Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: toomanyknots on December 15, 2012, 06:34:35 pm
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Welp, I guess I will be making the dive and picking up a thickness planer and a table saw next week, as well as a bandsaw in the near future. I know I have stated on here a couple times that I only use hand tools from start to finish on my bows, so I thought I should confess my guilt, lest my conscience eat at me, :). I honestly just want them for laminates and board bows. I can't get the idea of a "something" backed eastern red cedar longbow out of my mind.
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Good luck. Everytime i get bow wood near a band saw it goes badly for me. Guess im just not patient enough with the saw.
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I can't imagine how someone would make a laminate without mechanical help. When it comes to primitive work, staves etc, I prefer a handsaw/drawknife/hatchet,chisels n hammers, splitting wedges and the like.
No judgement from me, brother. Even if I do rib you about it in the future.... >:D
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Shame on you:) LOL
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Well knots,,,,,,I'm allready dirty,,,,,I'll test your bows for you,,,,as not to taint you completely!! ;D JeffW,,,,,,,,,no really!!,,,not kiddin...JeffW :)
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I made my first dozen or so without a band saw and I think there's some merit to not using power tools on a stave bow. With that said, I LOVE having a bandsaw!!! Nothing like it for roughing out a bow :) heck I can almost floor tiller with the thing ;)
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Confession is good for the soul, Too Many. Nu'in wrong with power tools except they remove wood really fast which is ok if you know how much needs to be removed. Jawge
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Confession: I tiller 99% of a bow on my belt sander
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i can't say nothing.i bought a grizzly 14 inch bandsaw yesterday.had a guy cut one out tonite.his first bow ever,so it can't be all that bad.
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Daniel,i am not that far from you.if you need to use the saw,just come on over.
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I wouldn't think of using power tools:)
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Maybe once in a while:)
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About time! ;D
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Roy you actually build bows!?? I didn't think it possible with that clean of a shop!! >:D >:D >:D
Jon
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I set out once to make one without power tools (the tree was cut down with a chainsaw, so cheated right off). got it about half roughed out and said screw it. Life's too short. "Long live the belt sander".
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When I started the first purchase was a delta 14" band saw and a belt sander. Made many many bows and lams. Works great, though next I did buy a plainer and increased time per build on lams.
So go 2many go >:D >:D
Knapper
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I quit using my belt sander. The ferriers rasp took its place. My bows have improved since I switched. I can get a better thickness taper with the rasp.
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As didI, after20 or so bows and my first attempt at a real long bow the Balt sander was replaced with the rasp,
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I don't use it once I get it bending at floor tiller, but I take it all off with the belt sander to that point. Heavy grit with a commercial model. Rips wood off. The sawdust is less like powder and more like rice!
I lock it upside-down in my Workmate and use it like a table sander.
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NOOOOOOOOO! how could you? You should be banned from PA forever.
Totally joking lol. I understand the need.
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Most of my tillering is done with the oscillating spindle sander. I almost never use the band saw any more though unless I'm cutting splices. I do all my width work with the draw knife.
George
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Nuthin wrong with using power tools toomany. I used to use them a lot back when I used to build a lot of laminated bows. I like a hatchet, drawknife, and ferriers rasp for selfbows. Im a carpenter so I have to use power tools all day every day at work, I dont get much joy out of using them for my hobbies.
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14 and 20 inch band saws, dust collector, big edge sander. Lots of fine hand work at the end but careful use of power tools is good stuff. Once past floor tiller it is all farriers rasp and scraper. My favorite tool of all is still the bowyers edge scraper good and sharp.
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I think I made two bows before ferreting out a used 14" band saw.
Chances are in the middle ages, we'd all be master bowyers and our apprentices would be doing what lots of us do with band saws and belt sanders.
That's my story aisti.
Jim Davis
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As a tradesman who uses hand tools all the time, plumber, I've also fallen for the lure of power tools! Just bought a 4" x 36" Porter Cable belt sander from Lowe's. 184.00 bucks. Now my favorite tool! Just built an unusual take down Molly with it. I'll make it my first post here in years. cheers fiddler49
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I lock it upside-down in my Workmate and use it like a table sander.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that does this. My brother's face was priceless the first time I did that in front of him the other day. I only use mine to square up my tips, and then the take any initial saw marks off from my 14" bandsaw. I must say that the bandsaw was the best $100 I ever spent (yay Craigslist) and the belt sander is my father-in-law's. He stores it at my house. I'll have to buy one eventually but for now, he told me to have at it. I love free tools!
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Now't wrong with power tools as long as you know how to to use 'em. and how to make bows first.
I'm with JW on the ribbing, mind, I'll be using nice hand crafted ribs, none of these machined ones ;)
Del
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Welcome to the dark side! I only have one problem, and I know its selfish, but I know that when I buy osage staves from you, you will already have ripped them on the saw, and I wont get twofers anymore... Oh well, you will love having one. I do most all my work start to finish on the bandsaw and belt sander. Sometimes, just to clear the mind and cleans the spirit, I take my old trusty K-Bar out into the woods, fell me a sapling with it, and start to finish a bow. Right now I am working on a fire killed white oak. Enjoy it, but never forget where you came from!
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The sanders are the most used tools in my bow shop. ;D
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Someday I may have to look at a sander. I do it all by hand after the bandsaw roughs it out. Every bit of it.
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Ya Pearl and that's why your finish always looks like a chicken scratched it out:) LMFAO
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Band saw then belt sander to tiller. A little scraping to smooth it up. I guess I do use a file for string grooves though.
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For years I have admired Jamie's "stone tooled bows" However after several feeble attempts I have come to the conclusion that he is much tougher and definitely more patient then I am. In the process I wondered if trying to make a primitive sander out of a piece of leather drenched in sap and sprinkled with crushed glass would be cheating ::) Though I can see how certain types of wood are much easier, I can't imagine, the work it would take to make a bow with stone tools from a hard wood like Osage.
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Keenan, back in the stone ages they used cavemasters to hold their bows while scraping, now they use stavemasters ole boy. ::)
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Keenan, back in the stone ages they used cavemasters to hold their bows while scraping, now they use stavemasters ole boy. ::)
Excellent point, Roy!
Keenan, Jamie's kids are tougher then me...he has them using flakes to prep arrow shafts!
Oh, and by the way, my conscience is eating me up. I must confess to my mortal sin of liking my DeWalt 1/4 sheet sander. Bwaaaaaaah! :-[
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Can you get a good even thickness, ready to glue with minimal sanding laminate cut out on a table saw? My plan at first was to rip backings and laminates out on a table saw, and then run them through a thickness planer to get em nice, even, and smooth, and ready for glue up. With ripping em out on a table saw, I'm guessing I will end up with saw marks here and there, and will need to run em through a planer? Am I correct to think this? Also, anybody ever cut backings or laminates out like this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cEyAqhvEnM
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Ive ripped backings on a table saw and it almost always leaves saw marks so yes you will need to get a planer or a belt sander to take the saw marks off. If you buy a thickness planer and you plan on making your backings 1/8" or smaller you will need to use a sled under your backing strips or it will try to tear chunks out of the wood due to how thin it is. A thickness sander works better than a thickness planer in my opinion.
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Ive ripped backings on a table saw and it almost always leaves saw marks so yes you will need to get a planer or a belt sander to take the saw marks off. If you buy a thickness planer and you plan on making your backings 1/8" or smaller you will need to use a sled under your backing strips or it will try to tear chunks out of the wood due to how thin it is. A thickness sander works better than a thickness planer in my opinion.
Thanks for the tip!
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By the way Okie, by a sled, you mean just a piece of wood under the backing, right? This guy uses just a board adapter thing he made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj-pNRV-jsM
I was thinking of trying that, but if the wood will rip chunks out of the wood around 1/8" thick, than I will need to take a nice straight board and send it through with the backing on top of it, is that correct?
EDIT: So I will need to use one of these?:
(http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb392/toomany7/12118_03.jpg)
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Confession: I tiller 99% of a bow on my belt sander
Shame on you.......using the belt sander. I use a finishing sander, less aggresive.
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I have a 14" Grizzly bandsaw and a 6"x48" Grizzly belt/disc sander. I use the bandsaw to remove bulk wood to get me near floor tiller. After that it is a rasp and scraper only. I use the belt sander to grind the tips and overlays to match them up and for point and nock taper on arrows.
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By sled I just meant a thicker board underneath the thin strip. I usually just use a piece of 3/4" hickory or something like that. Never tried that guys idea in the video but it looks like it would probably work too.
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Make a bow using only Stone Age tools and you shall be forgiven
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Make a bow using only Stone Age tools and you shall be forgiven
What?!?! Give up my hunnerd dollar Veritas spokeshave. In a pig's eye! I ain't Ishi!
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;D ;D
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I use a band saw for the rough out,belt sander for the tips and hand tools /Farriers rasp/49/50 Nicolas and scrapper for tillering and grip. Love my band saw. :)
Pappy
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Hey, if they had them available in the old days, they would have used them, but it's good to know how to use hand tools, just in case.
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I use a bandsaw for rough cuts, and I justify it by the time saved.
But, other than that, I prefer hand tools. There's just something satisfying about putting in the work, and then, having finished, leaning back with sore arms and hands and shoulders, and surveying delicate results, and knowing it was me who did it, not a machine.
But then again, I'm also 36, and just getting started with woodworking and bowyery. When I'm sixty, I may have differing opinions.