Author Topic: tools for bow making  (Read 8692 times)

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Offline Coo-wah-chobee

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Re: tools for bow making
« Reply #15 on: January 17, 2009, 01:48:08 am »
 Go ta Caveman Ooga Booga Forum and ya will  get lots of information.

Offline Gordon

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Re: tools for bow making
« Reply #16 on: January 17, 2009, 01:59:51 am »
You can make a fine bow with just a hatchet, rasp, knife, and sandpaper.
Gordon

Offline broken arrow

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Re: tools for bow making
« Reply #17 on: January 17, 2009, 02:06:35 am »
I started with a knife and made a bow.  it changed my life.

once I was hooked the farriers rasp saved me time.  The bigger the better.  2"wide 14"long,  mine was 30$ from a horse tack shop.

now that i'm addicted the band saw.....   never mind.


Offline venisonburger

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Re: tools for bow making
« Reply #18 on: January 17, 2009, 11:03:19 am »
Simple tools such as old butcher knifes, a spoke shave which I use for most everything, a draw knife that I barely use. files, ect.


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Offline Hillbilly

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Re: tools for bow making
« Reply #19 on: January 17, 2009, 12:47:59 pm »
Caveman, this bow was made at a 3-day shoot with no metal whatsoever-just stone tools from cutting the tree to final tiller. The string is rawhide made from a deer hide scraped and cut with stone. It's not really that hard-stone tools work as well as metal ones on green wood:



As for a basic metal tool kit: hatchet, drawknife, rasp, scraper. I have a farrier's rasp, Nicholson 49, and a cheap Nicholson rasp/file. I use them all at different stages of the process. If you want to go with power tools, a bandsaw and belt sander are two of the most useful ones. There are a lot of different methods of bow building, all work. I enjoy making bows with everything from power tools too stone tools.

Smoky Mountains, NC

NeolithicHillbilly@gmail.com

Progress might have been all right once but it's gone on for far too long.

Caveman

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Re: tools for bow making
« Reply #20 on: January 17, 2009, 06:20:15 pm »
so hillbilly, what stone tools did you use? just wondering if I need to make something or if I have what I need

Offline sailordad

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Re: tools for bow making
« Reply #21 on: January 17, 2009, 08:09:38 pm »
see like i said earlier, there aare some folks on here who can make awesome bows ith nothing more that stone tools

now thats primitive,some day i want to be able to do that. need to learn to make the stone tools first.
i always wanted a harley,untill it became the "thing to ride"
i ride because i love to,not to be part of the crowd

Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: tools for bow making
« Reply #22 on: January 18, 2009, 09:45:34 am »
#49 Nicholson pattern makers rasp, Nicholson coarse half round file, chain saw file, draw knife, assorted scrapers.


Offline Hillbilly

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Re: tools for bow making
« Reply #23 on: January 18, 2009, 10:51:49 am »
Caveman, my friend Barry did most of the work on that bow, I worked on it a good bit and Pat B carved on it some also. We did it partly as an experiment to try different replica tools made from local rock, but you could make do with simple spalls and flakes. We cut the hickory sapling down with a rhyolite hand axe, cut it to length with a hafted stone celt and hafted quartzite Guilford flaked axe. We split it with an antler wedge, a rhyolite spall, and our hands. A lot of the reduction was done with a rhyolite adze and a big sharp-edged spall of rhyolite. We used a piece of rough sandstone to do some sanding and rasping on it. The nocks were cut in with a sharp flake with serrations pressure-flaked to make it into a mini-saw. We used snapped flakes for scrapers. All in all, it wasn't that much harder than using metal tools. Most of the reduction work was done while it was wet and green.
Smoky Mountains, NC

NeolithicHillbilly@gmail.com

Progress might have been all right once but it's gone on for far too long.

Offline shamus

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Re: tools for bow making
« Reply #24 on: January 18, 2009, 03:27:42 pm »
My thoughts on bowyer's tools: http://analogperiphery.blogspot.com/2007/06/bowyery-tools.html

I hope that helps.