Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Siyah Later on October 27, 2015, 08:58:18 am
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Hello everyone,
I've been reading this forum for a while and thought I'd finally post my first bow. I'd been thinking about making a bow for about a year and at the end of the summer I finally went for it. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot of things and improved my woodworking skills. The bow is 35# at 28", and is 72" tip to tip. It's made from a maple board, and has an oak handle and tip overlays. I backed it with brown paper for a little bit of extra security and because I thought it would look nice. I tried to make everything for the bow myself, including the string, a bow stringer, a tillering stick, a tillering gizmo, a serving tool, a fletching jig, and the arrows. Needless to say it kept me pretty busy!
I wrote up a bit of a build along on my blog, which shares my experiences and has lots of pictures of the process. You can have a look at it here: http://diydudes.com/building-a-longbow/
(http://diydudes.com/content/images/2015/10/maple-bow-2.jpg)
The tiller isn't perfect, but I can't see any fatal flaws. In the braced photo, the right limb seems to bend a bit more in the outer region than the left limb. The bow also might be a bit stiff at the tips in general. I'd be happy to have any opinions or advice.
(http://diydudes.com/content/images/2015/10/maple-bow-3.jpg)
Making bows is extremely addicting, the evidence of this being that I had a second bow tillered and ready to shoot before I ever shot my first one. The second bow has way thinner tips, and I think it's quite a bit nicer to shoot. Overall I am quite happy with how this bow turned out, and look forward to many more!
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It just ain't fair, you new guys making bow that are perfectly tillered and look spectacular. 20 years ago my first bow looked like I hacked it out with a broad ax and tillered it with a chainsaw.
All kidding aside, you made a very fine bow, great job!
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Looks like your research paid off. Very nice bow and spectacular for your first. I'm in the same boat as Eric.
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Nice work!
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Tiller looks mighty fine to me!
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Good start with a real nice bow or two.
Very creative screen name too.
Welcome
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It just ain't fair, you new guys making bow that are perfectly tillered and look spectacular. 20 years ago my first bow looked like I hacked it out with a broad ax and tillered it with a chainsaw.
All kidding aside, you made a very fine bow, great job!
Looks like your research paid off. Very nice bow and spectacular for your first. I'm in the same boat as Eric.
I'm in the same boat as these guys, I'm on my fourth and none look as good as yours. Good job!
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Very nice! I'm with you, half the fun is making all the jigs and tools. Or maybe I'm just too cheap to buy them :-[
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Yup, welcome to the addiction.
No shortage of things to make, fletching jigs, string making jigs, tapering planer, tools to drill conical holes in horn for nocks...
I even bought and refurbished a small lathe so I can make flight arrow points :)
Making stuff is fun, I just wish more people realised it instead of waving money at everything.
Theres a woman at work who knits stuff, I'm swapping a bottle of home made cider for a knitted snowman ready for the festive season :laugh:
Del
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Great job on your first!
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very nice congrats :)
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cool ...
which pattern had the board ... i mean the rings where standing or lying....
maybe you would like to post a picture of the board too ...
unfortunately, when i want maple i gonna get to the woods and cut one and then
wait for drying ...
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Congratulations on your first. Well done.
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Looks Great!!!!
DBar
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I really admire your bow and workmanship!
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It just ain't fair, you new guys making bow that are perfectly tillered and look spectacular. 20 years ago my first bow looked like I hacked it out with a broad ax and tillered it with a chainsaw.
All kidding aside, you made a very fine bow, great job!
I credit the good help and information from people like you, Eric, that have helped many of us avoid beginner mistakes that we would have made had we had to learn on our own. without the help, I doubt I would have even tried. Thanks to all the masters that have paved the way for us beginners. Nice bow Mr. Later
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Thank you all so much for the warm welcome and compliments! I never would have gotten into making bows and I wouldn't have been successful at it if it weren't for all of the great information online, including the posts on this forum.
It just ain't fair, you new guys making bow that are perfectly tillered and look spectacular. 20 years ago my first bow looked like I hacked it out with a broad ax and tillered it with a chainsaw.
I think the successful tillering of the bow was largely due to my use of the tillering gizmo, so I have you to thank for that.
Very nice! I'm with you, half the fun is making all the jigs and tools. Or maybe I'm just too cheap to buy them :-[
It's a healthy mix of being cheap and enjoying building things :)
Yup, welcome to the addiction.
No shortage of things to make, fletching jigs, string making jigs, tapering planer, tools to drill conical holes in horn for nocks...
I even bought and refurbished a small lathe so I can make flight arrow points :)
Oh no, I don't need any more reasons to want a lathe; I already wanted one before I started making bows!
cool ...
which pattern had the board ... i mean the rings where standing or lying....
maybe you would like to post a picture of the board too ...
The board had grain that was pretty straight on all four sides. There were a few runouts but not too many. There's a picture of it in the blog post I linked to in my original post.
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@Siyah...
I got it. Those "standing rings" without run outs seem to be quite common with
board bows ....
Unfortunately where I live I could only get spruce boards ... but it had the same grain ...
I suppose you paper backed this bow too as shown in the link.