Roughing Out

[Don Case]

I've only got sapling staves(3-4") so to be on the safe side I just want to take one bow per stave. If I split the whole length I might not have enough for a handle. I'm thinking I would cut the fades with the bandsaw and then split from the handle to the tips. I don't want to saw the whole thing as I'm not sure how much twist there is. Does this sound logical?
Don

[BowSlayer]

iv'e only used a bandsaw a few times but i suppose you could cut out the handle and fadesand then use that cut to start off a split to the end of the tips. but it won't be easy to get right. good luck

[WillS]

Why not just use a drawknife for the whole thing? Seems the most logical, as there's no risk of sawing into wood you need, yet the drawknife can hog off a ton of excess wood if you're careful enough.  With a 4" sapling you could rough out both limbs leaving a handle in about 30 mins.

[Don Case]

Why not just use a drawknife for the whole thing? Seems the most logical, as there's no risk of sawing into wood you need, yet the drawknife can hog off a ton of excess wood if you're careful enough.  With a 4" sapling you could rough out both limbs leaving a handle in about 30 mins.

I just came in for coffee and read this. I've been in the shop for 30 min. I can hardly lift my coffee cup. I made the 2 cuts for the fades and split off the belly side as far as it would go. It came to the surface at the tips. I clamped it in my Workmate and started dragging it around the shop with the drawknife. There are a couple of knots on the belly side toward the tips that I thought I could take off safely. I honestly think it's going to take me the better part of 30 min to get though each knot. You must be a whole lot younger than me. There can be no doubt you're in better shape.(Wikipedia uses me as a bad example).
Anyway, my plan in splitting the stave was to discover how much twist there was in the stave so I could follow the grain while roughing. I plan on steaming it straight. Now that I've established that there is a shipload of twist I have to follow that with the drawknife. It's not as easy as I thought. Aside from my physical lacking my eyes want to carve it flat.
Coffee's gone. Out to the shop to figure out how to tie down the Workmate.
Don

[George Tsoukalas]

Take a good look at the stave. Hold it as if you were stringing it. See what it does and how it feels. Put knots on the back if you can. Draw a line on either side with a marker to delineate belly from back. 

I use a hatchet to remove belly wood. Take off the bark of a whitewood stave promptly to prevent the bark from cementing to the wood. It may be too late. Whitewoods are best cut during the growing season. The pops off easily then.

You can get the limbs bending with your dknife and the stave will dry faster.

Jawge

[George Tsoukalas]

You can use the hatchet  to get a 2 in wide stave which should be good. Leave the stave a few inches longer than  you do for regular log staves.
Jawge

[Don Case]

Put knots on the back if you can.
Jawge

?? I would have thought that it would be better to cut the knots off with the belly wood and leave the back as clean as possible. Can you explain please.
Thanks
Don

[Don Case]

Another question. This is a yew stave I'm playing with. It has a lot of twist so I'm expecting to have to steam it. Should I remove the bark while it's loose? Should I shellac it before I steam it? It's been cut for about 5 days.
Don

[WillS]

If it's only been cut for 5 days, you could probably remove a large amount of the twist by clamping the stave flat to a form and leaving it for about a year.  You won't want to be bending it at all for 6 - 8 months anyway, so I'd clamp it up, put it somewhere dry and not heated and come back to it in about 6 months and see where you're at.

[BowSlayer]

If it's only been cut for 5 days, you could probably remove a large amount of the twist by clamping the stave flat to a form and leaving it for about a year.  You won't want to be bending it at all for 6 - 8 months anyway, so I'd clamp it up, put it somewhere dry and not heated and come back to it in about 6 months and see where you're at.

+1

[Don Case]

I tried that yesterday with a piece of Pacific Crabapple. When you try to get 90 degrees of twist out cold things have a way of splitting right up the middle. I'm steaming one end of this stave as we speak. This one is yew and this limb only has about 45 degrees of twist. The other limb has 90 degrees. We'll see how this goes. I think my future in bowmaking may rest on this.

[RyanR]

As far as roughing out the bow as others have said a good hatchet will work fine if you are careful. I just roughed out a 3-1/2 inch elm stave yesterday with one. I had previously split the log in half.  If you lay it out with a pencil and then use the hatchet to within 1/4 of the line. I used a draw knife and rasp to get it to the line. If I had a bandsaw I guess I would use that but for now it is hand tools.  Good luck!

[George Tsoukalas]

If on the back you can compensate for the knots by leaving the area wider. If on the belly you are cutting through the knot. Of course, the best scenario is no knots anywhere but I don't think I've ever made a sapling bow  without a knot somewhere. Jawge

[dwardo]

I switch between an axe, billhook and drawknife. Either way it is hard work. 

[4dog]

Not rying to hijack but cutting through knots on belly is a bad thing?? cause i just roughed out a sapling , thick end 8" od thin end 2" od has a knot every 4 to 8" did i just make a crucket bat?? Lol