Thread: Bow Building

What faux-Ash would work?

And yeah you could make a takedown or something of that sort with short timber lengths.

Sooo grabbed myself a chunk of ironbark the other day and had a go at a 70" longbow.

Just as I began to tiller it a few vertical cracks appeared as well as the fact that the timber was ?peeling? off the back on one point.

Sooo that means that it'll need a backing. What do you recommend?

Originally Posted by funkychicken

What faux-Ash would work?

Don't know, but I have read in these pages that Horizontal has similar properties.

Wouldn't ironbark or jarra be too hard and brittle for a bow?

Originally Posted by Frank&Earnest

Don't know, but I have read in these pages that Horizontal has similar properties.

Wouldn't ironbark or jarra be too hard and brittle for a bow?

Frank&Earnest,

No, ironbark can make the bow too stiff (heavey to draw) but if you use laminations of ironbark, just make them around the 1mm. A friend made a bow with 1.5mm ironbark lamination and the bow turned out about the 90lb draw weight. The next one, he reduced the lamination to 1mm (I think, maybe a bit thinner, say 0.9mm) and that bow was 50lb.

By itself, I believe that either (ironbark and jarra) would be too heavey....at least for mere mortals. Also, I don't think the bow would last too long either.

Fletcher

Yeah the guy at the sawmill said that it might be too brittle. But it should work fine with a backing (hopefully)

Would Spotted Gum be be better?

Ok, I'll come out of the closet... I wanted to build a bow myself, just as an one off exercise, but I got scared by the complexity of the process and decided that the chance of producing something good without previous experience would be fairly limited. Maybe one day I could do it with bamboo like Yeoman showed, but do not want to spoil the long Cotoneaster bough I carefully saved for that purpose for many years.

It is 2500 long, without knots and has an almost constant circumference tapering from 140mm to 120mm, a slightly oval shape that looks already made for the purpose. The timber is (or was, haven't checked) bright yellow, and is extemely compact, hard and flexible, even better than its sorb cousin in the Rosaceae family.

If somebody in picking up distance thinks s/he can give it a better chance as a bow or 4, let me know, I might settle for swapping it with something more suitable for turning or carving instead of making small turned items out of it (or 64 pen blanks to give away ).

Cotoneaster?

Cotoneaster, they are a bl y nuiciance round here. grow anywhere, perhaps its a different shrub to the aussie one.

Originally Posted by jow104

Cotoneaster, they are a bl y nuiciance round here. grow anywhere, perhaps its a different shrub to the aussie one.

I'm pretty sure this is the cultivar "John Waterer". No comment on ethnic nuisance characteristics.

just about to finish building my first longbow and i've had no problem as yet with the bamboo floor board, using a 6' X 4" about 2000mm X 100mm i just cut it down the centre plane the back flat on both pieces and glued them together with titebond 2 and using innertube from bikes cut inhalf then went from there. Hope it helps

i'm quite new to wood working and i'm makeing some bow currently out of marabou and oak from bunnings.

where do i go to in the western suburbs of Melbourne to get other wood varieties such as ash,

and how do i cut the bigger chunks of wood accurately, all i have is a curricular saw and i cant draw a 150mm straight line for the life of me.

Originally Posted by funkychicken

Has anyone hear had a go at bow building? I myself have made 3 from hoop pine (all died, hoop pine is no good without a backing.)

Funky C

Hi Funky C,

I am selling Osage Orange to Bow Makers. See my ad in the 'Market Place' section of this site.

Cheers, Lincoln

A couple of months ago I swopped a few PM's with someone who was helping me to understand what Dead Finish is and why it's call such.

From some of the photo's I commented that it appeared to have the same natural lamination between the new growth and heart wood that our European Yew has. I asked if it made good bows.

He told me that as the aborigines had never developed Bow Technology he doubted that it had ever been tried.

It would be an interesting experiment for a bow-maker.