Ash Bow Advice- Who is our resident guru on bowmaking?

[Treeclipper]

Hi all,

Been a while since I 've been on the forums, been spending more time carving than being on the net .

I've been making a white ash flatbow 68" , my 1st try of a serious bow(made a hazel bow for my daughter but nothing like the one I'm doing now).

I've got the bow to the basic shape after drying/seasoning the billet for a couple of years. I'm now getting to the scary bit of getting the limbs to the right thickness and to start tillering it.

I really need some advice as I don't want to muck it up at this stage, can any of you help or point me to someone I can ask questions(not to many stupid ones I hope), I have looked about on the web for guides and things ,but feel I would be better chatting with someone with experience.

I'll post a couple of pics when I get home to let you all see how far I 've got.

cheers

Andy

 

[Ahjno]

You might want to have a word with Stovie. He made some bows in the past, and I think he still does. Isn't much online these days. A PM will do I reckon

 

[Treeclipper]

I was going to upload 2 pictures but can't for some reason, error says undefined when i try to upload .

will keep trying

 

[udamiano]

Hi Treeclipper,


On of the best resources I've found on bow-making is the "Traditional Bow makers Bible"

ISDN 1-58574-085-3

 

[udamiano]

Volume two concentrates on flat bows, but vol 1 has some patterns in it

 

[dwardo]

Lets have a look at some photos so we can see where your upto. I use photobucket and never have a problem.

 

[Treeclipper]

hope this works:


I have some pdf versions of the bowyers guides, but I find it easier to learn from someone than from reading, just how I am


edit: looks like I'll have to try an resize them

edit 2 : there you go

 

[dwardo]

Its pretty hard to see from the pictures, could do with being a little bigger, say 800x600.
It would also be handy to have some measurements and also what weight your shooting for and at what draw length.

Pictures shot down one limb at a time showing the grain would show us a lot.

 

[Treeclipper]

Hi Dwardo,
I'll take some more pictures when I get home, the bow is 68 " in length, top,33" - handle,4" - lower 31" with centre line at 34" , tips at moment are 1/2" across with just under 1/2" thickness( need to get this to 3/8" thickness).
not sure what poundage I want but my draw is 28" to 29". Is this any help, what else would you need?

 

[dwardo]

Cool stuff, that should be long enough for your draw length, usualy its draw length X2 + handle length (if stiff handle not a none bending handle).
Once i rough out a bow shape i then find the thinnest part of the stave in thickness and width and make that my minimum set width and depth. What i mean is there is no point in having all of both limbs a nice even thickness/taper only to have it let down by one tiny part of the limb. You should only be using at most a rasp and better a cabinet scraper. Cab scrapers cost next to nawt and are a great tool, think mine was about a fiver new.

Once your nice and even with all of the heavier tool marks removed you need to get it floor tillered. Floor tillering is basicaly one end of the bow on the floor, your left hand at the top whilst your right pushes the handle to see how much flex the bow has. This comes with experience but you get the idea, you want each limb flexing a few inches at least, nice and easy across the whole limb. Once this is done get some nocks filed in and give us an update. If you have any other questions just fire away.

Constantly have in your mind gradual width AND thickness taper. Best to leave the bow the same width (say 2 inch to start) off the fades out to atleast midlimb and taper then to half inch (for now nocks)

 

[Dave]

This is an excellent link. The Back Street Bowyers Guide.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:lzMJODKLhDQJ:www.alanesq.com/longbow/bsb/The-Back-Street-Bowyer-262.pdf+bowyer+cost+re+tiller+longbow&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiupY_7CnKF4jbGXv7e5rMQhUHNsuFD3aTpBcWBNG-ZXj9smZop7lKuuRrlslGsJZIFEq_2sBpKeW04abWCQ00tqn488Km6jE0Zj6RHwR8qViXrDJ9qAQ6PUVN__RV0rR3713yM&sig=AHIEtbSf0YVtxQc0BmNb20u-RW60ER8kJQ

 

[Treeclipper]

I've resized these 2 photo's, I didn't have time last night to take more, but will try over the next couple of days to let you see my progress.

Dwardo, I have 2 stanley rasps small(single hand) and large(both hand), various drawknifes and carving knifes, a set of scrapers & a couple of wood files and sandpaper.I don't really like to use power tools so would probably mess it up if I used a belt sander on it. I orginally roughed out the shape with my uncles band saw but everything else has been muscle power , I did feel guilty about it honest lol. Didn't realise how long it would take to remove all the wood, when you've only got a couple of hours a week to do it.

I think I 've got a little left to take of each limb now , just enough to even out each side of each limb. It has a couple of inch flex when i try to floor tiller it.
I left it alone tonight , as I had to make myself a tillering tree/stick. So hopefully get a try tomorrow night .

I think I'm really just needing reassurance with this as it's my 1st real bow & I'm terrified of ruining it .


edit: I really need to get some better pictures as these ones arent very good, will get on it

 

[Treeclipper]

Dave,
Thanks for the link, I'll have a look later.

Cheers

 

[dwardo]

Good to hear
I too prefer hand tools when i can, pretty much every bow i make is hand tools after the chainsaw has taken it down. Even then i mostly take small diameter stuff with a handsaw so a chainsaw isnt needed. To be honest i can always do with the extra calorie expendature as the waist line is on the move.....
Is the back of the bow from right under the bark? Also what was the diameter of the tree you took it from?
All looks cool from what i can see and if any of this is sucking eggs stuff just tell me to go lie down fer a bit.

 

[Treeclipper]

Hi , I wasn't lucky enough to get a stave straight from the tree, I had to order a white ash stave from the net, as our local woodshops didn't have anything worth using and I wouldn't know what to look for in a natural one and don't want to cut anything down that I don't have too.
Once I recieved the stave, I read as much as possible as how the grain should lie before I made any cuts. It wasn't the greatest stave but it'll have to do .

 

[dwardo]

Is the grain nice and straight through the bow? as in no runoffs and no gain/anual ring violation?
If there is any of the above it may be best to back it now before pulling it on a tree. Talking of tree if you can make a simple pulley and scale tree it would do your bow making no end of good.

 

[Treeclipper]

grain seems to be staight all through the bow, not sure what you mean by "as in no runoffs and no gain/anual ring violation" .

I really need to take some good pics, tried last night again , but can't seem to get any detail (lol never been the best at taking photo's , the wife got me a 350d a couple of years ago and I still can't use it ).

also never thought of having to back it, what would i use , fiberglass or something similar, was hoping I could just have it as is?

 

[Treeclipper]

I made myself a tree last night, leather pad ontop to protect bow and marked and drilled/notched a scale from 6" to 30 " to hook the string into, it will fit into woodvice in shed to keep it steady, never thought of a pulley, I could still add this and a footing plate so it can free stand.

on that note, I also need to make myself a string to use to tiller it, I take it any non-stretchy string or cord. I have plenty plastic coated washing line. <- would this work?

 

[dwardo]

The back of the bow should idealy be one complete growth ring so no violations through that one layer into the next. The other end of the scale is quater sawn stuff where the back of the bow is the ends of the anual rings. If you can see lots of layers or anual rings showing on the back of the bow then you would probably have problems without a backing. A cheap and easy backing is silk, its easy to apply and will help to keep a splinter lifting. You basicaly grab some silk from a textile place, cut to length glue onto the back of the bow with thinned woodglue (tightbond is good but have used pva) smooth out the bubbles let dry and trim. Adds a whole load of protection for next to no weight, pic below shows the black silk backing, almost looks like paint.
For the tiller string i have used allsorts but these days i tend to use an old bow string. In regards to the tiller tree i would definately go with the pulley system. Its easier to exercise the bow between wood removal sessions, its easier to see the limbs moving to full draw and the bow spends less time at full draw reducing set.

 

[Treeclipper]

I got myself a pulley on the way home from work, will fit a base to the tree and add it tonight. I was thinking about the backing as I can see lines all the way down the back of bow . I just cut the bow the way the guy had penciled on back and belly. Checked the linen cupboard & no silk sheets in there, the missus would have killed me anyway . I'm sure I have a french parachute in the attic , can't remember if it's silk or ripstop, I'll check, will it matter if it's ripstop, could I use that?