Bow making?

I had started to make a bbow out of white oak, but set it aside as the weather closed in. Then the local college sent its part time calendar, which included a course in "Professional Bow Making." Well, said I, that's just the thing I need to tide me over the winter. So I went online and found the course, and began to read the info. It's a course to learn to make the bows you put on Christmas presents and things! My whole winter is ruined!

Not to worry, Roger! Surely YouTube is full of instruction on bow making, some of it maybe even useful once you weed out the pseudo experts.
Would this be the sort of bow Larry might use in pursuit of Bambi, or the kind we’d use to play the cello?
Either way, it’ll be fun to follow the build

This is a bigger avocation than many realize. But, as Peter pointed out, there are a lot of pseudo experts out there. FWIW, Osage Orange/Bois'arc / etc. is very popular for them. I have seen many of them. Understand, if you sell you will never get back in dollars time and effort put into one. Good luck.

Thanks, Peter. I have been following Mike from Boarrior Bows on Youtube, and I'm working from a set of plans for a flatbow published in Popular Mechanics in the 30s. I was hoping to get some hands-on time with an instructor. Thinking about it, it was a bit silly to think that Niagara College would have enough demand for a bow making course that they would offer one. However, Lee Valley offers a course in making a longbow...

Anyway, this is my third attempt. One the previous ones I ended up making a mistake that ruined the bow. Maybe third time's the charm.

disclaimer: despite having a half dozen blanks drying in the rafters I have yet to actually _complete_ a bow... I also spend way to much time reading...

There is a four volume calles on "The traditional bowyers bible". if I recall correctly volume 1 (and maybe some in 2..) dealt with flat back and long bows quite a bit, I think 3 got into historical composites and 4 was more complex stuff plus arrows (its been a year or two so I'm a bit fuzzy but definitely vol 1 & 2 were the basics). I actually learned quite a bit about wood tension and tree location reading these, getting "good" wood seemed pretty critical, more in the details on selection than any specific wood and fitting the bow to the wood. He has examples in there of everything from oak longbows to pine (yes literally hardware store pine) flat bows (the latter done as somewhat a proof of the concept that wood alignment and positioning matter, but the actual wood mostly drives the bow type).

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=the+traditional+bowyer's+bible

For a consolation prize, go to stickbow http://www.stickbow.com

Does anyone remember the little bowmaking kits that included a 4" or so diameter plastic jig with multiple vertical spindles around which you wrapped the ribbon, and the little clear plastic pointy button thingy that was used to hold the ribbon together in the middle, as well as affix it to the package? We spent a lot of time as kids making bows with one of those. Wouldn't shoot arrows worth a darn, but still fun and artistic. They probably stopped making them because some kid put his eye out with one of the little pointy things. Or swallowed one.

On the subject of wooden bows, there's a guy I see at a few of the yearly high-end art shows around here who makes and sells beautiful laminated exotic hardwood bows, both recurve and compound. He makes custom cases for them, too. Looks like it'd be a fun woodworking specialty to get into, and I'm guessing it's profitable enough for him, otherwise he wouldn't be doing the shows where booth rentals can run into the thousands of dollars.

Frank is right about bois d arc, osage orange, bodark or whatever. If I remember right bois d arc means bow wood. Osage comes from the Osage Indians. Never made a bow in my life. I can hit a 18" bullseye at 600 yards with standard military sights with a M-14 or M016, but I can't hit the broadside of a barn with a bow and arrow. I would have gotten real hungry back in the day just eating bugs and tree bark.

I'm sure the books and vids will mention this: The successful bow makers I have seen invariably use a backing (side facing away from shooter) to prevent the wood from splitting and add strength. This backing can be another kind of wood, rawhide, snakeskin, etc. Rattlesnake skin really looks neat. Keep in mind I am just an observer, not a bow maker.

Frank Fusco said:

I'm sure the books and vids will mention this: The successful bow makers I have seen invariably use a backing (side facing away from shooter) to prevent the wood from splitting and add strength. This backing can be another kind of wood, rawhide, snakeskin, etc. Rattlesnake skin really looks neat. Keep in mind I am just an observer, not a bow maker.

Click to expand...

This is true of most modern bows (and a large percentage of historical bows). The ones without a backing are called "self bows". The Traditional Bowyer books I mentioned above go into quite some detail on wood grain and managing how you control it on the face of the bow to prevent splitting for self bows. From my few abortive attempts and readings I think the key to success at making self bows is to experience a lot of failures. Basically get some cheap but mostly useful wood and work it to failure over and over to see what does and does not work,

The aha moment for me was understanding that a bow stave actually has three parts.

1. On the inside is the belly, this needs to be a material that is strong in compression. For a self bow this should be the inside of the tree, as heartwood is stronger in compression than it is in tension.
2. The core is in the middle of the bow. Surprisingly this does very little other than providing a connection between the belly and the face.
3. The face of the bow is the outside, this needs to be strong in tension and in a self bow is the outside of the tree. For a self bow this also should be a single growth ring, preferably full width (although there are exceptions to this if you're sufficiently clever). A lot of the facing materials for laminate bows are chosen for the "strong in tension" characteristic (plus appearance).

One of my prized possessions is an oak self bow a friend of my folks gave me somewhere around 30 years ago. Its all one piece except for the handle was slightly built up on the inside and shot quite well the last time I used it. I'm a bit nervous using it at this point as wood that old is likely getting a bit brittle... but its a nice memory piece to have!