Some advice at what I planned to be my future longbow

[grey-array]

Dear fella's and maidens, and especially dwardo,

Some while ago I asked dwardo about some advice about a bow I was making from maple, that had a slight twist in it,
Ofcourse as ever helpfull as the man, is he told me sure get us some pictures, my project was still lying in the woods so had to come back later with pictures and did not want to hijack the wonderfull bowstave/tillering thread so here it is.

The bowstave is made from European Maple and measures about 8 feet long at the moment this so I would have to big of a problem might the end split

It has about a 6th of a twist over the length of 8 feet,
Will this be a problem or is this nothing to worry about, or do I need to adjust something in my methods with such a piece of wood?
I humbly ask for your advice dear bowyers,
Yours sincerely Ruud

 

[dwardo]

Hi Ruud,

The stave does look a little narrow, how wide is it?
Also have you just debarked the back of the stave leaving a nice clean back?
When you say European maple you dont by any chance happen to have its latin name do you? The reason i ask is there are a lot of maples some great some not great at all when it comes to bow-making.
If you have a nice clean back you want to get the stave thickness down to about 3/4 - 1 inch thick and leave as much width as you can.
The twist isnt too bad but its hard to see due to the thickness. Removing twist isnt too hard but you will need a good heat source and something to clamp it too. You can leave the twist in but this makes tillering far harder.

 

[grey-array]

Hey Dwardo

latin name of the wood would be Acer pseudoplatanus if I am not mistaken ( and usually wood is my thing so pretty sure I'm accurate there).

I reckon the stave to be about 15 cm's wide on the ends and at the thinnest bit in the center about 6 or 7 cm, in Imperial scaling that would be erm...
6 inches on the widest and about 3 on the thinnest parts, and I didnt leave the back completely untreated , as I stripped off the bark but also the most outer ring of the wood, but kept it nice and level to the grain, yet still needs some touch ups, thinking about it now, it might not have been the smartest idea as it is a lot of extra work ^^, and the thickness is at least 2.5 inches everywhere.

And would a campfire do the job in order of a heat source or is the heat to uneven?
And do I understand correctly that I will need to find myself some sort of jig to clamp it to, and then counter twist it while just having heated it, or should I apply the heat while it is already mounted on the jig?
And I am looking to create a bow between the 30 to 50 pounds but we will see where we will end up we are still in the practice runs ^^
Thanks for showing me the ropes by the way really appreciated

Yours sincerely Ruud

 

[dwardo]

Was hoping you were going to say any other of the acers rather than pseudoplatanus
I have tried twice to make a bow from what we call sycamore and both failed way early in the process and that was with a perfectly clean back. I would never say you cant make a bow from any wood but it would certainly not be my first choice, or even my 7th or 8th to be honest mate.
I found it very weak in tension so mixed with your current back situation you would probably be best atleast backing it.
Personally i would try to find either some ash, elm (any sp), hazel, cherry even goat willow will be more forgiving than sycamore.
By all means give it a go bud but given you are starting with a tension weak wood, not a clean back, prop twist and no bench/clamps/controllable heat source you are giving your self a lot of work.

When looking for wood try to find a nice clean sapling, anything over 2 inches will do. If you go for big heavy stuff you have to do a load of work just to get to stave dimensions. Where as a sapling you can just cleave the limbs flat, leave the handle full width and your near tillering. Hazel is great for this. Have a search on here for Stovies hazel bows.

 

[grey-array]

hmm I will start looking around some more, how is red Oak in tension averagely? and white oak?
perhaps I can even find some birch or Elm what do think about those kinds of woods, personally I always loved the colors of elm so what you say, you have experience with that wood?
Yours sincerely Ruud

 

[dwardo]

hmm I will start looking around some more, how is red Oak in tension averagely? and white oak?
perhaps I can even find some birch or Elm what do think about those kinds of woods, personally I always loved the colors of elm so what you say, you have experience with that wood?
Yours sincerely Ruud

Elm is great stuff and has been used for bow for 1000`s of years. Wych elm, smooth leaf etc. I am just finishing up a smooth leaf elm that is only 60 inches long but has a mild gullwing shape and about 4 inches of reflex!
Red oak is also a great wood so i hear but we dont get any over here unless its ornamental. White oak i also hear is good. I have a very snakey oak which i have roughed out and will get to one day. Most oaks are very tension strong so they will suit a nice flat belly and high crown characteristics of saplings. I have made bows from birch but they are low weight. Anything heavier tends to chrystal eventually.

So in short, a sapling of any of the above will do you well. In order of preference, elm, red oak, white oak, birch.

 

[grey-array]

Out hunting it is then ^^
Thanks dwardo
Yours sincerely Ruud