Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Josh B on March 19, 2014, 09:11:46 pm
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Just finished this up last night. It's red elm backed with cotton cloth and finished with tru oil. Its stiff handled wrapped in black leather and piping made out of the same cotton cloth and a floppy rest. It's about 36" ntn(never actually measured it) and it draws 15#@16". It has a bit of propeller twist and a little wiggle which gave a minor fit or two while tillering. It's very snappy for such a little thing. Now I just have to get the matching arrows made and deliver it to the new owner. I hope she likes it. I'll let her do the f/d pic when she gets it. Oh, and sorry for the poor quality pics. Josh
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Those are some sweet curves! 8)
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Makin' bows for kids is the best! She's gonna love it! Great job coaxing the young ones into a life long passion (hopefully).
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Love that unbraced profile. Looks tuff to tiller. Is there any kinda trick to tillering them.
Great job Josh
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Nice one for sure!
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Love it! But........ Full draw!!!?????
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Nice looking little bow! Quality work! What method did you use to get the curves?
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cool beans Josh nice bow, bub
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Nice shape on that little bow Josh, well done.
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Josh, ya outdone yourself. That is a very cool bow, kid or adult, good on you my friend.
rich
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Love the shape. Well done Sir.
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Very cool little bow Josh. 8) Can't wait to see the Diana with her new bow at full draw. ;)
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Nice bow Josh the daughter was walking past when I was looking at the pics & stopped dead in her tracks & said I want one.
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Those curves look perfect Josh! Good job as usual man!
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Nice little bow Josh, but I'm not buying the story about it being a kids bow. I bet you keep that thing in your cab for protection ;D
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I will guarantee that she will love it !!! I'm having a hard time not showing her the pictures ... she will come hunt you down if she does ;D
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Soy- I sure hope she likes it. But don't be lettin' the cat out of the bag! I gotta get Jack's atlatl done first. It wouldn't do for Stevie to get her bow and Jack get only a raincheck!
Clint- it does maneuver around the cab quite nicely! Lol!
Thanks Doobs!
Rob- better get her one made then. If I can help, let me know. I have about 3 yds of that material and several blanks. It wouldn't take much to heat some curves in one and send it out.
Thanks Pat! Hopefully little Stevie can pull it to full draw. Its a bit heavy, but my boy is the same age and he can pull it.
Slim, Bub, Greg, Rich, Mitch, Greg, Mike- thanks fellas!
Bryce-ya gotta be patient ol buddy! Lol! Thanks
Matt- since the handle is stiff it isn't really any harder than a straight one. On the grown up version, the setback handle is working too. That gets tricky.
Lostarrow- thanks! Building for the kids is by far the most rewarding. We had our first 4H shot Sunday. 85 kids in all. A dozen or so are shooting wheelie bows, the majority are shooting the clubs recurves, but there is an ever increasing group shooting selfbows. The wheelie bow coach cant figure out why the kids hover around the selfbows and pay scant attention to the modern equipment. I use Pappy's line on him, "if I have to explain it, you wouldn't understand ".
Thanks again everyone! Josh
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Well that turned out pretty darn cute :) don't ya love making kids bows ;).....I don't...lol :laugh:
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Thanks Chris! Yeah those little boogers do require an extra degree of finesse. But its worth it. ;)
Sorry Mitch, I missed the question on your post. I use dry heat and different radius half circle cauls on most of my bows. I don't have any full length cauls. I've been meaning to make a few for years, but never got around to it. By using the simple radius cauls I can adjust the placement of the curves for different length bows. So it works out. I sometimes use steam on various woods that don't bend well with dry heat. But I prefer dry heat. Josh
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Stunning little bow. Must take a hell of a lot of patience to bring the tiller in. You could use a razor blade as a scraper :)
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Thanks Dwardo ! I talked my customer into taking a f/d shot. I had the arrow nocked a little high so it makes the tiller look funky. But he was laughing so much about my little pink bow that I didn't want to suffer through another pic. :-[ So here you go Bryce! Lol! Josh
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Hey Gun Doc first I want to say very nice work ! I have seen some of your other bows including another awesome 5 curve bow which was even awesomer !!! :o
Question, do you heat in the deflex in the mid limb, or do you let the "set" from tillering deflex it? I want to eventually try making one of these myself.
Thanks !
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Gun Doc, All those curves and stripes! That's a sexy one, nice work, you nailed it...
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Thank you Mr. Burchett! Much appreciated Sir!
Seminolewind-thank you for the kind words as well Sir. More importantly thank you for your service! The deflex bends are heated in. With the setback handle and flipped tips, I doubt the bow could be braced without deflexing the limbs. If you don't mind waiting a day or two, I'll get out my crayons and draw up some illustrations and explain the way I do it. I'd do it now, but I gotta get rolling towards Alabama with a hot load. Then on to New Orleans for a load to Kansas city. Busy busy! Josh
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Greatwork on that josh, I to would like to see your drawing. A 5 curve is on my next to do list. Drive safe.
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That bow is very cool... even though it's teeny-tiny.
Any plans on building an adult size bow of similar design?
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Booyah!!!! Killer man!
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aaaaawwwwww its so cuuuttttteeee
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Sweet! :D
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Good one, Doc ! :)
DBar
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Consider me inspired. That things awesome looking. When i attempt I might make it a little longer lol
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Sweet little flinger there
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Nice work Gun Doc!
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Awesome!
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Thank you Mr. Burchett! Much appreciated Sir!
Seminolewind-thank you for the kind words as well Sir. More importantly thank you for your service! The deflex bends are heated in. With the setback handle and flipped tips, I doubt the bow could be braced without deflexing the limbs. If you don't mind waiting a day or two, I'll get out my crayons and draw up some illustrations and explain the way I do it. I'd do it now, but I gotta get rolling towards Alabama with a hot load. Then on to New Orleans for a load to Kansas city. Busy busy! Josh
That 5 curve prairie rattler is the sexiest bow ever man ! I would like to see a tutorial. I have culls for bending in the curves myself but am curious mostly about the handle portion in order to get it to bend outward at the handle how is your basic handle design? Is it pretty thin? Do your 5 curve bows bend at the handle any ? Thanks !
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Now that's a beauty,I know she will love that. :) Very nice work. :)
Pappy
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You done good Josh!!! ;D Looking forward to seeing your truck come rolling down that hill in TN, soon!!!
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How could any little girl NOT LOVE that bow! Awesome! It's the perfect thing to annoy a pesky big brother with. At 15 lbs draw weight, it probably won't break skin from any reasonable range, ...but it could sure make 'em worry about it. >:D >:D >:D
OneBow
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That bow is so elegant. Something about that shape bow is just so sweet. Good job!
Onebowwonder,
My son has an Osage 15 pounder I made him. I have no doubt that it could kill someone at just about any range he can shoot it. It worries me enough that if he is outside with it, his little sister is inside with me.
Patrick
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What you've made right there are some great memories for a little girl! Outstanding work, well thought out, and it's girly to boot! Bulls eye!
Thanks for sharing,
John D.
Boise
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That is one sweet little bow, I'll bet she will love it. Heck if it were adult size I would not have a problem shooting it. Make all the wheelie bow guys jealous.
Grady
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Great work Josh, you gonna be here in Kansas city next Wednesday for the west bottoms bowyers club meeting?
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Josh that is a beautiful piece of work. You sure do make so nice bows. If any of you new bow builders get a chance, tiller a bow with Josh...you will learn a lot
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very nice Josh.
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Wicked little shooter!very cool! 8)
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Thanks for all the kind words folks! I appreciate it!
Adb- I got a few grown up versions in the works
One bow- I wouldn't want to get shot with it! 15 lbs will do a lot more than break the skin. :o. If I thought for a second that there was a chance of her shooting her brother, I wouldn't have made it for her. I've been blessed enough to spend some time around Soy's kids and even went on a shoot with em. They are great, well mannered young uns, so no worries.
Falcon- I never know where I'll be from one day to the next. I sure hope that I get by there soon. Its been too long.
Seminolewind- I haven't forgot you Sir. I should have time this evening to properly explain and illustrate my method.
Thanks again! Josh
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Looking forward to seeing your cauls or what ever to, next on my to do list.
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First thing first. This is in no way an accurate replica of any historic bow that I know of. Native American or otherwise. I just want it understood that I'm not insinuating that this is a style favored by any specific people. It is simply a hybrid of a few different designs that I've been cherry picking various attributes from trying to make a bow that meets all my criteria for a good bow. I feel that I'm just about to that point, but not quite. Next thing is please forgive my crude illustrations. I will be plum amazed if any one gleans any useful information for this attempt at explaining it. So here we go. The first pic is my simple cauls. These are just cut out of a 2x6 using the radius of a 3 pound coffee can. You will notice that one of them has an elongated end to it. This is not necessary. It is simply a matter of personal taste. I like the recurves to have this shape as opposed to a continuous radius. I strive for silence so the elongated shape keeps the string from contacting the limb, whereas the full radius actually causes the string to contact the limb like a static recurve. Again, just personal taste.
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I use the full radius caul to heat in the back set and the elongated one to heat in the tips. The order in which you do this is important to get the reflex and shape right.
1. Heat in the recurves (flipped tips)
2. Heat in the back set. My illustrations show near 90 degree angle on the back set. I don't bend it that much. It is actually closer to 110 degrees.
3. Now you heat in the deflex bends in the inner limbs. Ideally, what your shooting for is the limbs to be on a flat plane 2" forward of the set back handle. The recurves should be another2" forward of that for a total of 4" of reflex. Here's a pic of the progression.
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The way you deflex the inner limbs is the most finicky part of the process. I just bandsawed out a general shape like is shown and bored the clamp holes. IMPORTANT!!!! When deflexing the inner limbs, I do NOT pull the limb all the way down to the caul. I simple get one clamp positioned on the inner side of where I want the deflex to start, heat the inner part of the limb and incremental tighten down the clamp until I get the deflex I want. Like most of my work, this best guess, eyeball construction. Once you get it pulled in to the reflex you want, let it cool and then do the other side. Don't be surprised if you have to redo the bends a couple times to get em right.
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The front profile of the bow is simply a narrowed handle pyramid layout. The narrowed handle will be working a little, but not much. So be sure to leave it thick enough when you rough it out. When tiller these, I leave the handle and recurves stiff until i get it tillered out to within 3" or so of full draw. Then I get those all working just enough to open up a little, but not enough to take set.(pull out) I hope that helps some. If I gave anybody a migraine, I apologize! Josh
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Migraine.....no, damned fine idea YES. Thank you sir, fall in love every time you post one.
rich
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The illustrations are very good and easy to understand thanks ! The part about the handle was most confusing to me before your explanation. I was thinking the handle obviously had to be somewhat thinner to allow the bend to be heated into it yet strong enough to not bend significantly under draw. Guess that's a happy medium that comes from experience which I'm working on gaining. Do you ever reinforce the handle prior to wrapping?
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<snip>One bow- I wouldn't want to get shot with it! 15 lbs will do a lot more than break the skin. :o. If I thought for a second that there was a chance of her shooting her brother, I wouldn't have made it for her. I've been blessed enough to spend some time around Soy's kids and even went on a shoot with em. They are great, well mannered young uns, so no worries.<snip>
So very sorry! I did not at all mean to disparage the young lady. I'm sure she is a perfect princess archeress and has no intention of brother hunting. I was once a hunted brother, and survived it though. Heck, I probably deserved it! My sister used a BB gun though.
OneBow
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I should've mentioned that before you heat in the bends, you should get it to a real stout floor tiller (barely bending). You want the limbs bending just enough to be sure the handle is not bending. That should prevent to flimsy of a handle. Also, that first one you looked at was way over built. I think Weylin said it was 1 3/4" wide at the fades. 1 5/8" is plenty wide and much snappier. That is of course sinew backed. I have an Osage in the works now that is 1 1/2" and an ironwood that I laid out at 1 3/8". As i said, I'm still trying to get this design developed.
Onebow-I never thought that you implied any thing of the sort about the young lady. I was more worried about some young squirrel reading that and getting the idea that 15# wouldn't hurt somebody. On a side note, I believe that my wife was the kind of sister that you had. She used to wait until her brother started push mowing their yard while wearing shorts and then she would crawl up on the garage roof with her bb gun and shoot him in the lower legs. I guess it was great sport until her Dad caught her. Up until then, her brother thought it was the mower throwing debris at his legs. Lol! ..........Oh crap! Now I'm giving the squirrels ideas. Whoops! Josh
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Hey thanks josh. I like a challenge and this will be one, gonna give it a go.
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Make no mistake that she's above brother hunting...that is one of her favorite pass times >:D but rest at ease knowing close supervision will be had when in possession of said equipment Lol
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OHMA-If I can be of any further help, let me know Sir.
Soy- I stand corrected. Here I thought it was only the grown up females that fooled me so easily. Apparently, when it comes to ladies, my naivety is limitless regardless of age! I would've sworn she was the perfect little Angel. She must take after her dad a little after all! >:D. Josh
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It's just wonderfull! Get's me much inspiration to work on something similar - using the European availability of wood and staves. Wolfgang ;)
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Fine little Cupid bow Josh. Love the full draw curves!
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Thank you Wolfgang. It's always nice to inspire positive things.
Thanks Dan! Josh
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That full draw pic is priceless. Kids bow or not, I wouldn't want to catch an arrow from that pretty little thing! Cool to see your illustrations of the cauls and shaping process, that really adds to the post.
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Finally delivered this bow a half a year after completion. ::) I wanted to hand deliver it instead of mailing it and it took this long to get a load through that area. So here is Miss Stevie with her new bow. Josh
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Good for you buddy, I'm sure she was thrilled
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Dont care what anybody says.....your a good man Mr. Doc 8)
rich
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Too cool man. Great work Josh.
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Cool, Josh. 8)
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Really cool, way to show patience!
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I'm actually ready to tiller a osage 5 curve for my Christmas trade. 6 weeks since sinew applied. Been inside. It's ready. SooOOOooo make the arrows already!!! I'm bookmarking this to com pair tillering. Mine has more reflex but it's gonna be quite similar when the sinew is worked in a bit. I bet she loves it man!
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Thanks fellas! Soy reported that she is quite tickled with the bow and had a blast stump shooting with it over the weekend.
Looking forward to seeing how yours turns out Bruce. Josh
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Great post, Josh. Thanks for taking the time to do all the illustrations & explanations. Miss Stevie has a vary special stick.
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Ha well josh, I won't be making that bow now. This may sound stupid but my dog ate it. Literally. My daughter got it out when I wasn't looking and left it on the floor. So now I'm F&$%$@!
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Well I have to say the model for the second full draw is way cuter than the first one!
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Wow, I'm a bit late getting here!
Great bow, looks soooo cool.
Del
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OMG Bruce!!! That is sooooooo sad! I know tons of work went into that little bow, ...and hours, days and weeks of waiting for it to be ready to work on. [Note to Self: Store unfinished sinew-backed bows out of reach of crumb snatchers and canines.]
OneBow
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On to the next one
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Josh, that's one fine little bow indeed. I hope Miss Stevie grows to appreciate what she has. And thanks for taking the time to explain how you create a bow like this. One more step in my bowyer education.
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Thanks fellas! Much appreciated!
Bruce....man....that sucks!
Paoliguy...I concur wholeheartedly! Lol! Josh
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It's my fault >:( I got a hackberry bow floor tillered and a osage recurve I gotta sinew. The hackberry is now my Christmas trade item lol. Damn dog