First hazel bow (in progress!)

[bushcraftbob]

I have just started to make my very first bow. I am going by tutorials I have seen posted on the internet and youtube vids i have seen.

I am not really expecting it to turn out that great to be honest, but looking at it as just getting some practise in. I came across some nice ash saplings earlier, when I have made a few hazel bows i am going to have a crack at ash. There is also a fair amount of elm in my local wood (unsure if its 'wych elm' or not. Does ordinary elm make good bows??

Roughed out shape:

Cross section of the bow:

I am just waiting for the stave to season a bit more and then i will carry on with the rest. Please feel free to give me some pointers!

cheers

BB

 

[Ph34r]

Never made a bow myself, am a bit of a compound man, but I will be interested to see the final result.

 

[Radix lecti]

Thats a project i have been thinking about BB,good luck with yours it will be good to see the end result.
Darren

 

[badgeringtim]

For all those interested in bow making i cant recomend enough the introduction to making that is run by the bushcraft magazine right here - i know they are probably booked out for the rest of this year, but was great to have a little guidance - more akin to a workshop.

Its only a day but will give some very good pointers - and at a very reasonable price. Id happily do it again infact - and made a sensible bow in the woods last weekend - not 100% finished but enough to be a shooter - need to start on the arrows now and work out the poundage.

One of the 'tips' i found was that to make a stave from limbs or felled wood - you do need a surprisigly large diameter stem ( i know you 'can' do it with small but what with twists and shrinkage cracks without really quite a lot of knowlage and experiance are likely to be disapointed).

Oh and Ash is very forgiving in relation to not being not one growth ring along the outer of the bow.

Im sure the above doesnt always hold true but as with everything if you give yourslf the best chance when learning you stand more chance of keeping on with it and getting the experience to know when to do what.
I believe All elm is good as well.

 

[caliban]

Hi BB!

Looking good mate. I've only made a few bows (Dwardo and Stovie are resident experts) but every bow I've made takes shape like that. My bows have all been either Ash or Goat Willow (not the best the GW). I'd love to have a go at Hazel but my tree ID skills need honed first. I've heard that Hazel crysals very easilly during tillering, but, you've not to worry about it too much 'cos it's one of the few woods that will hold up despite the crysals.

My advice would be not to be shy about chopping out the handle area, I was surprised that only a little bit more thickness balances out any narrowing in the handle area. I'd let it bend a bit in the handle because it'll make it easier to get the limbs bending equally. It does for me anyway. The most common mistake with me was tillering the bow too light, that's because you tend to go from limb to limb overtillering the stiff one and then having to tiller the one that was bending right. If it comes in light, now I just saw a couple of inches off the tips and fine tune the tiller to raise the weight.

I like Ash, it has its detractors but I think it's a fine bow wood. Elm is apparently one of the worlds great bow woods, I'd grab it if you can. Sycamore is supposed to make great bows in the 50lb and below region.

You've definately got a bow there, looks like a great stave. Looking forward to seeing it finished up

 

[bushcraftbob]

Cheers guys, i did a bit more on it tonight, just gradually taking wood off with the axe. The stave has started to flex a bit, but is still a lot stiffer than i thought it would be!! I am going to have another hour or so on it tmo and will post another piccy

 

[Gill]

Cabinet scrapers are great for taking wood off .

 

[badgeringtim]

It seems from the little play that i have had that spoke shaves and small planes are good too, with scraper to finish.
If it is still green id not make it smaller then 1 1/4" then let it dry fully before doing anything else.
If its green a draw knife would be a good tool for shaping too.

 

[bushcraftbob]

How green is green? I cut it about one month ago and let it stand for a fortnight or so in my house with the bark off. I roughed out the basic shape as shown above about a week ago. It feels very light now. Anyway i had another half hour with the axe tonight. It is flexing a tiny bit now, but i have noticed that one of the limbs has started to twist slightly, an indicator that noot seasoned enough??? Pic to follow in a few mins...

 

[bushcraftbob]

You can see the twist in the one above. I have started to take some wood off the handle area. Should i make the limbs much narrower?

cheers

 

[Ex Member - Sidney Bounty]

my very first self bow twisted on me

looks like a good start and you cant stop with just one.....

 

[dwardo]

Dont worry too much about the twist at the minute you can deal with it later on if its still even there by the tmie you have removed more wood
Leave the MAXIMUM amount of width you can on the limbs, especially from near the handle out to 1/2 - 3/4 the way up the limb to the tips. Try to get a nice even thickness throughout the whole length of the limbs. Pick the most shallow point of thickness you have at the moment and chase that out on both limbs, say about 3/4 inch thick to start. Once you have removed all the tool marks from the belly and got a nice overall thichness you can start to floor tiller and scrape. It only takes 1 wrong blow from the axe or accidentally digging in with the heal of the axe to ruin your stave.

I was only recently bought a proper scraper for my birthday but for years i was just using a big old knife as a scraper.

Just remember to go slow and have fun.

 

[badgeringtim]

Ah words from one that knows propperly!
While dwardo doesnt mention the seasoning/drying - i would think that it is likely that a tree taken down around now would take at least a couple of months to dry out and that the twists are likely to be part of that process, the more you take off now the less spare you have to shape it out later surely..
i would strap it heavily to something straight for another few weeks to make sure. I dont know about you but i find it hard to get the wood so you dont want to be too keen.
As to Dwardos last comment - yess i ahda a hack with a spke shave on the weekend and realise that the bow will work but will never be pritty as i have been a little too keen in some locations!

I know scrapers are good and have one on order, but i wanted to ask why bows never seem to be sanded - is it just that they shouldnt have to be with the scraper or a more bowish reason?

 

[Outdoor_Guy]

It looks like it's taking shape! Im starting my first one and it's great to see the progress on yours!

 

[bushcraftbob]

Help! I've got to a stage on the bow now where i dont really know what to do next! I've got the stave bending fairly well, but still cant pull it far enough back to full draw, and the bow is getting very thin! Is it just a case of carrying on gradually removing wood so it can be fully drawn and pray it doesnt break?

Average thickness:

Excuse my quickly knocked up tillering stick...

I've kept the limbs quite wide as recommended by a couple of people, should they be tapered a bit more than this or should i leave them alone?:

 

[dwardo]

Its a good start and its still in one piece so good stuff
The thing is at the moment you are asking very little bits of the wood to do all of the bending. Look for straight lines in the limbs of the bow -- these are parts of the limbs that are free-loading on all the bending bits,, and why should they!!
The bending seems to be concentrated on the middle of the bow as opposed to gently spread all over the limb. Let it dry a little more and whilst its drying you can concentrate on getting the limbs down to nice even thickness and taper. If you pull a bow to full draw before its ready it will crstal and fail. Bit at a time and keep the tiller smooth and even and never pull past your intended draw weight at any stage of tillering. It usually takes me more time to get a bow to the string than it does to tiller and finish it.

Here is one that has seen a brace and one that i have no idea about but its floor tillered.

I should be getting the cradle ready

 

[bushcraftbob]

cheers for the pointers Dwardo i will let it dry another week or so, give me some time to get an arrow made!

 

[caliban]

BB, It's looking good. You don't keep it full width for it's full length. If you slowly taper down the sides from mid limb to about half the width at the tips you'll get more of the bow working and take the strain off of the handle area. If you post these pics on paleoplanet primitive archery section someone will probably draw red circles on it to indicate where you should remove wood.

 

[bushcraftbob]

cheers caliban i will do that, will have another hour or two to spare at the wkd (hopefully) and will narrow the limbs down.

 

[bushcraftbob]

Well i think I have finished the bow to what my knowledge and experience will allow. I have narrowed off the limbs and tried to make the bow bend as evenly as i could. I have sanded the bow and oiled it with nut oil (thought this would be nice as its effectively a nut stick!).

I bought some arrows off the internet and have had a few shots with it up the farm. Unfortunately i am still using paracord as a string, i did buy a string off the internet but it was for a recurved bow apparently and a tad too short! Anyone know the best string type to buy for a primitive bow?

I was fairly pleased with the shooting, when shooting up in the air it easily sent the arrow over 100 yards, and in to a head wind aswell. But when shooting horizontally at hay bales i was a tad disappointed with the power.

Heres a couple more pics:

You can see on the pic below that the limbs are a bit twisted.

I can safely say i have been bitten by the bow making bug, and making and shooting this has given me more satisfaction than even learning things like the bowdrill. I cant wait for winter to come, i am going to cut some nice staves and season them properly and try and make a good shooter with a decent bit of power!