I made my first boardbow this spring,It is very slow with alot of follow ,but still shoots.I decided to make a heavier bow to hunt with this year.My second board bow broke on me.My third boardbow turned out to be 56# @28,fairly quick and a good shooter.I also made two stave bows out of locust and osage.They were out of very thin inferior staves,and both these bows turned out very light.They were good experience anyway.Now hunting season is aproaching and my third boardbow started to crack.I had one dry stave left it was Ash.I started making it into a bow yesterday.It turned out 50# with alot of follow.I decided to wrap the handle and finish it today,thought I may have made this years hunting bow.After 20 or 30 arrows it broke.So now I am against season with no selfbow this year.I could use my first boardbow,butit is down to 40# and very slow,I would not feel comfortable past 10 yards.I am depressed ,practiced all summer with a bow that broke before season.Just had to vent. :( :( ....Joe
My philosophy is that I learn more from my failures than from my successes and I'm brilliant, if I do say so myself. I don't know if that helps, but I hope so.
Brian
Dang Joe,,, I hate to hear that. Do you have another bow you can use to hunt with?
What Joe said. Do you have a bow you can hunt this year?
Joe, just read your other post. I highly recommend looking into a bow stave from Dryad or Gary Davis(rattlestick bows I think). As close as we are to hunting season, you can't go wrong with these guys, and you won't be as rushed to make your hunting bow. IMO......Terry
Take your 40# bow, reflex it about 4" and glue on a backing strip of hickory or bamboo. Either will raise the poundage to what ever you want, speed up the bow and keep it together.
Great advice from Eric!
The other positive is that you get faster at making bows! I noticed you talked about how much string follow you keep running into. I would just say that when you start tillering, slow down a bit, excercise the limbs often without over pulling them. A lot of limbs get stressed too far too early on first bows. We've all been there.
Hey, 10 yards isn't so bad. Makes the hunt exciting!
Thanks everyone.I have alot of lam longbows and recurves to hunt with.I just wanted to hunt with my own homemade selfbow.I got alot of personal e-mail offers for abow to hunt with.Sorry if I mislead anyone by saying bowless,I am a little brainless.Thanks everyone
Hold on a minute,I just read Eric's reply.I don't think I'll mess with the 40# boardbow I made as it was my first and my son helped me,but I do have a 35# osage stave bow I made and quit working on when it turned out to light.What can I do to it?If it breaks or blows It won't hurt my feelings.I'm getting used to breaking my selfbows.Any suggestions?.....Joe
Sinew maybe?
No offense but it sounds like you are getting in too big of a hurry. Making a selfbow isn't a fast affair. You shouldn't be trying to make a bow as fast as possible. Take it slow, watch and listen to the wood and exercise it properly. I would bet your success rate will improve greatly if you do.
I agree ,I've never been a very patient person.Now somebody give me some advice Right now ,I aint got all night!! :goldtooth: Just kidding,you are correct.
LOL. I was hoping I didn't make you mad. I applaud your enthusiasm and hang in there. You'll work it out and start making plenty of shooters.
Something else you have accomplished, Bowjo - it makes for a very interesting and informative thread. Good luck on the Osage (I'll be interested to hear Eric's suggestion for it - and others too of course.)
Bamboo and about this much reflex on your osage bow should give you a finished bow of about 50#.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bow%20making/frankenbowclamped.jpg)
I like that idea. I have a Bamboo Backed Osage (by Frank Razo of GA) that is 50#@29" and it's a real arrow spitter! I don't draw 50# on it but it is still fast and packs a wallop at the target, anyway. I likes Bamboo in the mix most anytime/anyway - LOL - got about 4 bows with Bamboo one way or another.
I have never tried to recurve a bow before.Do you back it first?Do you steam the limbs?Where do you get the bamboo?Got lots of questions now.....Joe
Too many questions?
I like the idea of sinew backing for your situation.
Eric mentioned "reflexing" , that would be different than "recurve". Recurve is putting a nice symetrical curve on the limb tips(maybe the last third of the working limb}. Reflexing usually means bending the entire working portion of the limbs. Both can be occomplished with dry heat or steaming.
Seams to me that adding a bamboo backing would be more work than what it is worth on an already tillered selfbow. Eric-please correct me if I am wrong, because I have never tried this. But would'nt you have to flatten out your bow back to accept a good glue joint with the bamboo? With all of my osage selfbows, the back has had way too many waves and dips to leave enough limb thickness to accomplish this. The bow in the pic looks like a typical glue-up to me. I have often wondered how you put a bamboo or hickory back {for that matter} on a selfbow that has a natural back on it. I would like to learn something here myself....Terry
Yes, you would have to flatten the bows back to glue on a backing.
How does the dry heating work?Do you clamp it in a reflex position and heat it with a heat gun?How do you know when you have applied enough heat?Do you reflex it more than what you want it to finish at?If I use a wood backing ,how thick would it have to be?.Thanks guys,I'm learning more everyday....Joe
I didn't figure I could get the stuff together to sinew,or back my light stave bow.Can't really find all the info I need. So I got a couple of red oak boards to try again.The first one I started making seems pretty good,but the glue on handle popped off.I re-glued it and might try to finish it tommorrow.If I get the handle to stay on,I believe this bow will turn out 55-65#'s.Since I had to wait on this bow,I took the second board and made a 70" pyramid style bow.The limbs go from 3 1/4" to 1/2".The bow turned out light at 45# or less.I am very suprised how good this bow shoots.I was really shooting good at 15 yards,very few arrows out of the kill zone.If the other bow I've started doesn't turn out better,I would definatly hunt with this bow.I went with this style just for looks and really like it.I also made a better tiller tree and took more time on it....Joe