Bow Night Starts Again with New Blood

[tom sawyer]

A friend contacted me a while ago, seems he knew a fellow named Jimmy who wanted to learn to make a bow.  Jimmy already made his own arrows and did a fantastic job on them.  He called me last night and arranged to come over tonight.  I admit I forgot about him coming, but was glad to meet him.

We went to the garage and looked over a bunch of different kinds of bows and talked a little about what he wanted to make.  He settled on an osage selfbow, he's shooting for 60lb@28".  We rummaged through some staves and billets and found a nice set of 36" billets that had bark and sapwood removed and were seasoned two years.  These billets are btter than any stave I have, and will give him a chance to make a splice.  They have fairly tight growth rings (1/16" or so) and probably 75% summer growth.  I showed him how to chase a ring and he went at it, got both billets chased nicely tonight.  Pretty good for having never picked up a drawknife before.  He does work construction though so he's no stranger to wood and tools.  There's a little island of wood in the middle of one stave, it is a bit of a dip and rather than have him dig it out I thought we'd wait till the billets are sawed to shape.

I showed him how to lay out a bow, he drew a centerline down the crown of each billet and laid out a pattern that is 1.5" wide to midlimb, tapering to 1/2" tips.  As you can see, one billet has a dogleg at the handle end, we laid out the pattern following the grain and I think we'll try to straighten that setion with heat.  It'll be a challenge but I think it can be done.  Might have to cut the section thinner than a handle if we can't get it straightened, and glue a handle piece under the splice.  But I want to try straightening it first while its still thick enough to make a handle (1.5").  I also debated cheating in that area and just cutting it out straight, there's enough width that we could get away with it.  There'd be a few inches of working limb and the fade that would have some runout of grain though.  I think it would work but I'm going to try heat-bending instead.  At worst I'll just dig out another billet and start from scratch.  Anybody have an opinion on this?

Next week we'll cut it out, heat-bend it straight and give it some reflex.  If that goes well, we'll maybe do the splice and glue it up.  That'd be a good two hours worth of work I think.

I'm glad to be having a weekly bow night again.  I'll keep you posted on Jimmy's progress.  I think we can get this bow through tillering stage in maybe four sessions.



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[Justin Snyder]

  He settled on an osage selfbow, he's shooting for 60lb228". 

How many billets do yousplice together to get a bow with a draw length like that?    I'm glad to see you doing this.  I like a good buildalong, especially with a newbie. Justin

[tom sawyer]

Shouldn't type with my thumbs.  Fixed the typo.  It'd take about seven billets though.  7x36=252 - (6x4"splices) = 226", close enough.

[Pappy]

Nice of you to help out the new folks,I think sometimes I had rather do that than build my own.As far as cheating on the limb ,I try not to unless it is the ONLY thing I can do.I would heat and straighten.I usually on that new of wood, steam them first to get the worst out and then heat from there.
   Pappy

[tom sawyer]

Thanks for the advice Pappy, thats what I was thinking.  I think we'll try straightening it as 1.5" thick wood, and if that doesn't work we'll cut it down to 3/4" and bend again.  I'm sure we can correct it at that thickness.  Then we'll glue a handle on.

[DCM]

W/ 36" billets, seems like you could shorten the dogleg billet and come out fine.  How long do you need?  I'd suggest 64" is plenty and down as low as 60" is within reason.  Looks like you only need a few inches.  Grain violation in the spliced area shouldn't be a big deal.

It's good to see you have a nice, generous side, evidently reserved for utter strangers.  ;-)

[George Tsoukalas]

Tom Sawyer, as the Greeks say hen some one does something particularly good- Bravo! Jawge

[DanaM]

Once again shows the character of the folks around here. Sure wish I would have had an opportunity like that
last year when I started. Well done and can't wait to see the progress.

[tom sawyer]

David I was going to have him make it 68", figuring we could shorten it if necessary.  But I guess we could cut off a few inches and just cheat within the splice/fades.

As for my generosity, I give to the needy not the greedy.  Besides your standards are too high, I have nothing that would suit you.

[Slivershooter]

Don’t you just love bow nights?  Having a heated garage/shop allows me to have four to five people over one night every week during the winter for what my wife calls “Bow Buddy Night”.  I never get anything done on my personal bows, but never expected to when I started hosting these get-togethers.  We all have a good time and I enjoy sharing/teaching what I have learned.

Like David, I would shorten the handle area until it is  64" nock  to nock.  Using it as the bottom limb would help even more, if you make your bottom limb shorter then the top one.  If you start from the tip of that billet and lay it out to actual dimensions, including the splice layout (backwards from the method I normally use), it will give you the amount of extra wood in the twist/bend area you could safely cut off.     

[lowell]

I've been trying to heat a dog leg out of a recent osage bow for about 5 days now. It definately is bending nicely but I seem to go too far each time. 

 Think I finally have it so the string is in the middle of the handle....it was starting to drive me nuts!!

[tom sawyer]

Second session, Jimmy got the billets cut out nicely.  He already knew how to use a bandsaw so he did all the cutting.  One of the billets was a little short on width for a handle so I had him cut them both about 3/4" thick and we'll splice then cap it to get the handle thickness we want.  Kind of wish that wasn't necessary but it'll work out OK.

Anyway here are pics of the billets cut out, and that dogleg billet on the form.  I'm letting it cool in place overnight, I'll give it a few more sessions as necesssary to get it ready for the next bow night which is goig to be Friday night.  Hopefully we'll be ready to cut the splice and glue, possibly glue the handle piece on at the same time just to get to the heart of the project which is tillering.




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[Roger]

Kinda sporty profiling thos guys before splicing doncha think? I ain't that brave. good lookin wood Lennie...you da man!

R

[Otoe Bow]

Bow night sounds fun.  If you get a chance, take some good pics of the splicing process.  I have a couple of 36' mullberry staves and I have no idea how I'm going to splice them.

Thanks

Otoe

[DanaM]

Hey Otoe 36 foot billets, lets see when ya splice em that will make a 72 foot bow, who's it for Paul Bunyan
Typos can be fun hehehe