Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Threy Cameron on October 22, 2025, 02:06:09 am
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Hey everyone!
I've been reading and learning from this site for a long time now and finally decided to make a post. I've recently completed my first board bow from American red oak in the style of a Powhatan bow collected in 1665 from Virginia. This bows inspiration is illustrated in the "Encyclopedia of Native American Bows Arrows and Quivers volume 1", and is one of my favorite bows in the volume for its elegant simplicity and practicality. Being located in New Zealand my access to good bow wood is limited so I thought I'd try my hand at making a board bow from red oak, next time I aim to make some more bows from European oak boards (Quercus Robur). The board itself had some very slight propeller twist and may look a little uneven in the braced picture.
The bow itself is 68 1/2" long being 1 11/16" wide at the handle 1 1/2" wide at the midlimb tapering to 3/4" pin nocks. I added a "Peck" mark to the middle of the bow's handle for identification on where to grasp. The bow was floor tillered to 8 inches or so of bend before having the belly tempered with a heat gun (I've recently begun belly tempering with coals) to improve performance and compression resistance. This was my first time working with oak and I was pleasantly surprised by the results as red oak's reputation preceded it as being prone to belly chrysals. The bow is very comfortable to shoot with good early draw tension and a snappy release, the set was very minimal even after 200 shots being around 1/2" an inch.
The bows entire build was documented and is available on YouTube if anyone wanted to check it out ( please forgive the shameless self promotion): https://youtu.be/ZiH7xWD0kH4
Thanks for reading and providing a place with such a vast amount of knowledge on this subject I sincerely appreciate it.
Cheers guys.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54871811904_db5ebe5d8c_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rAQnYu)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54871811729_1ba7eb4af3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rAQnVt)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54871795903_922c98395d_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rAQidB)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54871796403_7390f3b7d3_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rAQine)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54871860420_1f90e50559_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rAQCoY)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54871810994_10384c1672_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rAQnGN)
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great work :OK
a bow in its distilled essence
Can you feel it bend through the handle?
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Very nice bow, love the looks of that. 👍Pappy
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Nice Sudbury style bow with a nice bend. :OK
I've heard some of the gum trees(Eucalyptus) make good bows and I believe you have locust planted there for erosion.
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Very nice looking bow. Thanks for sharing, hope to see more in the future.
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Great looking bow. Very nice video too.
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Nice bend. So glad you shared it
Bjrogg
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Nice replication of a classic "primitive"
your youtube vid should be helpful for first timers as a buildalong
thanks for contributing so much with your first post.
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great work :OK
a bow in its distilled essence
Can you feel it bend through the handle?
I really appreciate the kind words. Yes I can definitely feel it bend through the handle and fades. I left the handle tillering till last as to get it bending just right. The vast majority of the bend early on was focused around the midlimbs before being brought into the handle area during the last 3 inches or so of tillering.
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Nice Sudbury style bow with a nice bend. :OK
I've heard some of the gum trees(Eucalyptus) make good bows and I believe you have locust planted there for erosion.
I've heard of some stands of Black Locust on private land in different areas around NZ I'll have to look into that. We do have Black Maire as a good native bow wood here as well as some species of Kanuka or Manuka also curing some staves of Puriri so we'll see how that goes. Privet is another popular wood here for bowmaking, it was introduced some centuries ago and has become quite prolific and I hear makes a great bow.
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Very nice looking bow. Thanks for sharing, hope to see more in the future.
Will definitely be sharing more in future now that I've broken the ice so to speak with this site. I'm currently working on some more red oak bows from the same board. They've been floor tillered and heat treated over coals and are being left to rehydrate for some days before work continues. One is a Sudbury style bow the other is a similar design to the one posted except with a a narrowed and deepened handle for my brother.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54873583754_2e072684c2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rAZsFC)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54872475142_004a0f2815_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rATM8C)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54873637675_02a08e12af_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rAZJHi)
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Nice replication of a classic "primitive"
your youtube vid should be helpful for first timers as a buildalong
thanks for contributing so much with your first post.
Thankyou I'm quite happy with how the bow turned out as a first with a board bow and oak. Yes hopefully the YouTube video can inspire or demonstrate some good techniques to others and help them get into the art. No worries at all I've been reading and taking notes from this site for quite some time and decided it was about time I posted something myself.
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Greetings, Nice result with the red oak. What other Northern hemisphere timbers do your suppliers stock?
About 10 or 15years ago on here I was talking to another NZ bowyer. He had a local source for greenheart timber, large old cants used for building maritime docks. He also mentioned that Yew is growing in some churchyards.
Black Maire is the best native timbers that I have heard grows in NZ. I'm guessing its not the easiest tree to find?
I would keep a look out, make contact with arborists. Lots of pretty and useful garden trees from the northern hemisphere make excellent bows. Oak, ash, elm, apple, crab apple, plum and other fruitwoods.
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Welcome to the site! Thank you for joining and for posting these bows! Oh man is it nice to see a fully heat treated bow! That thing is absolutely beautiful! You should make a post about one of these bow and post the link into consideration for Octobers bow of the month contest.
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Greetings, Nice result with the red oak. What other Northern hemisphere timbers do your suppliers stock?
About 10 or 15years ago on here I was talking to another NZ bowyer. He had a local source for greenheart timber, large old cants used for building maritime docks. He also mentioned that Yew is growing in some churchyards.
Black Maire is the best native timbers that I have heard grows in NZ. I'm guessing its not the easiest tree to find?
I would keep a look out, make contact with arborists. Lots of pretty and useful garden trees from the northern hemisphere make excellent bows. Oak, ash, elm, apple, crab apple, plum and other fruitwoods.
Appreciate it man Thank You. I usually get my boards from a supplier here in NZ called BBS Timbers, they have a bunch of native timers here as well as the northern species. For northern species they have Black Walnut, Black Cherry, Hard Maple, White Ash, White Oak (Red Oak is included in these piles), European Beech, French Oak and Sapele Mahogany. They also have a bunch of exotic hardwoods from South America like Kwila, Purple Heart, Green Heart, Tonka and various Gums from Australia.
I've heard about Yew in some Churchyards though the trees themselves are quite large but rare. I've also heard about some Yew being found in nearby forests from seed spread by birds though this is even more rare. I would love to work with some Yew someday though I would have to update my respirator for the dust.
Black Maire is the best native I've tested so far though similar to Osage it can grow wonky if out in the open. Though if in a forested grove it can grow straight and tall as it reaches for sunlight. It depends where you look, I'm blessed to live on a large farm that backs onto a mountain range consisting of around 30 square kms. So far I've found around 70 Black Maire trees or so in an area of a square km or so which is quite rare as its not the most common tree. The majority of said trees aren't suitable for bowmaking but there are some great specimens in there, the real hard bit would be getting the wood out with the terrain their located in. Though I want to experiment more with board bows first before deciding whether to harvest one or two.
I will definitely keep my eyes peeled for some great bow species. There is one particularly large Oak at my friends place that I am currently seeing if the owner would be interested in a little pruning in exchange for a bow or two.
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" For northern species they have Black Walnut, Black Cherry, Hard Maple, White Ash, White Oak (Red Oak is included in these piles), European Beech, French Oak and Sapele Mahogany. They also have a bunch of exotic hardwoods from South America like Kwila, Purple Heart, Green Heart, Tonka and various Gums from Australia."
Good to know.All those woods in the first sentence will make good bows(though I don't know about Sapele,may not be up to the task.
Never tried kwila for a bow, but I wouldn't be surprised if it made a good bow, as its hard and heavy. Surprisingly I haven't heard of anyone trying it for bows either.
Purple heart can make good bows providing they are long enough and wide enough, otherwise you risk chrysalling , and explosive tension breaks.
Add a bamboo backing to many of the South American exotics and you can get good bows. Do you have any bamboo suppliers or local groves that you could trim?
Not a fan of most Aussie gum trees for bows. Some will make good bows, other pieces from the same species will chrysal despite wide shallow limbs and good tiller. They just aren't as predictable as Northern hemisphere timbers. Stats look good on paper, but usually don't translate to good bow wood, in practice.
Gathering Black Maire sounds like an interesting adventure. If they don't grow too large in diameter, and if it splits well with wedges you could probably pack some out, especially if you have a friend. Work off the excess bulk, into a blank. Nevertheless it will be hard work(I used to do quite a bit with wild grown osage, and native timbers here in Australia). The older I get the less attractive the idea becomes.
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Welcome to the site! Thank you for joining and for posting these bows! Oh man is it nice to see a fully heat treated bow! That thing is absolutely beautiful! You should make a post about one of these bow and post the link into consideration for Octobers bow of the month contest.
Thankyou for the welcome! I do find a heat treated bow really does bring out the beauty and character of the wood, the improvements in performance and cast certainly help too haha. I also recently began heat treating with coals instead of a heat gun and the difference in temper is remarkable. The coals I find so a better job of being consistent and thorough (though with more monitoring involved) whereas the heat gun can be a little spotty, though this could be due to my technique or heat gun quality of course. I will hopefully have the two extra fire hardened bows ready by the end of the month and be able to pick one to enter. Though I would not be keen to rush one to meet a deadline so we'll have to see how they turn out, if not there's always the next bow of the month.
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Thats very true! Don't rush, we will do it again next month too :)
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Good to know.All those woods in the first sentence will make good bows(though I don't know about Sapele,may not be up to the task.
Never tried kwila for a bow, but I wouldn't be surprised if it made a good bow, as its hard and heavy. Surprisingly I haven't heard of anyone trying it for bows either.
Purple heart can make good bows providing they are long enough and wide enough, otherwise you risk chrysalling , and explosive tension breaks.
Add a bamboo backing to many of the South American exotics and you can get good bows. Do you have any bamboo suppliers or local groves that you could trim?
Not a fan of most Aussie gum trees for bows. Some will make good bows, other pieces from the same species will chrysal despite wide shallow limbs and good tiller. They just aren't as predictable as Northern hemisphere timbers. Stats look good on paper, but usually don't translate to good bow wood, in practice.
Gathering Black Maire sounds like an interesting adventure. If they don't grow too large in diameter, and if it splits well with wedges you could probably pack some out, especially if you have a friend. Work off the excess bulk, into a blank. Nevertheless it will be hard work(I used to do quite a bit with wild grown osage, and native timbers here in Australia). The older I get the less attractive the idea becomes.
I was aiming for French or White Oak for my next bows after I've finished off the remaining Reds. I've heard it can hold reflex well with heat treating and wanted to try it out with reflexed limbs and recurves.
Kwila is similar to other you mentioned good stats but usually splinters or chrysals before too long. I've tried backing it with bamboo and it doesn't do too badly but may need a wider or longer design than what I tried. Can't write it off fully but it would need certain considerations to be made into a bow.
Purple Heart does make some great bows from what I've seen though is best backed like most exotic hardwoods like you mentioned. I think the dense nature of the exotics lends themselves more to compression resistance than tensile strength so they can make excellent bows if backed.
Luckily I do have some massive bamboo stands on my neighbors place just down the road and can cut as much as I like. I do prefer selfbows in my experience as its just less things to go wrong or de-laminate. I have made some laminated bows though they occasionally delaminated, not sure if it was improper preparation or the humid climate. I may have to get my hands on some boat epoxy glue (not too sure of the name) but a local uses it for his bows and he says its amazing never delaminated even with our humidity. On the plus side I've got a limitless supply of massive bamboo whenever I want it.
Yes I've heard of the notorious gum tree chrysals and splintering. The stats seem good like you mentioned but maybe not elastic enough to make a good bow unless comically long or wide. Environmental factors may play a role in the trees individuality and with Australia's climate the unpredictability may come from additional adaptations for the individual tree to survive? Just a theory off the top of my head but it may account for the extreme variation even between the same species.
Packing it out would be interesting, me and my brother usually just cut and split it where it is and leapfrog the staves to certain points until their all at an easy location to pick up in a 4x4. Luckily Black Maire does split well with wedges unless you've got a wavy grained one then its a pain.