Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Dante_F on March 29, 2019, 11:07:16 am
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now don't start calling me a madman but i belive it is possible to make a good bow from doug fir as this is one made from norway spruce http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php?topic=56290.0 and worked well
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I have a big plank of Doug fir with very straight grain and only one know that I think will disappear in the rough out. I've chased a sap wood ring and gotten the sides true to the grain of the grown tree and want to try a big heavy longbow out of it. I'd say go for it. It would be cool to see other "hardware store" species being turned into bows. At the very least its cheap! Tim Baker states in TBB good doug fir is like moderate ash so I think it is prone to set but its back will hold up fine. That Norway spruce bow is cool its even parallel grain instead of ring chased.
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Yew, DF, spruce, hemlock are all conifers. There is one guy that uses DF in his FG bows, but then again the lams used in FG bows are very thin. As long as the grain structure is even and straight I cant see why not. I would only use it for the belly I think. I'm thinking of trying Hemlock and backing it with maple or oak.
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consider reverse trapping or backing
I have a larch with maple back that has held up
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Pope mentions a Douglas Fir cable backed Eskimo bow. A very well made weapon with good shooting qualities. It shot nicely at I believe 26 inches. He drew it two more inches and BANG!
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Pope mentions a Douglas Fir cable backed Eskimo bow. A very well made weapon with good shooting qualities. It shot nicely at I believe 26 inches. He drew it two more inches and BANG!
Oh.... (lol)
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It was only 56 inches long though.....
Alaskan bow, probably Eskimo (pl. 3, fig. 9). A well made, powerful bow of the elementary composite type. The wood is Douglas fir, a square-cut, straight-grained piece such as we commonly see in a building joist. It is backed with a strip of bone 22 inches long, ¼ inch wide, and ¼ inch thick. This is lashed in position with twisted sinew arranged in an ingenious network, constituting a continuous backing from nock to nock, with circular bindings about the limbs at intervals of an inch. On cross- section the wood is flat on the back with beveled flat sloping surfaces on the belly. Length, 56 inches; diameters: at handgrip, 1½ by ¾, circumference 5 inches; at nock 1 by ⅝, circumference, 3¼ inches. It has short bilateral nocks, a thick sinew composed of many twisted strands, and served loops at the ends. The upper end of the string has an extension loop to keep it in position when the bow is unbraced. There is serving of some weed-like material on the string at the center.
This is the first aboriginal bowstring under our observation that has any serving at the nocking point of the arrow. The whole bow is by far the best made of any aboriginal weapon in the group. It is well balanced, rigid in its draw, is exceedingly strong, and has a musical twang to the plucked string. The action is sharp and there is no kick in the hand. When drawn 26 inches it weighs 80 pounds and shoots 180 yards. It seemed such a good bow in spite of the brash quality of the wood employed that Mr. Compton, who was making the test, was urged to draw an arrow the full 28 inches, whereupon the bow fractured at the center with a loud report.
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A well made bow like you said but having a strip of bone 22 inches long, ¼ inch wide, and ¼ inch thick. This is lashed in position with twisted sinew arranged in an ingenious network, constituting.........etc..etc.... that would make it a wee bit stiff I would think. And using such a weapon in sub zero temperatures would have a dramatic impact on the materials. The cellular structure would take on a sort of steel effect (sleepy molecules). Maybe the bow would perform better in the Arizona desert.
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It was broken in California. It was a museum specimen.
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Thanks for clarifying that.
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as there are a lot of housing developments being put in and a lot of big trees being cut :'( so i may as well put them to use before they get chipped. What dimensions do you recocomed
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Its something to try, somewhere I saw a Topic not sure if it was here but someone built a bow from building material and it worked out well. For how long dont know. But if you endevour in such a project I would build the bow long like 70" NTN. What other dimensions would I recommend..? Maybe thick and wide or a rounder type of profile like the old English Yew longbows. Try them both. Wood is free :P
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went to home depot to get some bamboo for arrows and went to check out the candy (hardwood) aisle and they had CLOSED IT >:( that was annoying so needless to say I didn't get any boards
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larch bow is 72" ntn 1.5 wide, circilar tiller 40 lbs@28
I made a cable bow that not just stacked but hit a wall at fulldraw. something about the cable design more that the wood used i quess. over draw of a dried out bow was irresponsible IMHO.
conifers can get real brash if overdried
if you are looking at salvaging something from trees being cut, conifer branch wood is a different animal, and well worth considering. boards from HD will be juvenile growth :P, and old growth is a specialty item, more easily found of you have access to something milled a 100 years ago being salvaged
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I've always wondered if a branch from the top of an old growth Doug Fir would make a good belly. It's very dense and can take a tremendous snow load. I have a Sitka Spruce in the yard that I could probably liberate a branch from. I don't think I would trust it in tension though. I'm not sure why, just a gut feeling. Funny, because tension is Spruces strong point. Maybe my gut is wrong.
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Don
I have been muddling about this with some branches I have. to use the bottom of the branch or the top.
if using the bottom it is easy to get a wide back but a narrow belly of compression wood, but compression wood may not be the best way to go.
but to use the top of the branch where the tension wood might be, the geometry is upside down for a bow that needs something extra on its back
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I've always wondered if a branch from the top of an old growth Doug Fir would make a good belly. It's very dense and can take a tremendous snow load. I have a Sitka Spruce in the yard that I could probably liberate a branch from. I don't think I would trust it in tension though. I'm not sure why, just a gut feeling. Funny, because tension is Spruces strong point. Maybe my gut is wrong.
When I started this addiction about 7-8 years ago, we had a bad wind storm and a limb came down in the back yard. I think it was Spruce or Hemlock @ 56" NTN at any rate I carved it down cut in the string nocks and it shot quite well. It was bendy handle. It had 3" of natural reflex. The only reason it broke is because I wanted to see what draw it would take. It broke in the center at about 26" draw. But it seemed quite tough for all its drawbacks.
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Yes, the bottom portion of a conifer like spruce or fir would be compression wood and a good choice for a belly on a sinew backed bow.
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ok ill see if i can get a good compression side of a branch
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seems if your bow was single limb and naturally reflexed, you might have been using the natural "compression" side as the back. keep us informed as you go please as it is interesting stuff to play with.
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i have my eye on an R/D compression side branch but looks to be really short. maybe a bendy handle
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A properly dense piece of Sitka spruce will make a suitable bow.
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You'll need to be splicing two branches most likely to get an even distribution of compression wood. I'd mark out the bottom portion of the branch with a red marker or something before cutting it just as a reminder of how it was growing and where the bow limb is likely to be placed.The Finnish bows were made with compression conifer wood. They would actually grow trees at an angle. The angle induces the compression rings to form. They used the wood for birch-backed bows and also for skis.
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Before I started this as a hobby I used to whittle out bows and arrows if we were camping and I found a feather. I made a bow once out of a recently dead 1" branch of Doug Fir. I remember it because I actually hit the pole I was aiming at with the first shot. Anyway it worked but I don't remember how far I was bending it or how many times I shot it.
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ok sounds good ill give it a go