Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: munkinstein on March 11, 2013, 10:59:58 pm
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Here are some pictures of my first bow. Take into consideration that prior to building this bow I had never held, drew, fired, or seen a bow in real life. It is a red oak flatbow, made from a red oak board, which had perfect straight grain, but a slight twist. It is 67 inch nock to nock, with 1.5 inches of set. The bow is 1.5 inch wide with 0.5 inch tips. The draw weight is 52 lb at 28 inch. I was going for 45 - 50 lb. I had yet to apply a finish as I'm waiting to get some critique regarding the tiller. To my inexperienced eye it looks OK, but I'm sure I'm missing something. I took my time with the tiller, and tried to be as critical as possible whilst tillering. If more pictures are required I will take and upload better ones. Also I know I'm not drawing the bow correctly, I cut the tip of my finger off while cooking dinner today and had to ham fist the string to draw. Im
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why don't you post some pics online here?
some of us are a little reluctant to go just anywhere in cyberspace...never know these days...
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Sorry, pictures are too big and the forum shouted at me saying "file size was too big". Imgur is really well established image sharing website though I can resize the pictures and repost. I understand your reticence and I apologize.
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I see it is a bit twisted. No matter, the tiller looks good enouh to my eyes. A very well made first bow!
I'd put a finish on her, a simple leather handle, make some arrows, and start shooting!
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Looks pretty good! I don't have much experience with the board bows but to me the tiller looks pretty good. The fades on the handle might be a bit abrupt - those with more experience there can give better advice than I. Looks to me like you should be proud of making a first bow that well. Are you a lefty?
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Both limbs look a little stiff in the middle to me. But its looking great so far. Even with some adjustments you should fall within your desired weight range, which is a lot more than I could say about my first bow. Good job.
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Looks pretty good! I don't have much experience with the board bows but to me the tiller looks pretty good. The fades on the handle might be a bit abrupt - those with more experience there can give better advice than I. Looks to me like you should be proud of making a first bow that well. Are you a lefty?
I'm right handed but left eyed. I have to shoot as a southpaw, even with firearms I hold them with my non-dominant hand with no problem. Yea, I made the riser too small, and the fades were cut at an acute angle, my next bow I'll make a larger riser, or I may forgo a riser altogether.
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Both limbs look a little stiff in the middle to me. But its looking great so far. Even with some adjustments you should fall within your desired weight range, which is a lot more than I could say about my first bow. Good job.
Thanks for your advice. I'll look into thinning up the middle of the limbs slightly before I apply the finish.
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Munk that is what is so fun about this crazy addiction - the next bow! ;D
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The mid to outer limbs need to bend a little more.
If you want a rule you can use in the future then just look where the set is along the limb. There should be non near the handle , a little mid limb and the rest out to the tips.
Set is your teacher.
If a bow is bending correctly then the un-strung profile will tell you all you need to know about the tiller - I don't even need to string bows now!
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For your first that is an exceptional bow,very nice job. :)
Pappy
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Congrats on your first shooter...enjoy it for what it is :)
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Congratulations! I think it looks great. I built a couple of red oak board bows during my first couple of months of this addiction. In my opinion, if you can build a bow that good from a red oak board, you will have some exceptional bows in your future when you try some of the better bow woods that are out there. Tiller looks pretty good to me.
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After looking at it again, i agree with the above comment about the fades being too abrupt. On your next one, you should gradually blend the thickness of the handle into the limbs more.
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That is a good bow and as a first one very well done !
Have fun !!
Guy
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He Munkinstein? Is your first name Chip, y any chance? >:D
For a guy that had absolutely no prior bow shooting experience or building history, you knocked this one out of the park. The tips given on your tiller are fairly minor adjustments and cannot be construed as negative comments. I know the people making the comments and they are not the type to be negative. They are the people that will always pitch in to help you improve! From the sounds of your responses, you certainly did not take their words out of context, either. Something tells me you are going to be sticking around here for some time to come, you fit right in!
Now watch as your next 8 bows all blow up on you while tillering! It's been known to happen. Just remember this first bow and that it is definitely possible to turn out living, breathing shooters!
Nice to meetcha, great way to introduce yourself! Congrats on a good bow!
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Wow! That is a nice bow! Good tiller from what I see but i haven't built too many. Get a dozen arrows made and enjoy it ;) You have a talent for working with wood.
Greg
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He Munkinstein? Is your first name Chip, y any chance? >:D
For a guy that had absolutely no prior bow shooting experience or building history, you knocked this one out of the park. The tips given on your tiller are fairly minor adjustments and cannot be construed as negative comments. I know the people making the comments and they are not the type to be negative. They are the people that will always pitch in to help you improve! From the sounds of your responses, you certainly did not take their words out of context, either. Something tells me you are going to be sticking around here for some time to come, you fit right in!
Now watch as your next 8 bows all blow up on you while tillering! It's been known to happen. Just remember this first bow and that it is definitely possible to turn out living, breathing shooters!
Nice to meetcha, great way to introduce yourself! Congrats on a good bow!
Thanks for your kind words! I have been lurking in these here parts for a while now and figured I'd get a lot of good constructive criticism, it's only way to learn. I build this bow with the expectation that it would explode in my face but doing everything I could to prevent that from occurring, I'm fully prepared for that to occur. I'll build a few more board bows to get a hang of this before moving on to building from a stave. I've already stalked a few great potential hickory trees, and have permission to harvest. Again, thanks for the encouragement. Take care.
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The mid to outer limbs need to bend a little more.
If you want a rule you can use in the future then just look where the set is along the limb. There should be non near the handle , a little mid limb and the rest out to the tips.
Set is your teacher.
If a bow is bending correctly then the un-strung profile will tell you all you need to know about the tiller - I don't even need to string bows now!
Thanks for your advice. I'll definite pay attention to this for my next bow. Ideally, how much set should I expect, if a bow is well made? Does it depend on wood type, or does it come down to the bowyer, or a combination of both?"
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Nice first bow. I still don't have a good shooter. Broke 5 and last one came out at only 20#. So I'm still working on it.
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Thanks for your advice. I'll definite pay attention to this for my next bow. Ideally, how much set should I expect, if a bow is well made? Does it depend on wood type, or does it come down to the bowyer, or a combination of both?"
There's no clear and easy answer to that question but I'd say anything from 0-2" is considered acceptable. More than two inches tends to start having a pretty noticeable effect on performance with most bows. Some people hate it and strive to have none, others accept it as a matter of course and still others like having a little bit because they believe that it makes a bow into a "sweet" shooter. There are a lot of factors that can cause it, green wood, poor tillering, underbuilding, etc. but the root cause is from the cells in the belly being crushed and deformed, unable to spring back to their full shape. If you have dry wood, a good design and tiller it properly then set shouldn't be much of an issue, you may get some but it shouldn't cripple your bow.