Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Brokestick on November 14, 2007, 07:03:28 am
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Hello everyone. Here are some picks of a bow I started about a year ago and finally finished. It's a copy of an Algonquin bow from the Encyclopedia of
Native american Bows Arrows and Quivers, Volume 1. I don't remember the page number, and I loaned out the book, so I can't look it up. It started as a
hickory board, and I took it down to a single growth ring. It's 66" nock to nock, 69" overall, and pulls 50# at 28" with a 6" brace height. I did all the
carving back in January and have been picking away at it ever since. When I first tillered it to finished dimensions, it took a little bit of set, so I heat
treated the belly with it strung backwards on my tillering stick, and a heavy coat of linseed oil to keep from scorchin it. Now it retains about 1/2"
reflex, mostly in the handle area. I attempted to accent the carved areas with a graphite pencil and ended up dirtying the new growth grain in those areas,
so I went over the entire bow with a mixture of powdered charcoal and linseed oil. The finish is several coats of boiled linseed oil, baked in with a heat
gun and sanded between coats. I've found the heat gun saves me alot of curing time between coats when woking with linseed oil. When completed, I topcoated
with beeswax and heated it before rubbing it in. The final step was making a sinew string for it. I had made a dacron sring for it, but I wanted to be as
authentic as possible for this one. I twisted it out of deer leg sinew, which I plan never to use again for string making. It was a royal pain in the bee-
hind to work with fibers that short. :P The string is waterproofed with linseeed oil and wax also. I'm just glad it's finall finished, and I can get on with
some other projects. I need to get working on some arrows so I can stop shooting the store-bought ones, and I would like to finish a couple light hickory
bows for my boys for Christmas. I can't post all the pics here, so I'll post a follow up with a couple more. I hope you all are having a great day, and keep on crankin' out great bows. Julian :)
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Hello again. Unfortunately, I had 8 pics I wanted to post, and the original message could only carry 6. Here's the full draw pic, and one with the string unbraced. I thought it was interesting, this being my first sinew string, that when I twisted the string tighter before tying the timber hitch, it naturally untwists itself, and wraps around the bow. No worys about string keeping when unbraced. ;D Have a great day. Julian :)
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Love the carved tips and the simple clean look of this bow. Definately one to be proud of.
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Very nice, simple yet effective.Love the carving,you have some talent.Nice job. :)
Pappy
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Looks good,and like Dana said just reply to your thread and add more Pictures. :)
Pappy
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Very nice. You did a good job with that bow.
I might be able to merge the 2 topics but I've never done that before and could screw it up.
Done
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Brokestick, that is an outstanding replica bow! Very nice job. The carving and artwork look great. I think you just got my vote for November selfbow of the month!
Alan
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Nice job,
Thats one of my favorite bows to replicate.
SJM
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I love it. Nice bow. Th tooler looks great too. Jawge
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Great job! I've threatened to try making a replica of that one myself but I've got about a dozen half-finished bows already laying around that I haven't had time to work on. Does it have any handshock with those big tips?
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Great looking bow, you did a great job on the carved tips. Justin
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Thanks for all the comments. The reason I didn't reply to my own post was that I couldn't find it after I posted it. Somehow it inserted below some older posts, and I didn't scroll down to find it. I figured that perhaps the moderators had started screening posts, like some other forums do. Thank you Marc, for linking them together for me. As for handshock, it has surprisingly little considering the size of the tips and it's a bend through the handle bow. I've always wondered the same, considering the size of some of the tips illustrated in that book for Northeastern bows.
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I'm liking your bow a lot! I have several staves waiting to become bows and I think one will be similar to yours. Very nice all around. You will have my vote also. Of coarse the mouth is young yet. ;D How does it shoot?
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Nice bow and beautiful detail work. I love this kind of bow...simple but effective. It is amazing how effective they are and how little hand shock they have.
Charcoal and oil makes for an excellent finish and coloration for whitewood bows. Pat
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Really nice job, simple in design yet a lot of time-consuming detail and finish work. :)
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thats a really cool bow, nice carving, great job!
Bishop
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Very nice work replicating my favorite bow in the book. I've always wanted to do the same but haven't had the right piece of wood.
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Hi nice bow..i like it..i have a question plz. How do you aply those linnsed oil?? and how many cooats should be aplied on a bow,and how much time must be left between coats to cure or...?? i never used this linnsed oil so...thks in advanse.
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Very nice bow, I like the replicas.
Sean
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Absolutely a real contender for Nov Self Bow of the Month because its Primitive not to mention interesting and well done. Great post! - thanks.
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me like a lot
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Hi again. To answer Akila, linseed oil is a pretty easy finish to apply, but it can be time consuming. There are two types of linseed oil, boiled and raw. Boiled is preferred because the heating gives the oil a headstart on the polymerization process. Raw linseed oil will dry and polymerize eventually, but it takes several days. Boiled generally dries within a day. Heat is necessary to set the oil into the wood, and the traditional method is long vigorous hand rubbing. Much as I like being traditional, I also like my heat gun. It saves me a lot of elbow grease, and cuts the drying time in half. You just need to be really careful not to scorch the wood. I'm sure a blowdryer, or even a hotbox would work also. After heating, I still handrub the finish in. On another bow, I completed the oil finish (3 coats) and then degreased the surface with acetone. I then applied several coats of water-based polyurethane over the top. The oil kept any moisture from penetrating into the wood. I like water-based poly because it dries clear and it's much harder than oil based. Hope this helps.
Julian
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Hi again. To answer Akila, linseed oil is a pretty easy finish to apply, but it can be time consuming. There are two types of linseed oil, boiled and raw. Boiled is preferred because the heating gives the oil a headstart on the polymerization process. Raw linseed oil will dry and polymerize eventually, but it takes several days. Boiled generally dries within a day. Heat is necessary to set the oil into the wood, and the traditional method is long vigorous hand rubbing. Much as I like being traditional, I also like my heat gun. It saves me a lot of elbow grease, and cuts the drying time in half. You just need to be really careful not to scorch the wood. I'm sure a blowdryer, or even a hotbox would work also. After heating, I still handrub the finish in. On another bow, I completed the oil finish (3 coats) and then degreased the surface with acetone. I then applied several coats of water-based polyurethane over the top. The oil kept any moisture from penetrating into the wood. I like water-based poly because it dries clear and it's much harder than oil based. Hope this helps.
Julian
Thks for replay..it realy help me but i have one more question...how much do you heat the wood after you aply first coat of linseed oil? ...and after you heat the wood you rub with more oil,or just that finish that you just aply and heat treat??thks in advanse.
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I heat the wood to the point that it feels hot to my hand, but not too hot to hold onto. Remember, you are not trying to heat treat the wood at this point, so be careful not to scorch it. There should be no color change to the wood. After heating, I simply wipe any excess oil off the surface and let the piece cool down. It's ready for a second coat as soon as it does not feel oily anymore. This is usually pretty quick for the first coat, since the oil soaks deeply into the wood. It takes a bit longer for the second coat to dry, but it will usually be ready in about three hours. I always apply at least three coats, and finish sand between the first and second coat. The first coat will raise the grain of the wood, and act as a sanding sealer when it cures. The wood will feel a little rough after the first coat and will need to be lightly sanded. After the last coat, I hand rub the finish with a soft cloth to bring out the gloss. Lots of luck.
Julian
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thks a lot
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I got to take it out shooting for the fist time since I made the sinew string for it. The new string definitely robs it of some cast over the dacron string, but it's manageable. The thing I find curious, is that it seems to shoot arrows I had made for my 70# bow just fine. I expect to have to aim to the right to compensate for the stiff arrows slicing left, but it doesn't happen. Any thoughts?
Julian