Primitive Bow

[caliban]

Hi! This is my latest (fourth I think) bow. It's made out of Goat Willow as a practice bow for an Ash bow I'm planning to make, but it came out quite good. Mid forties at 26inches, man high, good shooter. Just beeswaxed and oiled.

 

[Ph34r]

Oh, go on. You know it's your fourth bow! You are just trying to bask in the glory of making such a good bow.

It looks great mate, did you make it from a staff or did you use fresh wood?

 

[Ex Member - Sidney Bounty]

Very nice looks like the way I have made my first one too but it ended up twisting bad guess it was not quite dry enough yet...

 

[Outdoor_Guy]

I have founda few useful links on the net to building your first bow and am keen to start making my first. Yours looks fantastic how long did the project take?

 

[bushcraftbob]

wow that is awesome - cant believe its only your forth!!!

 

[dwardo]

Thats a fine looking bow

 

[Trev]

Now that is nice , nice isn't enough . awesome truly .

 

[caliban]

Thanks a lot guys! All my bows are sapling bows, or branch/limb bows in this case.

Guy, once your sapling stave is dry, it doesn't take that long to make it into a bow. I rough out the belly with an Old Hick butchers knife, then narrow the handle with the knife, and then use a big plane to take the limbs down more. After that I switch between a small surform and a rasp. When it looks pretty much like a bow I cut my nocks and get it bending enough for a long string. Once the longstring is on I work it out to to full draw with a card scraper. I use the world's worst tiller stick and reflection in my patio doors to see where it's bending and not bending, mark the stiff areas with pencil hatches and then scrape the hatches off with the card. Takes about a week to turn the stave into a bow I suppose, doing it a bit at a time. For technical information you'd be better asking Dwardo.

Dwardo, thanks mate!

 

[stovie]

Thats gota nice tiller. Must say I'm impressed you got 40# out of it. Willow not what you call top notch bow wood. That said, keep it wide and long and its surprising what you can do...

 

[caliban]

Cheers Stovie! I didn't know it was willow when I cut it, but I thought I'd have a go anyway. I'm coming to realise that there is no such thing as making a bow, there are only rehearsals for "the bow".