Building a Lord of the Rings Bow

[Buckeye Guy]

If you want to do this with Bamboo you may want to watch Japp's video first !!
It is called all tied up I think !
Meanwhile see how far you can get with a Osage stave for practice !
Then you will know what Osage can do for you !
Have fun on your journey !!

[toomanyknots]

Have you watched the extras in the box set of the movies?  In the extras they talk a little (albeit very little) about the bows and arrows and how they are made.  They ones made on set were only like 20 lbs draw I think.  I am not sure if you can get a higher draw weight and still have the woodwork and all the embellishments. 

Good luck with it!

That's one thing I hate, because you can tell they are only 20lb the way they draw them. I get legalos isn't going to be shooting all super fast with a 80# bow, but it just looks stupid to me to see all the archers shooting target weight bows, with no strain or anything....   ...Well ok, it is of course not the most unrealistic thing in this movie (    ), but it always looks to stupid to me, in other movies too. And I would definitely expected the first bow to shoot pretty shocky with those big pieces of wood on the tips. I would of used something like poplar or cedar for those parts if it was me. Still cool as heck though,  .

[lostarrow]

Have you watched the extras in the box set of the movies?  In the extras they talk a little (albeit very little) about the bows and arrows and how they are made.  They ones made on set were only like 20 lbs draw I think.  I am not sure if you can get a higher draw weight and still have the woodwork and all the embellishments. 

Good luck with it!

 I think you can ...................

[mikekeswick]

My advice is to re-read the bowyers bibles i - iv - all the info you need is in them I promise you!

The simplest way I can think of would go something like this.
1 - make a form
2 - start with 3 lams. Bamboo will be great for the backing. Maple is the choice core wood and osage would make a great belly.
3 - Lam thickness to start with would be somewhere around 1/8th thick backing, tapered core of maple from around 3/16ths to 1/16th and the belly around 1/2 tapered to 1/4. Of course you would need to splice the tapered lams.
4 - you may need to help the belly conform to the form shape with judicious use of dry heat.
5 - Glue up.
6 - Glue on riser
7 - Tiller

Sounds simple eh!?
Have fun and good luck 

[Utmostcone]

Amazing idea, i love LOTR and have always wanted to make a Elvish bow but lack the skill. I cant wait to see how it turns out, best of luck! Navaer!

[Don Case]

That's one thing I hate, because you can tell they are only 20lb the way they draw them. I get legalos isn't going to be shooting all super fast with a 80# bow, but it just looks stupid to me to see all the archers shooting target weight bows, with no strain or anything....   

Elves are really strong you know.

[criveraville]

Cool thread.

Cipriano

[Lukasz Nawalny]

I forgett this bow, I must make one in this winter 

[SteveT.]

I had someone ask me to make a bow similar to what you are asking for. My big concern , would be with handshock from all the weight at the ends of the limbs. The other was that this decorative limb tip would be prone to breaking from getting caught on something, or falling over onto the tip. So I made the tip from basswood, which is very light and has an interlocking grain of sorts. This will minimize the wt. and give a smoother feel in your hand. Never doing this before, I have to tell you that I was pleasantly surprised with how little vibration there was when I shot the first few arrows. I even shot arrows which were very light in weight to see what happened. The length of the bow was 72 inches nock to nock, and the width was 1 inch wide at the riser. I am actually making another right now , as it is an interesting bow to look at.

[SteveT.]

Here's a closer look at the limb tip.The extra nock is there to place a stringer on.

[toomanyknots]

Very nice job Steve, very cool. Innovative too. 

[SteveT.]

Here is what it looked like before I carved it and stained it.To me it looks more like a dragons' tooth. Hope this gives some ideas to you.