25ish.

Do you think the foil/heat gun would do a better job of getting the stave to soften enough?

Plastic pipe will melt with steam.

You can straighten a stave, or reflex it with just a heat gun or with steam. I only use dry heat from the gun.
Pete

I lack a heated garage and my wife is opposed to the mess in her house so I have to wait for spring to get building but here are my plans. Last year I made a few oak board bows and one tamarack bow from a stave. The tamarack was tough and flexible but lacked power, I am going to try another using sinew. I know tamarack will likely never amount to a bow good enough for hunting but it is nice & easy to practice on and will make a good "give-away" for kids.

I also have a yellow birch stave to try with sinew and will make as a re-curve.

I have two crazy looking saskatoon saplings 1"-1.5" to experiment with.

For board bows I will try :

a bamboo/ipe (high hopes for this one)

A maple/rawhide

As people finish their bows it would be greatly appreciated if you could post a pic with a description and some advice regarding what you learned in the process of that particular bow.

I'm completely new to bow building and am giving it a try this winter. I'd like to try a straight long bow first. Any suggestions on what type of stave/bow would be the easiest for a first timer?
Thanks.

The cheapest and easiest way to learn to tiller is with a board bow. Picking a good board can be confusing, so many start with a floor tillered board stave from a shop like www.rudderbows.com.

:)Pete...
'
Im in the market for a Penobscott, Always wanted one but could never get around to trying to build it...

Attachment 65454

Neil

i have built 42 board bows so far and have had 5 that broke during the shoot in and 3 that broke while tillering. used red oak, maple, and hickory from windsor or home depot. i found with the oak that it's best to use a backing of sorts, linen, rawhide, hell my main hunting bow has an old camo t-shirt for a backing and it is 6yr old and shooting strong.

ill probably be making a couple hickory selfbows this winter if i can get a shaving horse made up.

come summer i will be ventureing into the laminated glass and wood bows. new adventure. but i will probably always build the boardbows, they are fun, fast, and easy. and cheap.

I realy enjoy the Penobscott, and hope to build one from Hop Hornbeam soon, but I will try to do it more like the Micmac version, like Ironfist,{john Large} does. The micmac has more reflex on the back bow tips. If you don't want to build one Rudderbows sells them in the Penobscott version made from Hickory, either completed, or in U finish versions..

Pete

:)..Yup was considering Rudderbows...thats more the style i wanted...but would rather do it local...

Neil

I don't know anyone that sells selfbows localy, I certainly don't sell them. Jim at Rudderbows has been good to deal with though.

:) Thanks...

Penobscotts are about the quietest bows I have shot.