From Utah. Meet Bossy, the Milked Bow.

[JoJoDapyro]

Just signed up. I have been reading and seemed to catch the bug. I was a bow hunter 15 years ago, and then stopped. I moved onto Muzzleloaders, and then stopped hunting. I have never stopped fishing though. I am planning to start my first self bow, and had a few questions. I am planning on making it out of a stave that I cut. Would Siberian Elm, Russian Olive, Apple or something else be the best option? What tools would you suggest to buy? And the most important to me is, is there anything special to making a bow that will be in such a dry climate? I have read a lot of build alongs, but mostly from Bowyers from the mid west or back east. ANY help would be great. Thanks a ton in advance, and thanks for already teaching me so much.

Joe

[Badger]

  Utah is great for white woods, elm, hickory, pecan will all do great. As for tools, maybe you could give some idea how much you want to spend and go from there. I like draw knives,spoke shaves, rasps and scrapers on white woods. You will need a nock file, sand paper, a file to sharpen your tools and a stone. Maybe $200.00 could set you up nicely but you could get by for under $100.00 to start off.

[Bogaman]

On your question about the dryer climate. Be sure and seal the wood on the ends, and possibly the back depending on the wood. The dryer air I would think might cause it to check or crack more so than it does here in the Midwest.

[loefflerchuck]

I'm in Utah too. To start, get an axe and hammer to split the stave. A drawknife and a pocket knife and your good. You can find all these things at a garage sale or on ebay for less than $50 total. Russian olive is good. Serviceberry makes a good bow. Juniper makes a great bow with sinew. Other local woods chokecherry, mountain mahogany, scrub oak....... Juniper usually has no problems with warping. Serviceberry, chokecherry and other small trees do. Humidity gets under 10% around here. Heating vents in winter and ac in summer gets it even lower. Get a $10 humidity meeter and a $35 humidifier for one room in your house and keep the humidity between 40% and 55% and you will have none of these problems

[JoJoDapyro]

OK. Day one. I went to a co-workers house who cut down a large apple tree last fall. My friend and I got two good fairly straight 2 1/2 inch limbs (the co-worker cut the tree down and dragged it to the back of his property, so the wood has been drying since the fall). My friend had a water line break so we headed to Lowes to buy a fitting. While we were there I looked through all of the six foot Red Oak 1X2's. I went through about 25 boards and found only one that looked to be usable. So now the question is, Apple or Red Oak first? I'll go and take some photos to show the 2 options I now have.

To answer the tool cost question. I am fine with spending whatever it takes to get the right tools. Over time that is. I just want to learn the basics, even if both of these bows end up breaking, I am out $8 and what time I took to make them. But you can't learn without a few hitches here and there.

For tools I have the following. Axe, Hatchet, Several hammers, Rat tail files, a Rasp, a small pane, and various other small hand tools. Plus power tools that I don't plan on using unless they can be of use.

[DarkSoul]

I'd rough out the apple limbs with the hatchet first. They'll still be a bit wet, so they can dry a bit more after roughing out.
Then I would make my first bow from the red oak board. You'll need different tools for the board then for the staves. The axe/hatchet will be useless for the board. A good plane will be much better. You could consider buying a Stanley SurForm for about $ 15-20. Then maybe buy an additional rasp or file, depending on the ones you have right now. A card scraper (just a few bucks) is also essential. But since you have some tools already, think wisely about what tool to buy. Should it be a new tool or an upgrade for an existing tool?
The board is straight and it's easy to draw straight lines onto it. No need to worry about a curved back, wiggly surfaces or knots. You can just lay out the outlines onto the board and use a plane or SurForm to get down to the lines. Then switch to files/rasps to round the corners and remove the tools marks. Start tillering with the files and finish tillering with the scraper.
By the time the red oak board is shooting, your apple wood will be dry or at least drier.

[JoJoDapyro]

I need to adjust my phones camera settings. The apple limb is a little curvy also. Should I still split the apple limb? or wait for it to dry and then worry about it?

I spend one morning a week with my Dad. Looks like maybe tool shopping! I can really use new everything, it's just convincing the wife of it. But, she spends as much time as it takes to get in her car and pull out/in the garage, so I think I can sneak one by. She doesn't understand that more tools are better than less.  She did buy me new air compressor for Christmas though!

[Wiley]

You probably have most of the necessary hand tools, some sort of scraper would be good for fine tillering. I don't have the patience or wrist strength to hack mine out with a hatchet but many do, what takes me days with a hatchet I can do in minutes with the bandsaw. A bench sander is another great time saver.

As for the apple, how straight grained is it? Splitting it will make that obvious, most tends to grow really too twisted for bows, and a long enough non twisted example is unlikely.

Make your first one about as tall as you are. Most white woods will preform great in your dry climate. I'm not familiar with your trees, but white oak or hickory would be excellent. Around here these woods are at least a little hindered by our moisture, over there this wouldnt be the case.

Seal the heck out of the ends as quickly as possible after cutting, preferably have your sealant handy while cutting the tree. For white woods in most cases the wood right under the bark is the bows back. Remove the bark carefully, and seal that wood thoroughly. Its going to dry rapidly and that can cause cracks to form.

Most fruit and nut trees can make a fine self bow provided they are designed according to the wood you are using. Made wide enough even pine and poplar have become self bows.

[blackhawk]

Welcome to pa!!!

[JoJoDapyro]

I haven't done a whole lot of work today, But I did learn that I need a better Plane. I debarked the apple yesterday (2ish hours) and clamped it to a metal pole to straighten the deflex. It is also S shaped, but the knocking points and the handle line up so I am not too worried. Plus, if I can make a working bow out of an S then I should be good with straight wood in the future. I then sat down and laid out my bow on the Red Oak board. I went out this morning and took the apple off the pole, and quite a bit of the deflex is gone. I then measured out the Apple. 72 inches end to end. at the handle point it is 1 5/8 thick, so I have a lot of wood to remove from one end. My goal from the apple build is to have a working bow at the end. I really don't care if it is 25#, as long as it works.  My plane is needing to be readjusted about every 10 strokes. So that is on the schedule for tomorrow after work, along with some string wax. I had planned to get some tools today, but it turns out it was the first day of a local farmers market, as well as a birthday party and a graduation party. I have taken about an eighth off on the ends of my board so far, and it too a lot longer than I expected.

Is nylon ok for string material? I found a store that sells a Nylon bead working cord (TEX400)  that has a breaking strength of 75# that came in 4 spools of 4 colors of green. I bought it as it was cheap to give it a try. I made an 8 strand reverse twist and it seems like it is the right thickness (from what I can remember), as well as really strong, and really doesn't stretch too much. The Loop end (Flemish loop?) is holding well. I am 300# and hanging it off of a bolt in my garage (Metal Beam) and putting as much of my weight I can hold it isn't budging.  Thanks for all of the info. I'm bit bad. My wife came down and asked if "I was looking at stuff for that bow still", and that "She didn't know it would take up this much of my time".

A little bit more about me. I make furniture out of Pallets, Fish as many days a week as I can, Work in the garden "Like a little old man" and love my life.

[Pappy]

Welcome,looking forward to seeing some of your work.
 Pappy

[JoJoDapyro]

Here is a photo of my board bow, as well as my first attempt at a string. I need a vice something fierce. I actually planed the shape with one hand, and one hand holding the board. I came up with the chair idea today.

OK, I downloaded a program and did it! Yay!

[Joec123able]

Living in a dry climate is an advantage if anything faster drying wood

[stickbender]

    Welcome aboard, and enjoy!  I would not recommend nylon string, as it stretches.  I would suggest, if you don't want to buy a spool of bow string from one of our sponsors, go to Wally World, or your local sporting goods store, and get a spool of power pro fishing line, in the 3o to forty, or fifty lb. range, and do your Flemish twist.  I think power pro, fishing line is about the same as B-150.  Good luck, and keep at it.  Glad you are back into archery.  Now after the bows, comes the arrows, and then the flint knapping, and bleeding.   It is all addictive, and you are in good company.  There are a lot of fantastic bowyers on here, and they all are more than willing to help you along.

                                                                                Wayne

[JoJoDapyro]

My hands are sore like they haven't been in years.

I will make arrows after I get a working bow. I just had a friend bring me a bag of Turkey feathers from a turkey he shot on Saturday. To say i'm hooked is putting it very lightly. Thanks for the Nylon info. I'll look into getting Dacron cord.