Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: boomhowzer on June 05, 2021, 08:53:13 am
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Alright! I got myself a shooter! This is my 7th attempt. An elm board bow backed with a burlap bag. It started out 68". I went overboard with the floor tillering and whittled it down to #35 before I even got it on my tillering tree. The tiller was all out of whack and I saw visions of the #15 monster, so I cut it down to 62" (this is a pattern. this is how I make bows: I mess them up, I cut their ends off, I mess them up again).
With a little more room to maneuver, I was able to get the tiller right and keep the bow pulling #50 at the 62". Very exciting. Shot a dozen arrows, all of them in the bullseye. I unbraced it and the shape of the bow was the shape of my mouth. :( It had taken a whopping 4" of set. It was like a crappy magic trick..the bow stayed braced with out a string. I should have taken a picture but I was too embarrassed.
As a last ditch effort, I decided to clamp the big frown to a form and roast it over a fire. I'd done this before with red oak and the results were disastrous, but Marc St. Louis says elm is one of the best for heat treating, so I was hopeful. I rubbed bacon grease over the belly of the bow and I kept it over the coals for an hour and a half until it had a nice dark brown hue.
After letting it sit for 2 days I got it back on the tillering tree and it pulled #50 at just 22"! A miracle! I thought #50 might still be too much for this bow to handle, so I tillered it down to 47# at my 26" draw and viola! A shooter! No masterpiece, but I've shot a few dozen arrows out of it, all in the bullseye, its a nice steady shooter, no hand shock, mild stacking, less than an inch of set, looks like someone made a weapon out of their old shag carpeting. I give all the credit to the strength of a burlap bag and Marc St. Louis's bow burning instructions. I'll post more pics when I get it all fit and finished. Note the camouflage in the photo..almost undetectable in any urban whitetail hunting scenario.
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Looks good. You did a good job tillering the bow
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Very good.
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Yes, very good. :OK
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Congrats on a nice bow! Can you show a picture of the toasted belly? I’m just getting into fire hardening bows. Nice tool to have in a bowyers toolbox. (=)
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Congrats....Feel good for ya!!!
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I am glad the burlap worked well for you. Excellent tiller. Congratulations! Jawge
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Thanks for all the kind words!
And to Jawge for his tutorial http://traditionalarchery101.com/burlap.html (http://traditionalarchery101.com/burlap.html)
The fire hardening is pretty amazing. Endless thanks to Marc St. Louis for his research and writing on the subject. I would read his article in TBB IV if you haven't already.
This is the 4th time I've toasted a bow over a fire. The first time was hilarious. I just made a fire and held the bow over it like you would a marshmallow and within minutes I scorched the limb and curled it into 3" of set. Subsequent attempts have been much better executed. Now I cold clamp the bow to a wooden half-moon form with about 3" of reflex. I use 2 metal clamps, one on each tip so its light and easy to maneuver around the fire. I think its a good idea to rub the belly down with fat to protect the wood and I think it helps spread the heat out more evenly. I've used mink oil and bacon grease. I prefer the mink oil because it smells better and sometimes I like flavored bacon, like maple or honey chipotle, and it stains the wood a funny color (see pic).
The roasting is a skill all in itself. As you can see from the pictures, I'm still not getting a nice even roast up and down the limbs. The color comes on fairly quickly in the beginning when the coals are hottest, so I think keeping the bow moving at this stage would result in a more even roast. As the coals cool, I leave the bow propped up on cinder blocks, shifting it around every 5 or 10 minutes. My fire pit is only big enough to do one limb at a time, so I roast one limb, rekindle the fire, let it burn down to coals, then roast the other limb.
It seems like the real work is being done during the slow roast after the coals have cooled. The longer the bow is over the fire (without scorching), the better the results. The bow in the picture had a 1.5 hour burn time, but I think it would be worth trying a two or even three hour burn time as long as you can keep the wood from turning too dark.
After I pull the bow off the fire, I rub it down with turpentine/pine sap shellac and let it sit for a long time...days. Marc really harps on the sitting time in his article and I think he's right for doing so. The wood has to return to equilibrium moisture before you can work it, otherwise it will be brittle.
All of the bows I've heat treated had a backing glued on with Titebond III. At first, I put tin foil between the back of the bow and the form, thinking the glue would heat up and stick the bow to the form. This isn't necessary. The glue actually hardens and becomes what I refer to as Titebond IV. If you're planning on backing a bow, I would definitely do it before heat treating. The benefits the heat has on the glue are astounding. The backing seems to cinch down onto the bow as it cools.
That's all I've learned about heat treating over a fire thus far. I'm still a beginner, so I'm speaking from limited experience and my methodologies are worth questioning. Maybe Marc could weigh in with tweaks/improvements in the process. He's the real expert in this realm.
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Nice shooter boomhowzer...Congrats! (SH)
Don
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Cool. I kind of like the burlap look. Fine job on the tiller. Well done.
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Thanks guys! It is a strange look for a bow. Makes me want to harvest some carpet from our living room and try that out for a backing...
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Congrats on making a shooter! Love the celebratory outfit!