For pictures of the finished bow, see:
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,19714.0.htmlI used TB II for all my gluing.
1. Design the siyahs. I used a computer drawing program - see below. I’ll send you a copy of my drawing if you ask. Notice the notch on the limb edge.
2. Find a nice quartersawn Red Oak 1/4” x 1-1/2” x 48” board at Lowe’s.
3. Acquire some 1/8” quartersawn Maple. I have some planks of it from building mountain dulcimers. Cut a strip or strips for the back.
4. Likewise, 1/8” Ash and Black Walnut to make the siyahs, and some 1/2” thick wood for the handle pieces (I used Red Elm).
5. Draw the shape on the R.O. board. I drew a 4” handle with 1” fades. At the tips I drew 1-1/2” faded shoulders to 1/2” wide tips 3” long - like on a Møllegabet.
6. Cut out the shape on the R.O. board. I used a scroll saw.
7. Stack cut the pieces of Walnut & Ash for the siyahs, so they are identical. Glue the siyahs together. The siyahs are laminated for strength. Asian siyahs were sometimes steamed and bent, sometimes carved from branch forks to have strong wood that would not snap from stress on the sharp angles. Laminating solves the problem. When the glue is dry, drill the string nock holes 3/4" down from the ends and a shade less than half way across. I used a 3/16" drill bit, and then my scroll saw to open up the hole to the edge.
8. Glue the back and belly pieces together. I have a 4 ft long worktable and clamped the layup together on it. I put down a layer of shrink wrap plastic to keep glue off the table. My backing was two pieces of Maple butted together at the centerline. Allow to dry overnight.
9. Glue the first handle piece to the back of the bow, covering the butt joint of the backing. After that glue dried, I then drilled the handle and limb for two 1/4” dowels which were glued in.
10. It was at this point that I decided to narrow the overall width of the bow. I cut mine down from 1-1/2” to 1” wide - barely wider than the handle. This step is, in essence, a sort of floor tillering. If you use Red Oak and Maple the way I did, and make the bow 1” wide, the most you can hope for in draw weight is 40-50# @ 27-28”. I LIKE bows with that draw weight. Even 1-1/8” wide will increase poundage if you want more zip for your efforts.
11. Glue on the siyahs. I used a single small C-clamp to hold the tip in place and then wrapped the whole thing in shrink wrap to hold it all together. Again, let everything dry overnight.
12. Glue the second handle piece to the belly.
13. Hang the bow on your tillering tree and see what it’s like with a long string. If you leave the bow wider - say 1-1/4” - you can tiller by reducing width without removing anything from the belly until you get down to 1” wide limbs. Or you can tiller belly and width alternatively in combination. I use a 1/4 sheet palm sander equipped with a strip of 50 grit belt sander blade for “rough” tillering”, and sanding blocks with 100 grit for fine tillering. I literally took off only 100 strokes from each limb and the weight was perfect. Fifteen minutes worth of work. Lucky I guess...
14. Once you’re done tillering, shape the handle to fit your hand. Also round the ends of the siyahs. You may also want to roundover the edges of the string nocks.
15. Now make and glue on the string bridges. I used 1” lengths of 5/8” dowel. With my scroll saw I cut two kerfs 3/8” wide (the width of the siyahs) and about 1/8" deep. I removed the wood between the kerfs to make a nice flat spot, and then glued them in place just at the end of the limb where it meets the siyah.
16. String the bow and mark where the string crosses the bridges. Shoot a couple arrows and mark where the string falls after each shot. In that area, now file a shallow round-bottomed groove for the string to rest in. It may not be primitive, but I use #36 Mason’s line for strong but inexpensive bowstrings. The #36 line has a breaking strength in excess of 700 pounds.
17. Finish however you like. Because I like to see the wood, I just use a couple coats of Minwax rub-on polyurethane.
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