Thread: Bow making

sounds like a urea formaldhide glue. Not an uncommon product.
and favoured for lamonating.

Hi Brody

Are you making a Longbow or something else?

Longbows traditionally are self bows not laminated.

But that is not a reason why you should not do it - I have seen a couple laminated longbows but they used exotics. And is not unusual to see longbows that have a spliced joint in the handle area.

Modern Recurve flat bows are laminated and my readings indicate that Epoxy is normally used as the glue to hold the laminations together.

Have you considered spotted gum for the Bow? I note that quite a number of 'Reinactors' use bows made from it.

I live in Vic and to my knowlage spotted gum grows a bit far north.
The reason I am making a laminated long bow is basically for practise as I hope to build a recurve some day. I was told about urea formaldahide but was conserned with its elastisity. How does it compare to a 24 hour epoxy?

I recon you'd be well off to have a chat to some of manufacturers/suppliers about your needs. West Systems would be a good start. They have an Australian dealer - you should be able to find them via the west systems web site. They should be able to put you onto an exact product that's designed to meet your requirements.

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.

It sounds like your going pretty well. If the limbs are stacking chances are you have hinges in them (ie. to much material taken out of one spot), this is when a tillering board comes in handy as you can stand back and see what the limbs are doing. Just make sure you get them to flex over their entire length, this will produce the fastest and most effecient bow. Oh, and by the way Im only 16

Oh yeah, definatly flemish! (if you can figure them out)

If its a true Australian bow, long, recurve or compound, forget the dacron or Flemish, it just has to be baling twine (and the handle is called a riser)

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?

Hi Iain

Baling twine - thanks, but no thanks.

Definitely a riser when you are using bows with seperate limbs or when you have built up or modified the area where it is gripped.

Not to sure if that is still the case when no modification has occured and it is a self bow - thus handle. Will have to dig through some FITA notes.

Hi Chris

Went to a wood show on Monday and they had a radial milled timber display.

Had a bit of a look at the product and it may be just what you need for bow staves in that milling process is similiar to splitting.

They are a Victorian based company which may be even better for you.

Their website is:

http://www.radialtimber.com

P.S. my Longbow is now developing some twist as the stresses are relieved in the timber - mumble, mumble. I think the issue may be in the grain pattern of the original stave. At this rate it could be back to Hoyt compound or the Samik recurve real quick.

Dont give up yet! Whats the point of shooting something some clown in a big factory has put together Just think how proud you'll be when you take a big sambar with your selfbow! Hows the tillering going? What do you know about english oak? Would it be suitable?

Hi Chris

Sambar - Bow... Not I. Purely a target user of such with a strong interest in the history of such. Now if I was still living in rural Australia it might be a different story.

The Hoyt is wonderful. Purchased it 6 years ago. Set at 30lb max weight at the moment. It has a Toxonics sight with a 4X optic and I use a string release with it. Even happier I went with GRP limbs in preference to Carbon. Shooting indoors (18m) with it can be expensive as the grouping is small and I keep on slamming arrows into the ones already in the target - to make it worse I use large diameter alloy arrows.

The Samik recurve is equally wonderful but the strain after using it for a few hours is painful and it is only a 40lb bow!

With regard to English Oak - I cannot help you.

The tillering is finished and the stacking issue disappeared as the limbs were thinned down at the extremities. You were correct about the hinging. The bow itself is continuing to warp and that is disappointing but I can live with that as I have not put a lot of time into it.

If you have not read it you should borrow and read, "The Grey Goose Wing" by E.G Heath. More or less the definitive book on Archery history and it has passages on the method of manufacture used. Note it was written pre the Mary Rose retrieval.

I also have a Bamboo Bow (from the Torres Strait) - draws around 65-70lb. Never fired it but have seen it used. Very impressive so that mabe an option for the future for you.

I intend to build another self Longbow and I will probably go with a piece of Spotted Gum again - just need to find a piece with 'straight' grain. I will consider other alternatives but I need to find out what is available and suitable .

Sounds like your getting hooked! Your bow sounds pretty sweet, have you shot it yet? Yeah I have a nice looking piece of English Oak but Im not sure whether or not to hook into it, it might not be any good. I had better luck tillering with a spokeshave and also a drawknife as apposed to a plane, how about you? Did you laminate the riser or is it a true self bow?