Diary of a bow being made.

[Nagual]

Dear Diary,

Today I cut down a small Ash tree as it looked straight enough to use in bow making. Got an axe and a wee saw and off I went.

Whackity Whackity Whack went the axe and down came the tree. After a brief period of inspecting the tree (or as some may say, getting my breath back) I set about getting the tree into manageable bits, so I could carry them. Whackity Whackity Snap went the axe handle. Oops. Not my axe either.. double oops. Bivibabe not impressed with her 2 piece axe, this brings my total to an impressive : 1 splitter maul, 1 chopping axe, 1 kindling axe and a blender. Right, in my defense, the axes were old and damp, and probably suffering from rot of some kind - well except the fibreglass splitter but it was obviously faulty.. But I digress.

Got the bit of ash back to the house, took the bark off and split it into, what was meant to be 4 pieces, but turned out to be 3. I've tried to take some wood off the smaller piece, but the axe just isn't sharp enough to do the job, many of my blows are simply bouncing off.

Not really much to see at this point, I will hopefully get a sharper axe somehow and take a little more off them soon, then allow them to dry out. I will wrap the ends of them with something to try and stop the ends splitting ( as someone mentioned else where )

This one has lovely grain, it's a shame it didn't split as I hoped, but hey ho. You can see where I've tried to trim some wood away.

Anyway, I'll update this as I go, as I remember too
Feel free to point out things to me no matter how obvious it may seem to you, as this is my first attempt at bow making and don't really have a scoobie do.

 

[spamel]

Don't leave woodchips on the floor. Women hate it. Don't ask me how I know that!

 

[Cromm]

I love ash wood for bows. Are you thinking of making a longbow or a flatbow??
The ash shouldn't take to long to dry out just seal the ends with wax and you should be safe.

 

[dwardo]

Keep us posted

I like ash a lot for bows although elm is my favourite at the min.

I use a quick smear of pva glue for sealing the ends. It may be worth working one of the staves down to VERY rough bow dimensions whilst still green, plus it will season a lot quicker. The less mass the less time it takes to dry

They look a bit short but the pictures may be missleading

Good luck

 

[Nagual]

Dear diary,

This is a little late being written. due to evil weather causing problem with satellite connections. However here we go. Decided to trim as much as I could off while still a bit green. The Ash itself is very very dry already, very light and has wonderful grain and colouring. Whats below is a few pics of the tools used and stuff, nothing really exciting.

Found using the spoke shave to be quite fun, and certainly a lot better than the kruddy block plain I bought recently.

Spoke shave

tools

close up

grain

 

[Bushcraftsman]

look forward to seeing the finished thing!

 

[Nagual]

Dear diary,

I think this is becoming a lesson in what not to do! As to be expected really I suppose. Trimming down continued however I feel now that I've taken too much off and will have the pulling power of a damp squid. Should work out fine - that means bivibabe should be able to use it..

Made a tillering stick today and have used it, very interesting to see the way it bends, or in some places doesn't. One arm has a nasty ol' hinge in it the other isn't too bad. Now I need to learn how to fix that. Of course a rasp of some sort would be easier than using the spoke shaves at this point, probably. That and my wood working skills haven't really been put to the test since 5th year .. and that was many many moons ago.

 

[Bushcraftsman]

just out of interest what do you use for thebow string?I've been trying to make one and my string keeps snapping :twak:

 

[dwardo]

Sorry but the hinge is a gonner

I read a quote from a guy once who said,

"The quicker you make it look like a bow the quicker it will act like one"

I find its better to get all the tool marks out early on and concentrate more on floor tillering way before it gets string. Then Use a long string for early tillering until low brace height. The wood still looks a little green due to the fact its hinged and not broke so maybe rough out a bow leaving it full width to the tips and give it a few weeks in a spare bedroom.
If you aint breakin them you aint making them. Keep going !

 

[caliban]

That was looking good, don't stop. I bet even the experienced bowyers have a few blowouts. I like your tillering stick BTW. Good luck with the next one.

 

[badgeringtim]

When tillering from which side do you remove the excess, the front (ie facing the target) or the rear?

 

[dwardo]

When tillering from which side do you remove the excess, the front (ie facing the target) or the rear?

The belly, which is the side facing the archer when you are drawing the bow. The exception is when chasing a ring on the back of the bow but this isnt usualy for a white wood bow unless there is damage to the back.

 

[caliban]

http://www.primitivearcher.com/articles/simpledbow.html

This is a good article about the American Indian bow. Sounds like the easiest bow to make successfully. My first attempt exploded. I was trying to make a bow that looked like Dwardo's Elm bow. I did everything wrong. Didn't fully season the wood (four days indoors), made the bow too short, floor tillered when the stave was still green (permanent bend), made it rock solid stiff in the handle and fades, maybe used a difficult wood (Rowan), tried for too much poundage on a first attempt. Bow limb splintered with an impressive crack whilst I was overbending it on the floor. Still kind of enjoyed having a go funnily enough.

 

[Nagual]

Dear Diary,

It's been a little over 3 months since my last confession, erm I mean entry. Rest assured that while I may appear to have been idle, I've actually been waiting on the other bits of wood to dry out a tad. So will check on them shortly and see about beginning another excursion into bow making..

Cheers,

 

[lamper]

dear diary,

it's been a little over 3 months since my last confession, erm i mean entry. Rest assured that while i may appear to have been idle, i've actually been waiting on the other bits of wood to dry out a tad. So will check on them shortly and see about beginning another excursion into bow making..

Cheers,

hahaha lol!

Yeah, GET ON WITH IT!!

 

[zora]

if the bow is too weak for you, you could try backing it with sinew. that will add strenght too it. heat treatment on belly might also help

 

[stovie]

Dear Diary,

It's been a little over 3 months since my last confession, erm I mean entry. Rest assured that while I may appear to have been idle, I've actually been waiting on the other bits of wood to dry out a tad. So will check on them shortly and see about beginning another excursion into bow making..

Cheers,

Just a thought Nagual...Now is a good time of year to cut a new stave...