Another bow question? easy ten points!?

Question

i now have some good strate hardwood to make my bow out of. can anyone give a simple clear instructions on how to carve the wood? its about 1 1/2 - 2in. thick. the grain is strate also.

PLEASE NO LINKS!

thank you kindly.

Answer 1

Most real bows are laminates (fiberglass or carbon) A plain wood bow won't have enough power to be more than a toy.

Answer 2

you are not only going to have to carve the straight (not strate) wood but you have to bend it. this is beyond explaining here. go buy a book.

Answer 3

To make a self bow properly you need a piece of wood about the size of a fence post to start your process for it to be strong enough...The wood you have there is not even close enough to being strong enough. The handle alone needs to be about 4 inches thick if you are just going to make a longbow. The correct process is to get you a proper size post ,square it up, draw your design on the wood using a draw knife to take the wood down you your pattern. After carving you will need to get the limbs to bend parallel.

To do this get you a poster board mark several horizontal straight lines all the way across it and attach a string to your bow and have something like ratchet type strapping attached to the center of the string and start drawing the bow to the first line to make sure your limbs both draw equally if they don't you will need to take wood off the limb that does not bend equally with the other limb. You want your limbs to draw equal all the way through the entire draw back.

Then you need some kind of backing to go on the back side of the limbs to help strengthen the bow and to make it shoot harder hickory or maple strips glued or strapped to the backside of the limbs again go though the limb parallel process.

Then you will need some kind of backing to go on the tips to prevent your string from cutting through the tips. Most people use bone carved with string notches in glued to the tips....

This was just a brief summary Good Luck,,,

Answer 4

Find a pattern that you like, trace it onto the wood using carbon paper then carve it with  a Dremel tool.  

If you don't have the tool, maybe a friend has one that  you can borrow, or, they aren't that expensive and, come with bits!

Answer 5

Just any hardwood won't do. Hickory, ash, hop hornbeam or lemon wood have all been used to make bows. The old English longbows were made of yew.

Carve your bow slowly, using a spoke shave or draw knife. The grain of the wood in your finished bow must be as close as possible to being perpendicular to the string. Otherwise, the bow will twist when you draw it. Build up the handle by gluing on an extra piece of wood. Make nocks for the string by sawing, then sanding then VERY smooth, or the string will break.

Once the bow is roughed out, you must make what is called a tiller. It is just a board, with a notch in the end to hold the bow handle, and it has slots about every 6 inches along the edge. Put the bow in the tiller and pull the string to one of the slots. Now remove wood until the bow forms a smooth curve from one end to the other. Repeat this step, until the bow curve is even at a 28" draw.

The cross section of an American Indian- style bow is pretty much flat, and English bow is a half oval. The English is harder to make, but works better if it is done right.

Be careful- if your wood starts making cracking sounds, get another piece of wood. If the bow or string breaks during this process, the suddenly released energy could seriously hurt you. Use your head.