Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: ccase39 on October 11, 2015, 12:50:29 pm
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I'm a noob and have made 5 bows recently out of Osage. I have been using the dimensions Ben Harper used in his build alongs. I have based most of them on the red oak board bow build along and have modified it a bit. I've been reading The Bent Stick and am where he is talking about length, width, thickness, and tapering. I was just curious what some of you do when you build a board bow. For a heavier bow the author says to go two inches wide at least half way down the limb. Mine have been a bit thinner. I'm going to try it wider. What belly taper should I use?
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It depends. What type of bow you want to build and how heavy is for you. If you go with a pyramid bow there is really no belly taper. With a red oak board bow 2.5" wide then straight taper to 1/2" nocks will get you 50-60# bow. A 2" wide to mid limb then to 1/2" nocks usually gets me to the mid 50s#. For the belly I would go 10/16 then taper to 1/2# at the end. You can refine it from there.
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Nothing wrong with building board bows for the exsperance. But I think it's time to move on to stave bows. I have nothing against board bows but , I can't see a bunch of indains setting around the camp fire passing around a board looking down it. Desideing the lenth and with to make it.
THERE'S NO EXSPERANCED BOW BUILDERS ON HERE THAN WOULD BUILD THERESELF A BOARD BOW TO USE. Not shooting across the yard.
I realize starting out or it's easy to run down to lowes.
I could'nt even Imagain not cutting my own tree's for staves. Much less rideing down to lowes to pick up a board.
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Well i guess I'm not that experienced but i build and shoot board bows all the time, a well built board bow is as good as any stave bow i don't care who is sitting around the fire checking out the board, while i enjoy building stave bows better because of the challenge, i really don't get the bias by some against boards
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First off, Paul Comstock is talking mostly about whitewoods. Osage is a totally different animal. What is your draw length and what draw weight are you shooting for? Tell us what wood you will be using and we can give you the dimensions for a bow.
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First off, Paul Comstock is talking mostly about whitewoods. Osage is a totally different animal. What is your draw length and what draw weight are you shooting for? Tell us what wood you will be using and we can give you the dimensions for a bow.
I definitely want to learn to make a bow from a stave. I just want to wait until have more experience and learning on the how and why of things first. I want to improve and get my technique down first. It's cheaper for me right now to learn on boards.
I have been using mainly Osage and my draw length is
Edit 27 inch. Lol oops
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"I have been using mainly Osage and my draw length is ..." ? ???
Boards are just decrowned staves. I've made a few hickory backed osage but not just an osage board bow.
For a 28" draw go 64" to 66" long, 1 1/2" wide at the fades and out 8" then a straight taper to 3/4" tips for now. Once you get to first brace and everything lines up reduce the tips to 3/8".
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I might add that I'm looking 55-60#
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i really don't get the bias by some against boards
I would suppose that each bias is an individual thing, but for myself , working with staves using a single growth ring as the back , less bows seam to break while tillering.
I never saw a fret when using boards (the backs always went first).
I also like to think that wood I harvest myself and have control of from tree to bow may keep me in better wood. Boards can have any number of unseen defects from poor health or dead/decaying of tree, felling & handling damage and kiln drying caused problems
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Willy that's all fine and dandy but for a builder to make a statement that no experienced bowyer would build a board bow to use is a outright judgment that is uninformed and would make a newbie thats making board bows think his bows are somehow inferior because he uses boards, I know halfeye has quite a following here, i have one of rich's bows it's quartersawn ash most of his bows are board stock, perhaps better board selection would have not sour'd your opinion. And as far as kiln dried lumber i don't think it makes a differance we keep bows in hot boxes all the time trying to keep moisture content where we want
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http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,35312.0.html
By the way this bow is still shooting and took several yotes
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http://traditionalarchery101.com/archer.html
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THERE'S NO EXSPERANCED BOW BUILDERS ON HERE THAN WOULD BUILD THERESELF A BOARD BOW TO USE.
This is a very inaccurate statement to say the least. I've seen a lot of nice board bows posted on here from experienced bow builders.
I want to find a nice hickory and maple board to make a couple of bows from.
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I used to stress over measurements and how to measure up before starting. If time and a lot of mistakes have taught me anything, let the bow just become a bow and throw away the calipers and tape measure. Sure different woods lend themselves to different widths, but only experience of failure can really teach you anything.
Go cut a sapling down and just experiment. You will soon figure out for yourself what works and what does not. Keeping it minimal might take you long time to improve but if I can share anything that I have learned, my advice would be, just build bows until you get what works for you.
Dean
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So far as I know every bow made from a tropical species was made from a board. You can buy Osage and Yew in board form and I think Dan Perry has set world records in flight shooting with bows made from Hickory boards
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OTDEAN is right, go cut yourself some saplings and rough them out. Let them dry for a month or two and then on one do a pyramid, another a homelgard, another an AFB and so on and so forth until you find a design that you really like. When you find a design you love building, shooting and looking at, then dedicate yourself to that design and master it, sure, you can build other bows but it seems to me that everybody has a favorite design they love making and shooting. And that they tend to build more of that type of bow than anything else, I know that's the case with me, I love Eastern Woodland and AFB bows, and barely build anything else.
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I read that Tim Baker made over 1000 bows during The Bowyer's Bible years and a lot of them were from boards. I've only made about 15 but I have yet to have one break. You just need straight grained boards without knots, wide and/or long enough for your design, and do a decent job tillering them. I like hickory backed bows and the fact that I can glue in 2 or 3" of reflex on a simple two by four form that takes less than an hour to build.
I love Osage staves, too, and getting the tiller right on a snaky and knotty one is especially satisfying. I have not found them to shoot better than bows I've made from hickory and maple boards, though.
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The Bow Design and Performance chapter in Vol 1 of "The Bowyer's Bible" has a list of about 35 species of wood and the suggested width to use if that will help you.
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hey now lets be nice. Eskimos used all kinds of boards, heck even pine boards. i bet they looked down them around a camp fire and talked about how best it might work. they even went to elaborate means to make sinew cord backings for such crappy board bows.i consider them American Natives . ;) i know even eastern woodland tribes at times would use the hickory hoops on a wagon they might of captured to make bows out of. same goes for plains tribes as well. sometimes a stave was even decrowned just because it was of a small diameter. wouldnt you call that a "board" if it was flat? i would.i like self bows. i like them from trees i take down, or staves i trade for. but at times i find even myself looking at boards at a good price thinking ...you know what?.......nothin wrong with that.Tony
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You guys have to consider the source of that comment. ::) I just shake my head and chuckle when he posts those doozies. Josh
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I think Dan Perry has set world records in flight shooting with bows made from Hickory boards
Thats crazy stuff, where in Canada can we get good affordable Hickory Marc.?
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Don't know how affordable they are, but this place is in Ontario. I'm in the US (Wisconsin) so their shipping charge is too expensive. Luckily, there is a hardwood supplier that has nice hickory and maple boards at good prices an hour's drive from me.
http://www.amwoodinc.com/default.aspx
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bubby and all
hope my bias was not seen as an endorsement of the poster in reply #3. Just saying what my experience has been. I should add that my experience does not include any boards that were selected from a decent inventory. I would give my left nut to be able to deal directly with someone sawing and air drying hardwood, but I do not live where there is marketable hardwood. My only resource is the local small town building supply yard that has very little to pick from. Never said good bows could not be made boards, but I will say that if you gotta choose between typical lumber yard junk and a self cut staves, the extra do it yourself stuff is worth it.
sorry for not being very specific in my first post
willie
hey riverrat
I have one eskimo friend, who's tribe never had the bow. Went from the nuqoq (or atlatl) to the rifle, and still prefer the nuqoq for seals from what I hear.
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Never built a board bow but sure don't see anything wrong with them, they make some mighty fine shooters and beautiful to boot. I just never had the need, always had plenty of staves and feel very blessed that I do. :) as far as dimensions,roughly speaking 66 in. t-t 1 3/8 to 1 1/2 at the fads for Osage and 1 5/8 to 1 3/4 for most white woods will get you what you are looking for in weight and 27 inch draw. usually start out at a little over 1/2 in thickness and I let the tillering do the tapper, never really do that before hand. :)
Pappy
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I think Dan Perry has set world records in flight shooting with bows made from Hickory boards
Thats crazy stuff, where in Canada can we get good affordable Hickory Marc.?
Depends where you are. There is the place GB posted a link to, they are in Cambridge and probably the best stocked store in Canada. There's a couple stores in the Ottawa area that sell domestic and imported Hardwood, one in Peterborough, one in Thunder Bay and then there's a couple out West, that I know of
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I think Dan Perry has set world records in flight shooting with bows made from Hickory boards
Thats crazy stuff, where in Canada can we get good affordable Hickory Marc.?
In the woods? Hickory is a very common tree in part of Canada. Not where you are though. ;)
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I had already favorited your link bubby thanks for that!
Coming from a noob on board bows. I definitely want to learn to build from staves. The way I look at it is this. Boards are cheaper and easier for me to find. I would much rather learn on something cheaper and have stuff to work on while I develop my technique and do my research on tree identification, curing, etc or at the very least find some legit staves from someone online. I own a restaurant and when I am training someone I dont just hand them a whole beef tenderloin and tell them how to break it down, portion it, and then cook it. Hell if he is really inexperienced Hes not touching my tenderloin period. He can learn how to get a proper sear and learn to cook to a proper temperature on hanger steak or skirt steak first. Once he does that right I will let him graduate to the tenderloin filets. After he can cook them I will then show and teach him how to break down and portion a whole loin. Right now I dont know enough about wood selection or even a good source for staves. I could cut down a tree of some sort but would still have to wait for it to cure. In the meantime I have something to do and learn on with board bows.