Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Allyn T on March 12, 2022, 03:05:50 pm
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Hi all,
I wanted to start this thread for anyone like me that wanted to do the bow trade but wasn't confident enough or experienced enough to do it. I figured if anyone wanted to join this we could post everything along the same lines and follow the same deadline and see what we all ended up with. At the end there wouldnt be any trading this would just be for ourselves or maybe for a friend. This is just a fun exercise in bow building with a timeline to make me get off my dupa and do it.
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Figured I would start. I'll making a bow to my specs, 50-60 lbs at 29 inch draw
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Ha! This is perfect, I'm in. :o ;D
I was on the fence about joining the trade mostly due to how much stuff I have to do with our new house and the acreage yard work that will be coming with spring. We were going to be building a garage in the summer as well but wood prices have delayed that until fall or spring 2023, so I suddenly have way more spare time that could be used to make a bow.
I already have the next two bows designed. The first is a 66" NTN static recurve, ~40lb @ 28". That is the one I will be documenting here. The other one that is lined up is a 66" R/D design, same weight range at 28". If the summer goes really well I will get it posted up here as well.
Mark
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This seems fun. I thought last year that I would feel ready for the bow trade this year, but I definitely did not. I'll pick out a stave when I am home this week. I want a nice longer stiff handled bow for hunting this coming season.
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Welcome guys the more the merrier : )
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Alright I'll post my next build here. Its a white oak stave destined to be a 50# 64" D bow. This is going to be an attempt at a more survival style build in the sense that I'm going to work the stave from wet to finished without letting the stave dry as a large chunk of wood. I probably cut this stave a month and a half ago and I cut it down to floor tiller size and let it dry in a form to induce a little over 2" of reflex. Now its still seeming to be pretty wet, and surprisingly flexible and limber. It literally feels like a wet noodle, even though the moisture meter was reading from 10 to 14 percent. Maybe its a lot wetter inside and maybe white oak really stiffens up when it hits a lower moisture content. I can feel by hand that the wood is still too wet. Im going to keep slowly reducing and floor tillering while it dries. The wood comes off real easy right now.
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Aight, im in! i got either a persimmon stave to work with or a blank that i cant remember what the wood is!
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Marking out all the high spots I feel,
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.
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Good deal deerhunter. I have a hickory bow already roughed out for me(it's been chilling in my living room for many months.) I was recently gifted a hackberry stave so to pay it forward I'm gonna make it into a bow for a friend that has been providing me with turkey feathers recently.
(https://i.imgur.com/7yYXLCW.jpg)
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Alright, I dug through the rack and pulled out something I feel is special but not terribly difficult to work with.
It's a 66" redbud stave with virtually no snake and no visible knots and a reasonable amount of natural reflex from a 10" diameter tree. I have the other three quarters still, and I'm really excited to see how this wood behaves.
There's a tiny bit of end checking, probably because I just slapped a thin layer of Elmer's glue on it, but it looks like the sapwood is the most affected.
I'm thinking I'll chase it down about four rings to where it starts to get that striking color, seal the back, and then get it to floor tiller this week. It has only been split and setting indoors for about six months, and I know the center is super wet. After that, it will be setting in the damp, still garage for close to a month to stabilize around 11-12% while I'm on the road.
The goal is a 64-65" 1-7/8"-2" wide pyramid-ish profile drawing 45-55 at 25".
Deerhunter, persimmon is cool wood! I wish I saw more of it.
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Man I've eyeballed a lot of red bud trees but never cut one, I'm interested to see how that turns out
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The one time I had some redbud to work with, it checked severely. I would get the sapwood off ASAP and seal the back and ends very thoroughly.
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Worked this oak stave down some more, it really feels damp after taking off more wood. Will probably have to spend a couple more weeks drying as a smaller piece.
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Ok I'm switching to a 60" piece of hickory while that oak dries. Going to make a little 40 something pound bow to play with in a month when my shoulder is recovered from tendonitis.
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I want to make a drying box for that and to keep moisture down on the summer.
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I get that, I had one with light bulbs. The thing is im going completely non-electric as that is the point of bow building for me anyways, so I put mine down by the fireplace and later will do a mild to medium heat treat over coals. Here's the dry hickory, 61" long. I started crowing the back and reduced width some this morning.
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Good work guys. I wish I could join but something is wrong with my lower back and I can’t do much. If I can get it figured out I’ll try and join in. I have a maple stave itching to make some shavings
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Cool idea, guys. I'm carving up a lot of juniper but getting lots of lateral knots and not at all sure if any of it will make a bow.
Anz, I hope your back heals up! Stinks to be down with an injury.
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It does stink to be injured. Hope you're better soon, Aznboi.
I got around to working this stave down today... I'm leaving sapwood over back of the handle. The earlywood under the last two rings of sapwood is an amazing green/yellow/brown swirl that I have to manage to show off when this thing is done.
I've never tried it, but I figure if I give it a heavy coat of poly covering the back, sides, and exposed end grain of the sapwood it should hold together.
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I got excited to share and should have put this picture on my last post, but I couldn't wait until I made it that far.
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Dang man I hope your back gets better
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Come hell or high water I’m gonna chop on some wood next week. Got two steroid injections in my butt cheeks this morning. The inflammation has gone down a lot and a weeks steroid pack coming up. Maybe I can he man through it and get it floor tillered soon
I’ve heard of edd Scott doing that to his handles. Leaving a few layers on the back of the handle to build it up. He made some amazing stuff. Wish I could have bought one from him before he passed RIP. His stuff was top tier like many of the guys here.
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Don't hurt yourself, you have plenty of time to get a bow done.
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I didn't get it floor tillered. I was racing the checking sapwood as I chased a ring and decided to leave it about 3" wide for stability and seal the back heavily with some work left to do all over, but it's down to about 3/4"-1" thick in the limbs and a bit more in the handle area. Now it gets to dry.
I'll be back here in mid-late April and I'll cut out the profile and check the moisture in the center.
I'm skipping the garage, so I'm hoping for 10-12% by then.
I have seen pictures of handles like that, and it's super aesthetic. The goal is the best bow I can make, so I'm pushing my limits a little.
Y'all have fun, and you don't hurt yourself worse, Aznboi.
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I got my piece strung today and tillered to 43 pounds at 26". It has 1/2" of reflex immediately after being unstrung. My goal with this is to have a light between 40 and 45 pounder to play with when im ready to start shooting again in mid April. Next im going to do another small heat treat on the belly and see if I can drop some weight and get the handle area moving a little more. Its currently weighing 13 oz.
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Man you are cruising along Kenneth, that's a super light bow!
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Man you are cruising along Kenneth, that's a super light bow!
Yea it’s an easy one, going to be good for getting my form into shape once I get back to shooting. Hopefully I can get the mass weight down to 11 oz and keep the rested reflex at 1 1/2, that’s where it’s at now.
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Just to keep this rolling and to show I am actually working on a bow along with all the other stuff taking up my time, these are formed maple lams I will be gluing into static recurve tips along with the forms I am using. The tighter radius form on the left was used to pre-bend these close to the final radius. The form on the right is the glue up form.
(https://i.imgur.com/k8uAROi.jpg?1)
Glue up pics to follow when I find a few minutes to set it up and get it done.
Mark
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Right on, I was just thinking about this thread the other day but I haven't finished my garage yet so I can work on anything. Glad to see you doing some bow work
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I finally got some buffalo sinew on my juniper recurve over last weekend! Now I'm letting it dry and looking for a good snakeskin or two to cover it. It's kind of rough looking--my next one will be a LOT better, I think--but it isn't peeling off and it's pulling the bow into some reflex, so that's gotta be good, right?
I'll try to grab a few pics tonight and get them put up tomorrow.
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OK, here it is. It's a rocky mountain juniper recurve, backed with bison sinew. Got the sinew on last weekend. It was my first experience sinewing a bow, and it looks like it--not nearly as smooth and pretty as I would like. But I'm pretty sure it worked.
Now I have to wait several weeks to it to dry, shrink, pull the whole thing into a bit of reflex, and otherwise work its sinewy magic. In the mean time, I plan to put on some bison hoof tip overlays, try to find a nice bull snake skin (or a couple rattlesnake skins) to cover and waterproof it, and think happy thoughts.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgysI4lftCOBljEWwf65Et1xd0rfEsS_HzuuLLzS14Te5sPwE9N0J9GsXzvp2PzJtGUrGEJuL_MwvGYg167MmgLvEfxOYmOQ7svn9Qr-BALrwOZD7jNCJn4e0cgJvElurl4YxLB-gjNe0Sbj9GQj3w8dWfb5MSDTgIwDDG8Mxo66NkYf8ghgndc-Adt/s320/100_0899.JPG)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9uF_L75yHq63hcCd7-sz2fUhANhdPgNxaeef2GCBvGHImC3Ukv_Zd14QQkijIJBDd1RGZBYjW_oQaPS9HcJ2C7LSI7NRXZC-_km4SlSeUKSCqpG_5CS4_pauDkKEw4bzFI9DNxpcmoCf_SDaLpW7NLbRdMiE32RhCrx6NPLqHOTaiAQ-_pXidg_LJ/s320/100_0900.JPG)
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More static tip photos...
One tip glued up on the form:
(https://i.imgur.com/B5iA75n.jpg?1)
Straight off the form:
(https://i.imgur.com/eR1YRhZ.jpg?1)
Cleaned up:
(https://i.imgur.com/ZnfrFzy.jpg?1)
I still have underlays to glue onto the tips, they are on the pre-form right now. Will pull them off tonight, let them dry overnight and then glue them on tomorrow.
Mark
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Looks good guys. Thomas I think you did a great job with the sinew
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Well I was told yesterday that my design for the bow I had wouldn't get me the poundage I wanted without a ton of set so I'm starting fresh. Debarked a new stave last night. Gonna rough it out tonight after my son goes to bed.
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Allyn,
Thanks for bringing this up again. I have been swamped this summer and had forgotten about this thread. I have everything lined up to glue up the bow I show the static tips for above, just haven't been able to get time. September should slow down quite a bit for me so that will likely be when I find a couple days to get things happening again.
Mark
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Hey!
I bet that redbud is ready now!
I've spent very little time at home this year. I'll be back this coming week. I suppose I should move on to that bow.
I've done three since then out of my truck, but none of them are the best bow I could have made.
Thanks for bumping this one back.
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Sounds good guys. I power washed the inner bark off my stave and started using a drawknife to rip it down to size. I'm hoping to get over to Dave's so I can use his bandsaw
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I'm ready when you are bud.
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Don't tease me
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I got this redbud down to where the two sapwood rings are only on the handle section and it's as close to floor tillered as I feel comfortable using power tools to do.
The reflex is pretty uneven, so I'm throwing it on the caul now and really toasting it. Then I'll set some overlays and start long string this evening.
Posting pictures is so inconvenient.
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Sounds like a great build you got goin Allyn. The stain curves look sweet. Just curious, How are you attaching these to the bow? An integrated lam with the bow on the belly perhaps?
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That's actually Mark's build.
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Sounds like a great build you got goin Allyn. The stain curves look sweet. Just curious, How are you attaching these to the bow? An integrated lam with the bow on the belly perhaps?
If you are referring to the laminated static tips, I plan to use a V-splice to attach them to the end of the working limbs. Not sure yet if I will add any reinforcement or not, will depend on how well I get the splices fitted and how good the glue lines look I think.
Mark
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i hurt myself pretty decently and havent been able to work on my bow. ill get around to it soon.
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What did you do?
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I hurt it climbing. i dont know what i did. it just popped out of place. it wasnt dislocated, and at first i thought it was just a sprain but now its gotten worse. im going to orthopedic tomorrow. until its healed, no flintknapping or bowmaking :'(
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Man that's rough I hope you get well soon