Bow Question

[caliban]

Hi! I impulse bought one of these horsebows last year and am having great fun shooting milk cartons in my back garden. I'd like to maybe try to make a bow.

It seems that most people who make their own bows do it because they want to replicate primitive style bows. There's a guy called Malc (Johnjayrambo1111) on Ytube that has some excellent tutorials, and there is the master from Paleo as well. They make cool bows from staves.

I'm wondering if you can make a working bow from thin slats/veneer and strips of fibreglass, glue, fabric,stuff you can find in B&Q? I'm thinking cheap and simple if you didn't get my drift.

PS. When I try to put a smiley in my post, why does it always come up at the title?

 

[deenewcastle]

PS. When I try to put a smiley in my post, why does it always come up at the title?

You need to select the 'advanced' reply

 

[dwardo]

I would start with a wooden bow rather that composits etc.
Its easy enough too find material if you tread quietly armed with a pruning saw. You can get away with a sapling around 2" diameter off ash, cherry, most prunus types, oak, hickory, hazel and many more. You can cut, rough out, leave to dry for a week or so indoors then tiller!

 

[C_Claycomb]

I would tend to want to leave the fibreglass alone, just because it isn't nice to work with. Not sure what kind of think stuff you can buy from B&Q. You certainly can build up a wood laminate bow, and it can take a lot of guess work out of choosing a tree, but you have to be a little more picky about the material.

If you are using thin slats, and tillering is difficult in the usual way by reducing thickness, you can get the right shape by making a pyramid bow, tapering the width and just using thickness to control strength.

When I started out I bought a good timber yard board of hickory (it was a specialist yard, but cherry or hard maple or ash would all work and are all more widely available) I had it bandsawn and run through a thicknesser and made up my own slats. Some quite thin, about 1/8th and others closer to 1/2" That way you get more bow for your wood, much less goes as shavings, so you can practice the hard parts of the build, the tillering, rather than spend hours on bulk wood removal.

Backing with linen cloth soaked in PVA glue can make borderline timber work acceptably.

 

[caliban]

Thank you very much guys, most helpful. I was thinking of a "pyramid bow" but I didn't know what it was called, or if indeed they even existed. I don't like the idea of fibreglass really it just seemed like a way to ensure that I didn't end up with an exploding bow. I don't know anything about archery and I'm scared of what might happen when an ineptly made bow snaps. I might try the sapling thing and back it with linen.

Thanks again.

Thanks Deenewcastle,......oops! Done it again!

 

[dwardo]

Thank you very much guys, most helpful. I was thinking of a "pyramid bow" but I didn't know what it was called, or if indeed they even existed. I don't like the idea of fibreglass really it just seemed like a way to ensure that I didn't end up with an exploding bow. I don't know anything about archery and I'm scared of what might happen when an ineptly made bow snaps. I might try the sapling thing and back it with linen.

Thanks again.

Thanks Deenewcastle,......oops! Done it again!

I dont want to tempt fate but most white wood bows especially elm with tend to let you know before it blows. I have made over 20 or so bows and the few that failed creased and collapsed as opposed to exploded. The yew bow i made a while back broke whilst trying to string it (my own fault).

 

[caliban]

Thanks Dwardo. I'll be looking for a nice straight limb this weekend, probably have a go and back it with linen and PVA. Shouldn't be too dangerous pulling the weight I can manage.