Bow Building

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thewindiw
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Re: Bow Building

Post by thewindiw »

I put ketchup on my steak ;). I think anything would be cool... I would love to even be able to make something half as nice as any of yours!

It hops it drops, it flies it dies, if it gets away you shot it in the wrong way= thewindow :P
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InstinctiveArcher
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Re: Bow Building

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Thanks windiw! If you give it a try, I'm sure you could make a really nice looking bow.

Radamus, here is what I'm thinking. These plans are for a "semi-traditional" longbow :lol:
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.p ... 5;t=014506
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TreeKiwi
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Re: Bow Building

Post by TreeKiwi »

I'm looking forward to follow you on this build mate! I love wood working and something this complex will be very inspirational. Looking forward to watching the build for sure :)
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Radamus
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Re: Bow Building

Post by Radamus »

InstinctiveArcher wrote:Thanks windiw! If you give it a try, I'm sure you could make a really nice looking bow.

Radamus, here is what I'm thinking. These plans are for a "semi-traditional" longbow :lol:
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.p ... 5;t=014506
I like the shorter look to that one- Man, couple guys there know their sht building bows eh! The only scary part for me would be all that shaping on the riser.
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InstinctiveArcher
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Re: Bow Building

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Radamus wrote:
InstinctiveArcher wrote:Thanks windiw! If you give it a try, I'm sure you could make a really nice looking bow.

Radamus, here is what I'm thinking. These plans are for a "semi-traditional" longbow :lol:
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.p ... 5;t=014506
I like the shorter look to that one- Man, couple guys there know their sht building bows eh! The only scary part for me would be all that shaping on the riser.
Yeah, some of these guys are insane with some of the things they come up with. Always plenty of eye candy there!
The riser shaping isn't really that bad. A spindle sander cuts down on the time it takes, but using hand tools isn't that bad, and isn't quite as risky.
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JimboCrow
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Re: Bow Building

Post by JimboCrow »

InstinctiveArcher wrote:
Radamus wrote:
InstinctiveArcher wrote:Thanks windiw! If you give it a try, I'm sure you could make a really nice looking bow.

Radamus, here is what I'm thinking. These plans are for a "semi-traditional" longbow :lol:
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.p ... 5;t=014506
I like the shorter look to that one- Man, couple guys there know their sht building bows eh! The only scary part for me would be all that shaping on the riser.
Yeah, some of these guys are insane with some of the things they come up with. Always plenty of eye candy there!
The riser shaping isn't really that bad. A spindle sander cuts down on the time it takes, but using hand tools isn't that bad, and isn't quite as risky.
That's what she said! :D
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InstinctiveArcher
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Re: Bow Building

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

JimboCrow wrote:
InstinctiveArcher wrote:
Radamus wrote: I like the shorter look to that one- Man, couple guys there know their sht building bows eh! The only scary part for me would be all that shaping on the riser.
Yeah, some of these guys are insane with some of the things they come up with. Always plenty of eye candy there!
The riser shaping isn't really that bad. A spindle sander cuts down on the time it takes, but using hand tools isn't that bad, and isn't quite as risky.
That's what she said! :D
Ahhh! I'll never be able to make another bow now :lol:
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InstinctiveArcher
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Re: Bow Building

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

It's funny how you think you'll have time to do something, and then somehow life happens and you wind up not having that time at all. That was the case this year with the bow that I was hoping to build. I was planning on doing another laminated longbow, but between classes and homework I haven't had the time. Anyways, I've been going a little stir crazy, and decided to do something I haven't done in a while. I've got a hickory stave that was given to me about 5 years ago that has been sitting in the basement waiting to be turned into a bow. I dug it out about a week ago and am going to see what I can get out of it. Just a warning, this build may go pretty slowly, but I'll get it done :lol:

This bow is planned right now to be about 66" long, which is as short as I can safely go with my draw length. There are really good bowyers out there that could make a shorter bow that would handle my draw, but I'm not one of them. Because of some knots on the back of the bow, I plan on backing it with rawhide.

First I took a draw knife and removed all of the outer bark. I then removed the stringier inner bark with a draw knife and a pocket knife. It's really important that you don't gouge the wood underneath when removing the inner bark.
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Here it is cleaned up more. The small pockets of inner bark that I didn't get with a drawknife I scraped out with a pocketknife.
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I'm not an expert when it comes to the drawknife and I inevitably will leave some spots a little bit flatter or a little rounder than I ought to :lol: . I take a pocket knife and scrape down the small ridges and bumps on the back of the stave until it is well rounded and uniform. I try and scrape so that the entire back of the bow is the same growth ring.
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This evening I started roughly drawing out the bow shape. Nothing is set in stone yet, and the bow has some neat little twists that I'll need to figure out, but the lines are roughly what the bow will look like. Sorry that the lines are a bit difficult to see.
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InstinctiveArcher
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Re: Bow Building

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Yesterday I started taking the bow down to shape a little bit. I draw out the bow profile, but I also draw another line about a 1/4 inch out from what I want the actual bow to be. That way I've got plenty of room in case of a small error.
In order to work on the bow, I use a bow vice which holds the bow tightly in place when I am putting my foot on a pedal underneath and pressing down. I use a draw knife at this point to take of the majority of the wood. I love watching I curls of wood peel off with each stroke. It is definitely an arm workout though!
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Here is the result of about an hour of scraping. One limb is pretty much down to the 1/4 inch line.
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In hunting, impossible doesn't exist any more than a sure thing does. - Tom Miranda
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InstinctiveArcher
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Re: Bow Building

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Been doing a lot of scraping with the drawknife and rasp. I'm starting to take it down roughly to finished dimensions though and it's starting to look a bit like a bow. Looks like I'm going to end up with a knot right mid limb but that's alright. Just adds character. Starting to look more like a bow though.
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In hunting, impossible doesn't exist any more than a sure thing does. - Tom Miranda
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