Any of you guys try building your own bow out of a stave or board? Trying to make my first red oak board bow and I'm just looking for more input.

This post has been edited by SSGN_Doc: October 2nd 2009 12:43 AM

propps to ya. my dad built me my first 2. good luck!

I have built three self bows, two out of hickory and one out of osage. They all came from staves. I do not know how much help I would be with a board bow.

For some good information check out Primitive Archer Magazine plus the volumes of traditional bowyers bible are excellent.

Here's the beginnings.

Started with a piece of Red Oak board from Lowes and some more to make another layer for a handle.


Got it roughly to shape on a friends band saw.


Brought it home and used some rasps a straight edged knife and sandpaper to smooth it out some and at least get the limbs bending slightly.


You cans still see the remains of my markings on the back of the bow.


Next I need to make a tillering stick, put in some nocks and start getting it to an even tiller. Goal is to have a bow at about 40 lbs with a 27-28" draw. I gotta figure out if I need to back this thing, and what to use if I do.

I never have but always wanted to. Looks good so far. I had some bookmarks on building bows on my old computer. I bet there is still alot of info out there.

You can use a lot of different things to back it, just depends if you want a showpiece or a working bow. For a working bow I would recommend sheet fiberglass and use Acra-glas to bond. You will need to back it before you cut the notches in the limbs.

I kinda figured, after I thought about it, that backing should probably be done first to get the tillering and weight right.

Man this is very cool. Please keep us posted with new pics on your progress. This is very interesting.

sinew makes an excellent backing, very cool btw, keep posting pics of your progress!

This post has been edited by Janglin Jack: August 28th 2009 2:02 PM

looks good you might start something, everyone is going to go to LOWES now to get wood for their own bow. Nice work so far.

This post has been edited by trifire: August 29th 2009 4:03 AM

I lack any interest in bows and such.. however, props to you for building your own! Every lil detail the way you want it, and it sounds like a good learning experince.

I can't wait to see the progress however..so please post photos everytime something new is done!

I've kind of had this project on ignore for a while.

I finally got around to applying some backing to the bow before I continue down the path of tillering.

I've added three layers of fiberglass drywall tape with some Titebond III wood glue. This is to hopefully prevent my ending up with just a broken piece of wood when I'm done. A buddy made a tillering stick for my that I need to pick up next week after he gets back from vacation.

I didn't take pictures of the backing process, due to:

-My garage looking like a complete pit,
-it's not a really exciting process that captures well on camera.

Do you plan on making your own arrows as well? If you do I may have some Turkey feathers that I could send you, I will have to look.
Even if you have this project 'on ignore' I can imagine that some of the steps along the way are going to require a great deal of time and finesse.
Keep us posted.

I'm looking into the whole arrow making thing but, haven't decided yet. I can use turkey feathers anyway. I use some for fly tying. Let me know if you find them and what you'd like in trade.

Backing of drywall tape and Titebond III applied and tillering begins.





This post has been edited by SSGN_Doc: September 29th 2009 10:24 PM

It is taking shape.
What do have to do, wet it down and move the string one notch at a time? Is this going to be a long bow or are you going to recurve the ends?

I checked on the turkey feathers and all of the ones I have left are crappy but might be good enough for tying flies. I should get a couple of birds next month anyways and I will hook you up with all of them. Do you want any squirrel tails or rabbit fur as well? By the end of this season I can provide you with quite a bit of material.

eta: trading won't be neccessary (but I wouldn't mind a couple of flies)

This post has been edited by KENNYOHIOHUNTER: October 1st 2009 1:59 AM

Tillering is the process of getting the limbs to bend equally and evenly through the pull.

It doesn't show real well in the picture here, but I gt the limbs to bend bout 4 inches and can see that the limb on the right is stiffer near the handle and near the tip. before i pull any farther i will have to remove some wood from these areas until they are bending in a smooth arc and equal to the limb on the left. The small piece of wood on the deck has a hole drilled in the center of it with a threaded nut glued in it. I can hold the piece of wood under the arc of the better limb and screw the pencil in until it just touches. Then I take it along the arc of the stiffer limb and it will leave pencil marks where the limb is straighter. I take it off the tree and remove some wood with a rasp or a knife where the pencil marks are. restring and try again. The important thing is to not pull it too far until the limbs are bending equally or it will compress the wood along the belly and cause the bow to take extra set or string follow. So, once it's bending the same at one notch I can pull again until I notice inequality again, and start over. Until I get it to brace height. The continue the process until I get it bending equally to my maximum draw. Then it's about setting the draw weight by removing more wood. I anm hoping to get 40 lbs at 28 inches of draw.

This will be a straight long bow. It's already developing some string follow which means I may have gon a bit too far too soon. I was hoping to only end up with it taking on 2 or less inches of string follow when it's done. The more flexible limb is already showing about 1 3/4 inches of string follow when it's unstrung. It's a learning process. I've got another board if I break this one, and my six year old daughter has laid claim to the next bow if I don't break this one.

I can use turkey feathers, rabbit masks, rabbit fur and squirrel tails if you have them to spare. Also deer leg tendons are nice to have if you can dry some out. A buddy is wanting to back his bow using the deer sinew and animal glue (much more traditional than my drywall tape and waterproof wood glue).

What type of flys would you like? I'm pretty good at Wooly buggers, Adams dry flies, beaded nymphs, gnats and ants.

Here's how you screw it up coming into the home stretch. You get in a hurry and take off too much wood from the limb your trying to lighten. Check it and find out you over compensated and your under your desired pull weight.



By the time I even out the other side I'll probably be down to 25 lbs. Oh, well. Live and learn. My daughter has been bugging me to make this her bow.

I guess I can shorten the limbs and get it down to a good draw weight and draw length for a 6 y/o.

This post has been edited by SSGN_Doc: October 1st 2009 9:50 PM

The cardinal rull is don't give up. I have options.
I can shorten the limbs and hope to stiffen the bow to a weight I can use by reducing the leverage.
I can use it as a light training bow for target use and small game.
I can really shorten it and retaper the limbs and tiller it again into a kids bow for my daughter.

She already thinks it's hers and wanted to shoot it as is.
At the current draw length she's getting at it's current size it's only pulling at about 10 lbs. But she insisted on trying.



She hit a cardboard box at 10 paces with it 4 times out of 8.

Decided to just call this bow number one and leave it as a light weight bow.

I figured since this is bow X-1, I'd experiment with the finish some. Tried masking and using leather dye to stain the tips black. Some of the dye wicked under the masking tape, so it isn't perfect. Couple more coats of tung oil, a real bow string and figuring out how to make the back look nice, and I'm done with this one and on to complete the daughters bow. (She is getting antsy and was trying to talk us in to just buying her one of the cheap kids Baer bows for $20. Hard to convince a 6 year old that she can have a bow that will have more meaning attached to it if she is patient. Anyone know where I can find pink wood stain? )



Sorry about the crummy pic of the tip here.
But you can kind of see where the dye bled along the edges.