bow making with hand tools

[koan]

Usually i actually prefer a hatchet for roughing out a bow. A good trick is to make relief chops so u reduce chances of a bad split. Dont try to get to close to your layout and use a rasp and scraper to close in on it.... Brian

[sleek]

Sounds like you need new neighbors.  If its during normal hours id tell em to piss off. Your noise may be annoying but so is their face, and you havent complained. If they insist ( and your doing this at normal hours) call the police and charge them with harassment.

[arachnid]

Well, I never work during rest hours it's just that my next door neighbor works night shifts and being the nice guy that I am I'd like to consider his request.
And no, I can't move out since I just moved in .

Back to the topic- due to budget limitations, what would you suggest to get first, a ferriers rasp or a draw knife?
If it's drawknife, I'm realy thinking of getting the Flexcut curved blade since it's pretty affordable for my. I asked about it once but someone said it looks too flimsy... What do you think? Anyone with good experience with it?

[bambam]

For boards you won't need the draw knife if you have the farriers rasp. For larger staves (like 3 inches thick) you will want a proper draw knife to start but will soon need the rasp. Guess it depends what kind of material you are working with.

[huisme]

I use an 18" kukri for roughing out, and I can even get to floor tiller with the thing I've used it so much.

[Drewster]

Dor, based on the discussions here, I think a farriers rasp should be your next purchase.  You can use one for any and every self bow you make from this point forward.  I use mine all the time.  And when you get ready for a draw knife, I'd suggest shopping for a good, older used one.  Check the big auction site, local antique shops, flee markets etc.  A lot of the old draw knives are better quality than the new ones......and less expensive.   I looked at the Flexcut draw knife you referred to and I think I would pass on that one.  Hope this helps.

[DavidV]

These are my basic tools I use on board bows and conveniently fit into my tool box. Literally the cheapest ones I could buy. The only power tools are a circular saw to rip boards down and a belt sander for tip and riser shaping. I could do all the shaping with files but my belt sander does it in about 5 minutes...

Roughout with the shorter plane which has a radiused blade for aggressive removal, then clean it up with the longer plane. Because I'm using mostly straight boards I can get quite a ways into tillering only using the plane, I then go straight to the scraper.

For staves I use mostly the same tools but I replace the planes with a drawknife and hatchet. My drawknife is just a cheap 8" straight blade one from Menards but I like it for what it does. You HAVE to use thick drawknives like this bevel down unless you're debarking big logs. You vary the angle to determine the aggressiveness of the cut so you can either hog off big slivers of wood, or chase rings on high rpi staves. If the wood is straight I'll use this as long as I can while tillering, otherwise I switch to a wood rasp then scraper. I'd like to try out a Shinto or farriers rasp as this is the last major gap in my tool collection is.

[lebhuntfish]

Are you working realy late or something, I'd at least talk to them and then if they are just being unreasonable I'd tell them to pound sand, that said try to use the noisy tools at a decent hour

+1, in my town it's no power tools after 9pm till 9am. Other than that they can just deal with it. But I mostly use hand tool. They did fonch a bit when I was splitting a stave at midnight on a weekend.

Farriers rasp is your friend. Patrick

[Cade]

The first draw knife I got was the five inch curved flex cut drawknife. It is super sharp but I haven't used it since I got an old one at an antique shop. For me it was just a little to flimsy for anything but fine reduction. Hope this helps you in your hunt for tools. Also, I would suggest getting a ferriers rasp because you can do things with it you can't with a draw knife, like working knots without a lot of tearout.

Cade

[scp]

I use a small block plane a lot.

[arachnid]

Can anyone recomend a good ferriers rasp from e-bay (can't seem to find it anywhere else)?

[Del the cat]

I think it's great you are being considerate as the guy works nightshift. It's nice to be nice (with the odd patch of grumpy, just to break it up a tad )
Maybe you could get all the roughing out done one day a month in a batch or some such when he's not tryng to sleep...
If you really want to be evil... you could lure him into making bows
Del (exits left rubbing paws with glee and cackling wildly)

[lebhuntfish]

arachnid, do you have an orchleans around you? They are 20 bucks there.

If not try somewhere that sells saddles or a farrier. Sometimes they will have used ones that are still really good for wood work. Patrick

[bubby]

Can anyone recomend a good ferriers rasp from e-bay (can't seem to find it anywhere else)?
 


Bellotta is a great farriers rasp , even if they are french
Super sharp and mine was $22

[bradsmith2010]

hatchet ,,draw knife and very large rasp,,