Author Topic: tips from making a bow from a stave.  (Read 3084 times)

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Offline david w.

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tips from making a bow from a stave.
« on: February 05, 2008, 06:42:39 pm »
 Can someone give me some tips on working on a stave.  I have a beautiful character mullbery stave from Mullet.  I know to chase a ring but how should i work knots and a kink in the wood.  I dont think i will be able to steam it out so how should i tiller it.

How wide and long should i make it?
These pretzels are making me thirsty.

if it dont go fast...chrome it - El Destructo

Offline tom sawyer

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Re: tips from making a bow from a stave.
« Reply #1 on: February 05, 2008, 07:39:32 pm »
Tip #1:  Never get a stave from Mullet.  Just because he's a glutton for punishment doesn't mean you have to be.

But having ignored that tip, I'd do my best to chase a ring on that stave, I would be careful around knots because the grain tends to raise up some.  I wouldn't leave extra rings on the knot though.  I have limited experience with mulberry, but its a fairly light wood so I'd make the bow fairly long and reasonably wide.  Maybe 68" and 1.75" wide to midlimb then taper to 1/2" nocks.  I'm assuming you have around 28" draw and want 50lb out of a stiff-handled bow.  Don't go wide farther than midlimb, it reduces performance and makes the bow that much harder to tiller.  4" handle and 2" fades, get the limbs bending to within an inch of the fades.  When there is a dip in the wood make a dip on the belly so the thickness of the limb remains constant, that'll give you equal bending and avoids places that are over-stressed.

More people will be along to advise you better, just thought I'd get the ball rolling.
Lennie
Hannibal, MO

Offline Ryano

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  • Ryan O'Sullivan, North Western Pennsylvania
Re: tips from making a bow from a stave.
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2008, 07:43:19 pm »
pictures of what your working with would help...... ;)
Its November, I'm gone hunt'in.......
Osage is still better.....

Offline tom sawyer

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Re: tips from making a bow from a stave.
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2008, 11:26:04 pm »
I was joking about Mullet.  I source out the worst staves by far.
Lennie
Hannibal, MO

Offline cowboy

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  • Paul Wolfe. Springtown, TX
Re: tips from making a bow from a stave.
« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2008, 12:18:33 am »
David: Everything Lennie has said should be taken to heart (dunno about wood from Eddie, but he's got some killer coral ;D). Anyway, if that's a special stave and your limited on staves - might want to try some boards for awhile. But then again staves are educational ;). Pictures would be helpful....
When you come upon a track or trail you do not know, follow it to the point of knowing.

John R

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Re: tips from making a bow from a stave.
« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2008, 02:12:12 am »
Tom Sawyer pretty much summed it up with the dimensions. Mulberry is a really cool wood to work with cause it's so "crisp" and feels lighter in the hand than osage. It may help you to rig up a scribe to get a fix on the ginks as you work the belly down to shape. I use a wooden block with a short tab that follows the back right at the edge of the stave so the crown doesn't effect the pencil line. Along with the tab, I have a pencil that marks the belly and it follows all the waves and wiggles really well. A good base line is a little over 1/2". Once ya get the face shaped, run the scribe along the bow's back, marking the belly line. With it set a tad thicker than 1/2" you should be floor tillered. If your stave is really ginky, be very careful to work the belly flat, following all of the wiggles. Depending on the thicknesses of the rings, when you look at the belly, you'll probably see a drop in a ring at about each third of each limb, but again it depends a lot on the thickness of the rings.

To work the face, some folks mark the sides of the limbs with a straight edge, but on a character stave I like to have the bow follow the fibers, so I'll scrape and carefully draw knife one side until I get a nice flow along that side following all the fibers and around knots. Then I'll scribe a rough a rough width so the bow will be layed out following the flow of the wood. When you run past knots though, you'll need to widen the bow in those areas so you don't cut through fibers. This depends a lot on how wiggly the bow is though.