Bows And Other Archery Gear I've Made

[Robbo]

Hi I'd just like to share some details of the first bows I've built.

The first is a bamboo laminated bow I built earlier this year. It was my first attempt at making a bow.

The bow has two thin slats of Bamboo laminated together, the inner surfaces of the bamboo being planed flat and glued a section of oak was glued in place between the laminates as a handle, I use'd smaller pieces of oak as the tip onlays.

(I'm the rough looking scotsman in the photo )

The bow turned out ok, its only pulling 23.6 lbs at 28" and its bending slightly too much at the fades.
The jute wrapping at the fades is due to the glue failing at that point, I'd used Humbrol extramite glue but my clamping was inadequate and the glue line was too thick, I rectified it by squeezing in some epoxy resin and reclamping it shut, then wrapping it as shown. Its not perfect but it only cost me £4 to make it.


My 2nd bow is another bamboo laminated bow, the riser made from 5 pieces
of wood, (3 pieces of mahogany, 1 piece teak and 12 piece beech), it has
a formed grip and a cut-out arrowshelf.

After the first bow having too much bend just out of the fades. I increased the length of the taper into the fades and tried a formed grip for my second bowmaking effort.

Below are images of the bow unstrung, braced, and full draw.

The bow is 70" long, 1.5" wide until mid-limb and pulls around 25-27 lbs at
28 inches and has taken 1" of set after tillering.

My thoughts on this bow are that while transition from the fades into the
working part of the limb is more gradual, the areas just out of the fades
are still too thick and aren't bending enough and so the bow has taken set
mid limb where the thickness taper ends. in future I'd make the taper even
more gradual thinning the handle to paper thickness for a few inches here.

I think the top limb is weaker with about an 1" of positive tiller
showing in the braced pic so before finishing up the bow I'll add a cord wrap
to the upper mid limb area to try and correct the excessive positive tiller.

Also I'll try to source thicker walled bamboo from larger diameter pieces,
since I've been using 1.5" wide 1/4" thick slats of bamboo I picked up at my
local garden centre for £2 each, they may have been too thin to get higher
draw weight limbs out of.


My 3rd bow is my first wooden bow and is a flat bellied long bow based on the type of bow used by the native indians in the eastern woodlands of America (yes I've been reading The Bowyers Bibles series of books ), the bow is a fully working bend in the handle design.

The wood is an as yet unidentified hardwood with about 50/50 split between
early and late yearly growth. I'll post a close up pic of the wood soon and hopefully someone will tell me what it is.

I got it from a board I salveged from an old built-in shelf unit that was
being dismantled. The grain ran off badly so I applied a raw silk fabric backing.
I used Franklins titebond 3 to glue on the silk as its waterproof.
The bow has glued on tip onlays of the same wood with a double nock for stringing the bow.

The bow is 72" long and pulls 31 lbs at 28inches and has taken around 2.5" of
set after tillering.

My thoughts on this bow are that its taken some very set in the handle and it
appears to bend slightly too much mid-limb, this is most likley due to my lack
of experience tillering.

I'd appreciate any comments and advice on the bows. Someday I'll managed to make a bow that pulls over 40lbs

Lastly this is the quiver I made, Its just a plastic tube I tapered then covered with some thin upholstery leather, I used an old belt for the strap.

I'll try and get some pictures of the shooting glove and arm guards I've made posted soon too

Thanks

Andy

 

[twelveboar]

Very nice work, I'm about to start down this path and try a bit of bow making, so it's nice to see someone else's early efforts. You've set a high standard to aim for.

 

[Rob]

Looks like you have been busy - nice work

I think that you are reading the bows correctly, but I am not as experienced as some of the people on here when it comes to making bows.

 

[shadow57]

Hello Robbo....I am impressed with your work How do they perform?

Looking at your 1st bow ....it seems you have jumped straight into the more advanced styles of bows which is normally difficult to get right...I am amazed.

I look forward to seeing more of your work and details about their performance.

Yew Bows are on your list of things to make... I hope

good stuff mate

John (fellow jock from Edinburgh area)

 

[wolf]

very impressed...

 

[RovingArcher]

Very nice for your first go at bow making. If they fling an arrow without breaking, you were successful.

You may find that bamboo alone, no matter how many laminations or the thickness of material, will often take a set very quickly. Try adding a lamination or two of Osage, or another good bow wood to the face of the bow. It will add considerably more life to your work.

 

[Robbo]

Just to say I've edited my original post to include the image of my quiver which for some reason (I forgot!! ) didn't appear .

Shadow 57: my first bow looks deceptive, it's too weak either side of the handle and as a result has taken a permanent bend there, giving the bow a reflex-deflex shape, initially, just after the bow was glued up, the tips of the bow were reflexed about 3-4 inches in front of the handle. The bows actually taken about 5 inches of string follow.

The Bamboo bows are actually quite simple to make, you heat temper the strip to be the belly, I used a heat gun, until it goes a light chocolate brown (darker may be better, the heat causes the resins present within the bamboo to solidify increasing its resistance to compression).

Then plane the slats flat on the inside surface (don't plane it then temper it like I did the first time, the tempering causes the flat surface to swell from flat to convex which means you have to sand it flat again).

The bamboo slats should be of equal thickness.

Then its a matter of gluing the handle section to the bamboo slats thats going to be the back of the bow and once thats set and shaped glue the belly slat of tempered bamboo in place. I used a form made from some 2x4 and an section of floorboard with clamps made from wooden battens and threaded bar and nuts.

If the bow has any large curves in its shape its worth pre-bending these as the sharp curves at the fades are what caused my glue to fail here. On my second bow if you look closely at the pictures the belly of the bow is made from two strips of bamboo either side of the handle. I bent the curves on the belly strips, when they were one piece of bamboo then I cut them in the middle of the bend and glued them in place.

I used a heat gun to heat up the bamboo, making it quite flexable, before bending it over my knee (protected with a towel)

Once the bows glued up and the limbs has been planed to shape its just a case of getting the limbs to bend evenly along their length as with wooden bows, with one exception; since bamboo is much stronger in tension than in compression all the material removed when tillering the bow is removed from the back of the bow - reducing its tensile strength, I used a wallpaper scraper with replacable stanley blades, held at 90 degrees to the bamboo to scrap off thin strips of bamboo.

Apparently if you get the thickness taper right when planing the bamboo slats flat then alot of the work tillering the bow is done before glueing it all up.

There was a nice article on the www.primitivearcher.com detailing the construction of all bamboo laminate bows. but it sems to have been removed. If anyones interested, I think I have the text of the article saved as a text file somewhere.

I've also read that some people have had good results using two sections of bamboo flooring spliced at the handle for the belly of a bow, witha piece of raw bamboo as the back.

Andy

 

[stovie]

Very good, Andy.

Particularly interested in the laminate bamboo design, as I have been considering this...but using an alternative fill, such as Ash. Though having sourced my Ash stave, I'm going to have a go at a self bow....

I've just received 50 X 8ft 16-18mm Tonkin canes to produce bows in the new year (lashed and laquered). They don't have the "finished" look of yours, but with 4 canes they pull around 25-30lbs, and if you use 5 canes you can get a draw weight of 40+lbs.

I use B S Bamboo who have a good stock and deliver in two days.

Thanks for sharing your work

 

[Grooveski]

Originaly Posted by Stovie
I use B S Bamboo who have a good stock and deliver in two days.

They also do whopping great diameters that look great for backing(but the price goes through the roof when you work through the checkout ).

I think I've got that PA article saved with the piccies at home, I'll e-mail it over.

Originaly Posted by Robbo
Someday I'll managed to make a bow that pulls over 40lbs

You're supposed to say you made it for your wife and it came out bang on the target weight.

 

[stovie]

They also do whopping great diameters that look great for backing(but the price goes through the roof when you work through the checkout ).

Grooveski, I phoned and sweet-talked the young lady on the other end, and got quite a bargain in the end (they normally charge extra for small orders)

 

[Grooveski]

Yup, that's what done the damage. I just laughed at the total and shut the page down.

Cheers for the advice . To be honest even with the small-order charge it's still cheaper than a bunch of hickory backing strips would be(or a bucketload of sinew).

 

[Damascus]

I have been making bows for myself and for sale for a number of years and you have certainly started with a difficult wood, try some hickory its a wonderful wood to use and cuts easy to shape with edged tools. A good design is the old English long bow and try to achieve when you draw the bow a nice "D" shape which is about the shape of Bow 3. You will have disapointments, you have spent all that time making it and there is a weakness in the wood and it breaks!!!! (Its happened to me several times) A tip here when tillering the bow, do it slowly an inch at a time till you get the draw you require and trim the wood as you go along, this will help you get that "D" you are after.

Hope this of some help