My Latest Bow

M

mwerner

Joined
Apr 23, 2002
Messages
5,354
About 99% finished:

47b7dd39b3127cce820a58bb07b800000015108AcNGzhu3bNn


This is an osage orange self-bow, draw weight approximately 45 pounds at 28".
First attempt at an osage stave, and it turned out very well. With osage, you have to "chase the ring", that is, work down to a continuous late-growth ring which has to run the entire length of the stave. I was fortunate in that this particular stave had no knots, and the grain was quite straight. That's unusual with osage.
I just took it over to the range, and shot a couple dozen of my self-made arrows; it seems to perform quite well.

All I have to do now is apply the finish, an arrow rest, and a grip. I have some very nice black Italian leather that previously formed the handle of one of my wife's purses...
 
Nice bow! I thought all self bows had to be worked by following the growth ring, as that is what keeps the back from breaking. What woods don't require this?
 
So-called "white woods" like hickory and oak can be used with the grain running even sideways, so long as there are not too many "run outs" which might result in failure.
Check out "The Traditional Bowyer's Bible" series for more than you could ever want to know...
 
I would like to see someone make a bow out of horn. Like what you described in the thread about the 300.

I wonder exactly what that would entail.
 
Again, the Bowyers Bible is your friend. I forget which volume (there's three) has it, but there's a photo of a bow made by using Oryx horns, fastened to a wooden handle section. The guy said it pulled about 75 pounds, and was a good shooter.

Apparently, some previous archery pundit, writing in the 20s, said that such a bow would be impossible to make. However, it was found that horn can be steamed and shaped just like wood.

The famous Turkish (and other Asian copies) recurve bows used horn extensively, though they were of composite construction.
 
I think the horn bows are are actually compisite with horn,sinew and wood.
I just finished reading an exellent book about english longbowmen in the 1300's
Called Heretic by Bernard Cornwall(he wrote the Sharpe novels). This is the third book in a series that starts with "The Archers Tale". It is an exellent way to learn what it was like when the english longbowmen were kings of the battlefield.
One interesting thing from the book was some irregular soldiers(theives basicly)
had old style crossbows that used goats legs for the bow. They were not as powerfull as the steel crossbows but could be reloaded much faster.
 
Um ... that could be confusing.... A "goat leg" is a lever mechanism for cocking a crossbow. It's faster than a winch but can't cock as powerful a bow.
 
Actually, I haven't finalized the brace height yet. That's a string from one of my other bows that was close enough to do some break-in shooting. It's about 5 inches.
That does clear the fletching on my current batch of arrows, so I may just use this length when I make a proper string for it.

One of my fellow Primitive Archer forum guys is sending me a blacksake skin to use for a backing....should look good.
 
Very nice bow! I was thinking of trying to make a bow also, how did you get started in bow making?
 
I've been interested in archery since I was a kid way back in the 50s. Robin Hood, you know...
Anyway, when I got of the army in '67, I purchased a then-state-of-the-art recurve. Glass laminated, #63, etc. The idea was to work my way up to deer hunting. I'd read Howard Hill's Hunting The Hard Way some time previously.

Alas, my archery career was cut short by a motorcycle spill that broke my shoulder. Not a serious injury, but I couldn't draw the bow at all. For about a year.... During which time I got married, got poor, :D and so on...So I sold all the archery stuff.

Fast forward to the present. I have done a number of "homemade" projects, including a recumbent bicycle and a cigar-box guitar. I happened upon a couple of websites on bowyering, and said..."I'll bet I can do that". Besides, my shoulder had long since healed...
My first attempt, a red-oak "board" bow ended up looking nice and shooting well for about three weeks, till it broke.
My second, a much-more-carefully constructed bend-at-the-handle design from the same lumber, is still shooting well.
I got the osage stave for this one from one of the Primitive Archer forumites, and it's looking good. Shoots quite well, too.

Next I'm thinking of a recurve....
 
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