Thread: Bow making

hi guys I am new to this site but might have some good info for you.

some australian timbers which can make good self bows are lancewood, red ash, watergum some others that i have heard that could possibly make good bows are grey ironbark, motheringbar(wattle), hickory wattle

the main thing is to get a straight piece of timber with good staight grain this can take some doing. once the tree is cut and split into rough stave size and its bark removed it is important to seal the end grain and the outer surface with shilak, as this stops the stave drying out to quick and spliting.

once rough stave shape is cut reseal and steaming reflex deflex is now a possibility. it also kills off any bacteria in the timber.

as to bamboo bows I assume that you ment a bamboo backed bow. bamboo backed bows are faster ,stronger and can be narrower.

the osage bow with bamboo back makes a extremely good bow that is light and fast. it is easier to tiller a bambooback bow, and the original bow material can be made thinner.

I hope this may help a few of the questions out there.

Sounds like progress is really being made. I'm not a bow-er but I did find out some years ago that the first Ossage Orange seeds were bought to Australia by an archery club and planted around Melbourne for the purpose of growing bow making timber. (Since spread inland, found to be toxic to cattle and declared a noxious weed) The name comes from the Ossage indian tribe in north america who used the wood to make bows. Apparently ossage bows should be made with the sap wood on the outside for tension and the heartwood on the inside for compression. It's famously springy and resilient also used for the butts of traditional salmon rods and often for boat ribs. But thats all I know. A word of warning about bamboo, it goes brittle with age. The traditional samurai bow was made of laminated bamboo though. Guess they had to keep making new ones.

Useless tidbit time:

Japanese bows were made of bamboo laminated with ox sinew and/or whale bone (ribs springy, apparently). Also, they aren't symetrical like western bows, they are held at about 1/4-1/3 the way up, better for shooting from horseback. And they are longer too. Japanese arrow-heads have a really long tang that goes into the bamboo shaft of the arrow. Quite spectacular workmanship in some of the heads.

hi again

bamboo in bows especially as a backing needs to come from as large a diametre as possible 100mm plus. as to it getting brittle with age I dont know, from everything that I have read or been told by people who use it this way, they all have said that the older it is the better.

from what Ive been told the bamboo grown in australia needs to be around 4 to5 years old when it is cut down. should be cut around august and left to stand for 1 to 2weeks. you should then split your bamboo and lay it out to dry .

bamboo at 4years old has less starch in it so is less likely to get fungus or cracks. split it to dry it that way there is no tension on it as there is when it is in culm form.

it can take over 12 months to dry as bamboo absorbs moisture readly. lay it in the sun for a month or so before you are ready to use it and take final moisture out of it in a hot box. It needs to have a moisture content of about 8 to 9% before it can be used to back a bow.

the japanese bowyers use to cut and dry bamboo for their sons to use when they took over the trade. this bamboo may have been drying for 20 years or more. from every thing that I can find on the subject it seems that the longer the bamboo is dried the stronger it gets.

the 4 best speceis that I know are used to back bows are madackee, moso, asper and atter.

also if any one is interested there is a video on making a bamboo back bow by Dean Torges (american) called Hunting the bamboo backed dow with Dean Torges. most of the relevant info to make a bow is on this video.

hope this info helps someone

Hello all

would anyone be able to give me some info on plans, books, anything on self-bow making and strings, also anything on local Aust. timbers (I live in nth Qld) suitable for self-bows.

cheers

Originally posted by gold leader
Been a long time since I picked up the compound bow. Tried firing a friends long bow a few times. Gotta be an art form I reckon! Am I right in saying the English long bow was traditionally made of Yew? Is it available in Australia?

You are quite right Gold Leader. English longbows are made of yew. To be more accurate, they were a Welsh weapon & Henry V paid his Welsh bowmen 1/3 more than his English yeoman. They won at Agincourt.
Yew was scarce in England (it grows in many churchyards here where it is clipped & used for its anti cancer properties) so by law all English seamen in the middle ages had to carry a bundle of Spanish Yew down the gangplank when they returned home.
During Henry VIIIs reign, it was still law that every man had to practice at the butts daily. This was despite cannon being used.
Toxophilus (1545) by Roger Ascham, 1515 - 1568 is still of interest today as archery (toxophily) has hardly changed. I read that book 30 years ago when I used to shoot for a hobby.

I am able to source some Irish Yew (Taxus Bacata) but it is still attached to the tree. Size is up to 100mm diameter about 2-3 metres long. The tree was planted in aprox 1880 and needs some radical pruning.

hi there
has anyone ever tried to make a self-bow out if jarrah. i ask because it is a common timber here in the west. hell we even burn it in the fireplace?

hi there
just discovered this forum. i am wanting to build my first bow. am haveing trouble finding information on types of timber .
i also need some help whith plans,measurements,ect,ect ect.
all help and advice gratefully accepted.
thanks :: nos.

Consider this carefully if you desire a bow made of Osage: The sapwood of Osage Orange needs to be removed completely from the back of the stave to prevent lateral checking from occuring along the bow's back! Osage sapwood has no inherent value or strength as a backer! Using a draw knife, spoke shave knife or scraper, carefully remove all traces of sapwood from your osage stave, leaving an unbroken continual growth ring of heartwood as the back. If you build a longbow made from Yew, then a single growth ring layer of sap wood is not only desireable, but some would say necessary to the stability of the bow.

Hi Brody

Just an update - been a busy, busy year.

Bow 1 is dead - it just kept on twisting.

Its replacement Bow 2 is dead also. Made from the remaining piece of the stave and it developed exactly the same problems.

Now have a modern recurve - is great. Also have a professionally made longbow. Made from some type of Eucalypt and it is superb. #44@28 and 78" long.

On the rest of the front this years projects are:

- Another Bow or two. I have the new blank almost ready and a power plane. No more doing it by hand until the finishing stage.

- Learn how to make my own arrow shafts.

- Make some footed shafts just because they look good and they are few and far between.

BTW - Flemish strings look good.

Morning all

I was directed to this thread by a luthier friend, as I have takent he first steps into building a bow. I started practising with an oak stave, however it cracked and broke in some pre-tillering flexing.

I am going to get hold of some ash for my next attempt.

Making arrow shafts is also on the list of to-dos - given that Port Orford cedar shafts are $2.50-$3.00 each.

I currently shoot a blackwood/bo-tuff laminated flat long bow.

WOW 28 posts and all on topic.
Must be a record for this BB.

Originally Posted by echnidna

WOW 28 posts and all on topic.
Must be a record for this BB.

You don't stuff around with blokes who can shove a toothpick through you from 400 metres.