Different tools and techniques used to make bows.

[young indian12]

what mateirials do you use for the wedges?

[sweeney3]

May have to try badger's idea.

I typically split out a stave with wedges.  If it's a sapling, skip that part.
I tend to use a hatchet to get rough diminsions, along with a drawknife.
Following that I use a series of rasps and knife scrapers to chase a ring if I need to.  Not always.
Most of the final shaping and early tillering I do with rasps and maybe a knife.
Final tillering has been done with assorted rasps.  Now I'm trying out a knife scraper.  See how that goes.
Sandpaper to finish off.

[youngbowyer]

      One method I think is pretty cool, reduces the physical labor but takes a bit of finesse and patience. Clean the sides up on a stave where you can clearly see the growth rings. Use a bunch of small wedges similar to screwdrivers in size to tap into a growth ring carefully followed the length of the bow, do this on both sides and you can pop the whitewood off of osage all the way down to the ring you want to use, cut a notch angled down at the fades on each side of the handle and use your wedges again to pop off the belly wood down to where you want it. This will give you a very accurately roughed out bow ready to tiller. You can even use the small wedges to trim the width down following the radial grain on the bow. Steve

Must try that method on of my big black locust staves. So the growth ring is pretty much chased?