Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: hunter791 on April 03, 2013, 10:55:25 am
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Hello everyone. I've got several questions I hope you can help me with.
To start. I've successfully built my first takedown bow.
Poplar riser and PVC limbs. Got the idea from YouTube. It was intended for my son. Its 25#@28 it was exactly what I was looking to achieve.
Now I have a second poplar riser is like to use. My goal is a 45-50# @30 I'd prefer to avoid PVC and make some wooden limbs.
Should I use staves which I don't not have at the moment. When I do harvest. I'll have maple. Oak and poplar. I'm in Northern Ontario so no Osage for me.
Can I use "hobby" wood from Home depot or other specialty shops. Say 1x2x4 or 1x3x4
I can tiller boards.how thin would I have to tiller the board? Will they work as limbs?
Will fiberglass backing work with boards? I don't want my limbs to break.
Also. Can I make an all poplar bow for my younger son. He's 7. Short draw 24 maybe 10-15#?
Thanks in advance foe input and advice.
-hunter791
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Maple and Oak , Poplar is supposed to be too light for bow but will make arrows... dunno if you have Hazel, that's a nice wood and easy to work.
My only advice is to cut some ASAP, you'll then have some seasoning while you learn. They'll be seasoned before you know it, gotta keep ahead of the game when it comes to gathering wood.
Del
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Welcome! Like Del suggested, start cutting wood now so you have some seasoning while you play with board staves. Rather than backing your limbs with fiberglass, you can simply make them wider than needed if you want to avoid breaking. I would choose oak over maple for limbs from boards. Select straight grained boards. If you anticipate making lots of bows from boards I would suggest getting your hands on the first two volumes of the Traditional Bowyer's Bible. Tim Baker discusses bows from boards in detail there.
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Thank you for responding.
Now being complety new.
What would be a good limb length. Width and thickness?
Is there a method I could use to determine this? Should I taper the ends?
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MY site has info. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html
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Thank you so much for the link. Why didn't I come across your site in my many ggogle searches?...
Apologies for not getting back here sooner.
Another question...
I harvested a maple tree. (Sugar) roughly 6 inches in diameter.
When I got home I tried to split it. It split in a horrible corkscrew. Wedges were in the center. But its now two twisted staves.
What happened? Did I make a mistake.
I can salvage some for limbs on a TD but I doubt I can make a bow with it.
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The WOOD can be twisted. It has nothing to do with your technique. If you wood is twisted, and it not always is, the log will split like a corkscrew. You can often see twist in the bark. Read the bark of a tree to know if it is worth felling, or if the wood will be twisted.
How severe is the twist? Up to 45 degrees twist is not a big deal. Up to 90 degrees might still be salvageable. But any more twist I would consider firewood.
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Ya... the twist is closer to 90 than 45. Bad choice for my first bow..
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Maybe consider making pyramid out of maple or oak as to not complicate things.learn how to form and tiller and then move on to more ambitous projects like a T/D.just a thought.
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I have to disagree with carson about oak over maple unless it is white oak, maple is much better in tension and makes a great board bow thogh that is the only thing he posted I disagree with, just be shure it's hard maple, Bub
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Where are you located?
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Welcome! Like Del suggested, start cutting wood now so you have some seasoning while you play with board staves. Rather than backing your limbs with fiberglass, you can simply make them wider than needed if you want to avoid breaking. I would choose oak over maple for limbs from boards. Select straight grained boards. If you anticipate making lots of bows from boards I would suggest getting your hands on the first two volumes of the Traditional Bowyer's Bible. Tim Baker discusses bows from boards in detail there.
Now I'm just the opposite. I would choose maple over oak every time. I've had some good results with maple, but hardly anything good has come from oak for me.
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I have to disagree with carson about oak over maple unless it is white oak, maple is much better in tension and makes a great board bow thogh that is the only thing he posted I disagree with, just be shure it's hard maple, Bub
+1 I hate oak. Oak has a terrible tendency to chrysal easily at least the stuff I've bought does. I know JW shares my opinion of the stuff. >:D >:D
Jon
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Red oak has it's merits,availibity,has straighter grain in most cases than maple,its cheap and is a great wood for beginners in board form! That being said ,I don't much like it either because of it's porus nature ,not onlike the ashes!
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Oh yeah, I forgot to mention , if there can be a difference in opinion ........................... you'll see it here ! ;D Just remember to keep it civil and respectful.Everyone will have widely varying experiences with everything from tool use ,to design,to wood species. No one is necessarily wrong ,........just difference of experience. Learn from it all. Climate ,region and specific species will have a lot to do with it. Take these into account for your own region.
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I buy white oak and hickory from a custom trim shop. Personally they seem the best to me for beginner board bows. One of my first board bows was a red oak though and it was made completely by following along the step by step instructions on YouTube that a user named "boarriorbows" posted for "building a high performance long bow for under $10". The only place i changed things up was when i backed it, i used linen instead of the drywall tape he used. It was actually one of the fastest bows I've ever made ( though it was a Molly not a traditional longbow). In fact I may have to repeat that build with some of this dense white oak I have now.....
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@ Kevin. This is the exact step by step I'm using at the moment with an oak board. (Boarriorbows).
I'm hoping its going to turn out well. Will post some completed pics when I'm done.
I'd like to make limbs out of boards too. Is this safe and possible? I can get lots of hardwood scraps from a friend at a cabinate shop. All at no cost. Not worried about screwing limbs up as I can get more. All lengths between 20 and 30 inches.
Onto gathering staves...
Oaks or maples? I'm in Northern Ontario so both are abundant. Are there particular species of either I should really look for? They don't have leaves at the moment so I'm looking on the ground for fallen leaves. I did find a decent tree last night that has recently been felled by someone else. For surveying purposes I think its a maple. Maybe... I'll post a pic later today.
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Where in Northern Ontario are you? That's a pretty big place ;).If you narrow it down ,we might be able to steer you onto some other species that will make a good bow ,that grow in your region. I'm guessing if you have lots of Oak and Maple, you aren't that far North (relatively speaking. If you have those two, you might also have Yellow Birch , Serviceberry, Elm (white and red) ,Ash (if the bugs haven't eaten them all yet). Choke Cherry, Pin Cherry, Lilac, And the much sought after Hop Hornbeam.You'll likely have Dog wood ,wild rose, and Hazel for arrows if you choose to go that route.
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Let put it this way. Lake Nipissing is in my backyard.. ;)
Yes I'm surrounded by yellow and white birch. But as far as I gather. Birch is no good for bows. Am I wrong?
No Ash that I know of. I've even asked around.
Never heard of serviceberry, hornbeam. Ill google some images. Maybe they're here too...
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Yep , should have all that was mentioned . HHB (hop hornbeam ) grows smaller up there but with crazy tight growthrings. Should have Ash, might have Elm. Will have dogwood,hazel ,Seviceberry (We always called them Sugar plum) ,just about everything I mentioned. Google them ,learn them,use them. I'm from the Soo area.
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Thank you for the info.
There is tons of Ironwood around here. (HHB) But I'll have to wait until I can identify them easily before I get some.
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Google is great for that. Look at twig ,bark and leaf. Also watch for twist in the bark . Very common in HHB. Windy areas are the worst for twisting trees, but hills can help them twist as well.
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I'm just going to have to be patient while searching for a stave. Waiting for some leaves to show.
Ya. I learned the hard way. Cut a maple the other day and it went wonky when I was splitting it. I'll just walk my dog more. Keeping an eye out.
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Most of the species mentioned are easy to ID from there bark ,and if still unsure you look at the twigs.