Thread: Bow making

Chris

Yes you can. Take an axe or chainsaw.................

On a more serious note you have several options.

You can buy timber from cabinet timber merchants. (Expensive but you get a better choice)

You can wander down to you timber merchant and buy some Spotted Gum or similiar. What you want is a piece of timber that has straight grain that runs the whole length. (You could even buy a Spoyyed Gum floorboard and hack it out of that.)

For you first bow - make it lonege than necessary. That will decrease the stresses in the timber and you have reasoanble chance of it not breaking.

If you want to ask more questions about timber bows got :

http://www.ozbow.net/

Anybody got any suggestions where I can buy some 39" cedar shafts, preferably in SE suburbs of Vic? All I can locate are 32"ers.

I'm also looking for the threaded adapters which allow threaded heads on wooden shafts. I'm sick of losing my bunny shafts under the soil and wanna be able to swap in/out the "grass-catchers" (what's their proper name?) as needed.

On a completely different note: is there any advantage to using 4 flights over the usual 3?

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Anybody got any suggestions where I can buy some 39" cedar shafts, preferably in SE suburbs of Vic? All I can locate are 32"ers.
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You will be lucky to find 39" Cedar Shafts - That is an awfully long draw length (Asian Recurve??)

IMHO - Have go at making some.

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I'm also looking for the threaded adapters which allow threaded heads on wooden shafts. I'm sick of losing my bunny shafts under the soil and wanna be able to swap in/out the "grass-catchers" (what's their proper name?) as needed.
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Judo Heads??

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On a completely different note: is there any advantage to using 4 flights over the usual 3?
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Yes, it increases the profit of Gateway Feathers - you may think I am joking but check out their latest video!!

IMHO.

The only advantage of 4 feather fletching is that you can the arrow either way onto the string - no cock feather issue (Which is not really an issue really).

4 feather fletching will give you a greater swept area - more drag. So if you are after a semi flu-flu it will do that.

Plus it looks different - and that can be reason enough.

You are really unlikely to find 'cedar' shafts over 32" as they cut all the billets to length for 32" shafts when they harvest the logs. I'd suggest putting a hardwood footing on the shaft to get the extra inches, plus it will increase the dynamic stability of the shaft in flight, although it may drop the spine rating - YMMV

There is at least one manufacturer of pine (Radiata) dowels that have proven adequate for field/hunting shafts, but again you are on your own for spine rating - the people that I know using the pine shafts are using them 30#@28", not 39".

As Graham_a said - Judo Points. 4 fletch just uses one more feather per shaft to loose/break. And if you use hardwood foreshafts you won't need such big feathers anyway.

I should add I have half a dozen Japanese 41" shafts sitting in their case a few feet from where I type, together with their bow - never know when those Ninja will strike :eek:

Any particular reason for using cedar shafts? Easton Aluminium Stalkers are pretty cheap order them cut to length with the screw collar fitted. Four fletches are pointless. Noisy and slow down the arrow. The shaft needs to be very well balanced. If you want the stability use 3 spiral fletches (Xtreme make them I think). My 2 cents worth.

Bummer. That's more or less what I'd gathered from my search but I was living in hope. The reason I ask is 'cos many years ago I was given a one-piece timber laminate hunting recurve, "Bear" brand, along with some 39" arrows... which I promptly broke. Part of the learning curve, I'd just started hunting at the time. 'Twas an old bow when given to me and I'm not sure whether the limbs have lost their power over the years or it was simply designed for yard-shafts, but it just doesn't get full draw with 32"ers. [shrug] I've much better gear now, but I'd still like to be able to use the old beast occasionally if only for sentimental reasons.

The reason I asked about the 4 flights is 'cos I was rummaging around in the shed (actually, I was looking for the cool blocks for my BS!) when I found the 4x insert for my fletching jig. It has never even been fitted to the jig and something tells me it's not likely to.

Shedhand, I've a few alum. shafts I use for serious hunting but they just don't have the "feel" of a good ol' cedar shaft. I feel the same about recurve vs. compound... a couple of my mates laugh at my old recurves when we hit the bush, but at least I don't have to worry about stripping the undergrowth out of the cams when I want to take a quick shot. Even archery has its' darksiders.

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

I don't have to worry about stripping the undergrowth out of the cams when I want to take a quick shot. Even archery has its' darksiders.

Unless of course you are using silencers
As you are probably aware Bear (Fred Bear was the owner, honest) made a number of models and the weight and draw length should be somewhere in the vicinity of below the riser on the front of the bottom limb, or it's that old it's worn off.
They weren't a bad bow, I used to shoot an Alaskan compound and fletch with double flights for target (field), I don't recall what they were called but they were an acrylic material bent at a sharp 90 degrees, spun very fast but when I was behind a target scoring they sounded like a police siren coming at you, which probably explained why I never had much luck hunting with them.
Have a look at www.cabelas.com for some interesting archery product.

Originally Posted by Iain

Unless of course you are using silencers

There is that, but I use the cheap tie-on rubber spiders. Instead of catching debris, they tend to come adrift and end up as part of the undergrowth. I don't mind; they're dirt cheap and simple to replace.

Thasks for the link... I'll have to see if my local supplier can bring in some of those mechanical broadheads!

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

Shedhand, Even archery has its' darksiders.

Yeah, I was a Toxophilist darksider for 10 years (Yamaha Custom EX with Carbon Limbs). Represented Tassie at 10 National Archery Champs. Retired in 1991 and held every FITA record including 1 National record at the time. All gone now though. Entered a gold star tourny once and shot a compound for that one. Over two days gained my 1000, 1100 and 1200 stars all at once. Too damned easy..never used one again. Have 1000, 1100 and 1200 FITA Gold stars as well. I spent years showing the tricks of the art to Clint Freeman who is now World Compound Archery Champion (he also qualified for the Sydney Olympics with a recurve but got Glandular Fever and couldn't compete)and holds the world record at 1412 points (or near that number) and was the first in the history of the sport to crack 1400. I had the honour of presenting him with his FITA award which had to be specially cast as FITA never expected someone to score so high.
...Blah sorry to be so long winded but I used to love the sport and miss it but I can no longer pull the weight due to my really bad arthritis and tennis elbows....blah blah...

G'day one and all
its been a while since I have posted here and its good to see the interest in bow making is still strong as i believe that there is no better reward than making your own bow and then using it.

as to 3 or 4 feathers to a degree it is entirely up to the individual. 4 feathers in theory should stablise the flight of the arrow quicker but as stated earlier by others it will also pull the arrow up quicker, excellent for flu flu arrows.

footing arrows usually prolongs the life of the shaft greatly. At the club where i shoot there are several archers who use footed shafts including myself and we have found that generally the flights wear out before the shafts break.

the club that Im with is completely traditional and there are many bowyers and arrow makers within its ranks there are over 80 members.

some of the timbers for making bows that are available in australia are hickory, spotted gum, water gum, bamboo. others that you need to go bush and find yourself are red ash, mutheringbar, doratoxlyn, osage(mainly on rivers and farms, but is getting harder to find as it is considered a weed and the landcare scheme is erradicating it where ever they can find it).

hope this may help someone.

Hi . A bit of advice.Most Australian hardwoods are OK to use .Ash , Spotted Gum , and Hickory are probably the best,have used them all in the past, and am building an ash take down at the moment for my daughter.To prevent breakage, the best way is to back the bow. Purists say rawhide or sinew, but at a pinch, leather does the job.Bamboo and Hickory backs also help. The BEST book available is " The Traditional Bowyer's Bible" in three volumes from The WOODWORKERS LIBRARY in the States.It explains how to ,in great detail,of all the above, all different designs,footed shafts etc.Hope this helps,rmm1.

Originally Posted by grahame_a

Hi Brody

Last weekend I worked really hard and cleaned up my workshop. It was really nice to be able to find the top of the workbench etc.

After my comment to you regarding Spotted Gum I thought about the stave I had of it hanging from the ceiling. Left over from a house project.

Now I have 1/2 a stave hanging from the ceiling, a lot of wood shavings on the floor and a partially completed longbow. And I note a bench top cluttered with a few tools.

The bow has come along nicely. Grabbed a plan of the internet and more or less followed it.

On the downside I am having a few other issues. The timber has what appears to be 'wavy' grain through it and as you are cutting away at it you get a wavy surface. Doen't look any worse than the bows from the Mary Rose but a problem nevertheless.

The other issue is that at the moment the bow is showing stacking issues at 1/2 draw. It is over length at 80 inches and am surprised to see it happening. I probably need to thin down the arms more at the extreminities.

So far I have managed to progress this far with using a tillering stick but that is the next item to build. The arms are flexing reasonably equal at the moment but there stills needs a bit of tillering work to be done. Particularly as I address the stacking issue.

I am aiming for a draw weight of around 40lb and it feels as it is going that way.

Tomorrow I am going to buy myself a spokeshave.

Onto other things.

As I was saying most of the bows I have seen have been made from Spotted Gum and did a check on the Turbow site last night and that is what he uses.

http://www.geocities.com/svenskildbi...y/turbows.html

I also checked out a couple of other sites regarding glue and it ranges from Reorscinol through to epoxies for laminating.

I would still be looking at epoxy as a glue. WEST Systems are great and you could also check out Bote-Cote products

http://www.boatcraft.com.au

I will let you know how the bow ends up. Hmmmmm - now should I go for flemish twist string or some nice Dacron.

PS Compounds are definitely easier for us older people.

Flemish twist for a longbow. Less stress and more give than dacron. Dacron is best for laminated recurve bows.
Cheers
Mike
(retired-Archery Champ)