Primitive Archer

I use Norway maple sometimes and it´s one of the best bow woods up there with the best elm - but maple is a dream to work compared with elm. Rock maple should be as good, or even better from what I have read.

Many selfbows have been built with rock(sugar, hard) maple. It is a proven selfbow wood.

Kidder has a good topic here . Lots of folks looking. Good design yields good bows. Yes that was an exceptional piece of Osage I have one maybe two staves that I think are from the same tree. I save those because I’m still learning this skill and keep getting better. Yes I did a computer  design bow. The stave was excellent! But still a stave. I ironed it out as best I could. Clamped it to the caul and dry heated it to its design. The dimensions came in with in 5-15 thousands every two inches. Lots of hand sanding. The bow was designed at fifty pounds. It came in at around 40#. It could have been less dense than the data used to design. Moisture content etc.  But I learned to watch for thickness change in the design. So if you take into consideration the mass placement in those areas it will gvie you new possibilities. Now Alan also gave me three bend designs from the same computer design. Brace , half draw, and full draw. I know Marc has built from computer design and had success. I will also say this was my first try. So a lot of the draw weight difference could have been on me.i never really got to test the design. Now I’m rambling.🤠

the  record self bow with no set, that design  seems hard to improve on....
perhaps it was an exceptional piece of wood that could take more stress
Marks advice to go 1/2"wider at the fades (and therefore a touch thinner when using wood not up to that quality) to reach the same weight goal, sound like a plan that might be fruitful. that is , if you are still replicating the design.

Didnt you do a bow to some perdetermined specs for someone? Alan maybe? how did that experiment go?


I have rambled on hoping others might share how they evaluate or measure set while tilling.
maybe things are slowing down on the forum...............

Went to my BuckeyeGathering.net skills gathering. Ended up teaching knapping twelve hours over three days! Great stories and memories built there. Picked up a "reedley" hewing axe and a folding draw knife at an antique shop, not terribly priced. There is another drawknife I hope to pick up. Man, I have missed you all! Ben