Stave makin :) and a bit of tillering.

[dwardo]

how long would you say the making time is? once the wood is ready of course.

They look great btw, really cool to see people carrying on the old traditions

Thanks.
Times vary and its always hard to total.
walk a whole wood for hours and find two or three trees that are contenders. To me this is something that a manageable size wise with hand tools and more often than not from a stand with sister and daughter trunks. Thats before splitting, de-barking, seasoning without splitting, checking and warping.
Then when something looks good it gets roughed out to a bow stave or even better a rough bow shape. More seasoning and then you decide what bow shape the wood will allow. Then you start to make a bow

Few hours today and managed to shape up some nocks for this yew bow. Its tillered out and showing no signs of distress after lots of exercising.

Also managed to get some recurving finished. Will have to wait for a few days before i can play with this one as it will need to re-hydrate.

Oh and burn in the new stove

Just going to be up till midnight until it goes out now! Only put a few small diameter split stuff in there maybe a hndful or two of stuff from the floor. Incredibly efficient especially given ist about 2 DegC out..

 

[Samon]

sounds like a labour of love

How much do bows like yours sell for? - out of curiosity.

 

[dwardo]

sounds like a labour of love

How much do bows like yours sell for? - out of curiosity.

More like a bi-product of what I like to do given the spare time
Its also hard to say a price as it depends on the bow someone would need, kind of like how much is a car?
In the average around £250 but anything from £180 to £400?? Sorry hard to say.
This is made much easier when an archer contacts me and says I want X then we get talking and we come to an agreement on weight, length, style.. kind of like an intermediary between archer and what woods i have and what they will take.
Then I attempt to make a bow and if all goes well everyone is happy. Or it starts again

 

[Everything Mac]

Looking good matey!

 

[dwardo]

Looking good matey!

Right, mostly done just in need of some new clothes and a few more coats of tru-oil
Leather?

 

[dwardo]

Quick update,

A member here is after a new bow so its time to pull my finger out and start making a floor full of wood shavings. I am trying a few other designs at the minute to really test cherry as a bow wood. I know it makes a good bow in some of the more gentle designs but not sure how good it is at the high stress ones.
The bow in the form at the minute is a wych elm static recurve, a cherry static and a cherry molly.

The cherry molly is at a low brace and pulling around 50 here so needs to lose some weight. Starting to bend ok but after another inch or so draw than above it started to take a little set, maybe an inch at most and the scales started to show a drop in draw weight. This means the belly of the bow is starting to complain. When this happens i like to heat treat in a little reflex then wait for it to re-hydrate for a few days. Then i will remove more wood and bring the weight down and keep checking for more signs of stress. You can just tiller on and accept a few inches of set but if you want a quick arrow you have to listen to the belly wood all the way through. You can also see here that the left limb (bottom) is too stiff, i did correct this but will have to check it all again after the heat treat as this will change it all once again

Once tillered out all of these bows will have a lot of mass reduced from the none working tips until they JUST start to show signs of movement, preferably before. To make static and working re-curve bows shoot well you need to have as little mass in the tips as possible.

 

[Niels]

You are a true master of your craft. I really love that design with the half wide half narrow limbs.

I reckon my hazel stave is dry now to. I should get to it in the may holiday.

Thanks for sharing!

Niels

 

[dwardo]

You are a true master of your craft. I really love that design with the half wide half narrow limbs.

I reckon my hazel stave is dry now to. I should get to it in the may holiday.

Thanks for sharing!

Niels

Far from it mate but give me another 10 years

This bow is out to 21 inches at 50lbs. Not the cleanest cherry stave i have ever tried due to a big old not that runs right through the left limb. It is starting to come around but this one like the other is a little stiff left limb.

 

[Cromm]

Very nice indeed.

 

[crucible]

Based on the pics on this thread, is it safe to assume that you currently aren't adding any laminations to the back of these bows?

Inspiring stuff so far, keep it up!

Geo

 

[dwardo]

No laminations all just "self bows" the back of these bows is just the wood right under the back.
I have thought about trying lam bows but I prefer hand tools only so it makes it tricky to get flat surfaces.
One day when my elbows give up I will give lams a go ;-)

 

[CaptainBeaky]

Looking good there, Dwardo

 

[dwardo]

Things are progressing a little more now.

The cherry flipped semi-static is getting there now.
Heat treated the belly for a good hour to help with cherries compression shortcoming.

This is the cherry out to about 26 inches where its about 50lbs. Holding flat and taking very little set so looking ok. Next things is to remove loads of mass from the tips and narrow the nocks.

This is the wych elm I was working on at the Manchester gathering. Just starting to bend. Full static recurves on this one.

Now to spend time ni tip mass removal and a butt load of sanding and shooting in.

Let me know if this is all getting dull and samey and I will just skip to the finished items when they are done.

 

[Niels]

Don't skip too much please. Every picture is helpful, so I'm watching this closely. I especially like the statically recurved one

 

[dwardo]

Shooting in the new cherry today to make sure there are no surprises in profile. Shoots very fast with these recurves.

 

[Niels]

I think something went wrong with the pictures. That or I'm just not getting it

 

[dwardo]

I think something went wrong with the pictures. That or I'm just not getting it

Sorry bud should have said, they are little movies. Just click

 

[Niels]

That looks great! I hope you have a lot of fun with it

 

[dwardo]

That looks great! I hope you have a lot of fun with it

Will do until she goes to her new owner

 

[Everything Mac]

Another awesome bow matey. I took the black cherry out at the weekend for a quick shoot. Lots of fun. Poundage does seem to have crept up a bit but not too much. Shoots really well!