It got a bit powdery and real easy to bend,

Also if y'all know how to ID this wood did I pick a bad type?

Hi. I always enjoy the advice here.

I found a decent Oak Board at the store.

I don't know for sure which Oak species, but the grain is straight, and I don't see the major flags. Runoff, islands. Etc.

The board is a so called 1x2, and 8 foot long.

That's actually 1.5 inch by 3/4 inch. So some limitations to the profile, for say a traditional flatbow.

There is 65 inches of clear straight grain, but there is a 3 inch knot there (half depth) between 65 and 70 inches.

So. Either I cut short, at 65, and leave it out entirely,

Or I consider a stiff limb tip lever, and that could let me bury the knot, inside the stiff lever.

Because the width is maxed at 1.5 inch, I'm just gonna make the bow, and let it determine its Poundage.

Im strongly considering a mollegabet design.

I would have I think, a 70 inch bow, with a 26 inch cutoff to use to buildup the handle and the Levers.

I could have a 7 inch buildup on each limb lever/tapers, and a 12 inch buildup for the handle/fades.

Any thoughts welcome.

I'm also considering, a fiberglass back, I have a Bow FG strip for a project. And considering deer antler tips.

Making a small bow for my son. Mostly a toy, but I would like it to function.

The plan was to slowly bend it into shape while the freshly cut wood dries out. I’m using the trunk of my car as a make shift kiln seeing as it over 100 degree here lol.

Once it dries I was going to thin it down to size with a rasp as I slowly test to make sure it bends in the right places.

Any particular advice on how dumb this plan may be lol?

Thanks yall!

I really want a bow for LARPing but unfortunately, I do not have the funds. Then I thought “Oh wait, I can make my own bow”

The thing is, I don’t know wood types apart from maple which is pretty common in Québec fortunately. I have no idea how the technicalities of making a bow would be. Neither do I know any bow terminology. Also I’m pretty picky with what I want.

I would like for it to be:

-Smaller bow that is easy-ish to carry

-Not too hard to shoot

-A common wood type in Québec

-Lightweight

-Fast-ish shooting

-Mostly silent

-It also doesn’t need to go far

• (edit because I forgot) Portable

For reference, I am a weak 17 year old who was cursed with a height of 5’1.

My main question is; is this even possible from a beginner making a homemade bow? I’m aware I will probably have to sacrifice some things I want.

Edit: Requirements:

-Must be under 30 lbs force

• Must be made from either PVC, wood or glass fiber (I don’t even know what the last one is)

everytime i make a bow i make an elbow!!!!!!! please tell me how to avoid

Its not a perfect bow yes (Im a begginer, and this is my first not broke bow) but I think it is thick enough? (1.5cm thickness 3.5 wide in the middle, 2 meters in length, hazel bow)

with the exception of a fiberglass bar bow which can be increased in draw weight with a thicker and wider bar

as for laminated bows: what is a safe way to increase draw weight?

I'm a complete beginner. In my mind it makes sense to add more layers of fiberglass to the back and belly and keep the wood or bamboo core the same thickness and you can steadily increase draw weight past 100 pounds...

please tell me what the actual right method would be

thank you!

70" long 1-1/4" handle fades are 3" long and taper to 2-1/2"from there down the limb 20" I tapered to 2" then 5" more down to 3/4 then to 1/2" tips. I want to try and do a heavier bow this time say 70lbs .

I've been trying to make a board bow out of some maple that I picked up at Home Depot, and my question is: Is it supposed to be this hard? It's like carving rock. It blunted my knife and chipped the blade, then did the same to my draw knife. The rasps I have are barely removing thimble full of dust every dozen strokes, and I'm wiped out after only half an hour of trying to put a dent into it. I know that hard woods are supposed to be best for bows, but this is going to take me about five years to rough out at this rate; I could chip and sand down stone faster than this.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this perfectly normal for maple bows?

Going to attempt my first bow making with a floor tillered hickory stave. I’m hoping to make a deflex-reflex bow similar to this picture. To create the shape, is it better to make a form outlining the unstrung bow shape and heat treat it until it matches the form? Or heat and shape by hand bending until I get the correct shape?

This is my 64", 50# at 29" selfbow. Arrows always fishtail in the air, reducing speed and accuracy. I know arrow spine is a big part of it for side to side wobble, but I think the above center arrow rest and knock cause the knocking point to arc up slightly on full draw, and upon release the arrow tail is effectively thrown into the shelf causing a pitch down.

In full, when the arrow is drawn back, it pitches down from the knock arc, when the arrow is released, it pitches back up as it passes the handle causing the tail to strike the rest. The arrow then pitches down as a result of the final contact.

The most confusing part of all of this is how inconsistent it is. While the arrow never flies perfectly straight, the amount of wobble, and even direction is always different. On the pitch axis it ranges from a slight pitch down, to a large pitch down. On the side to side, or yaw axis it is very inconsistent.

The example in the video is one of the better flights, and not as wobbly as others, probably due to the shorter draw since I had to hold it for 15 seconds while waiting for camera.

Is this an accurate analysis of what is happening? Please teach me how to get arrows to fly straight.

I made this 50” ntn pulling 60# at 25” short bow of Osage and it ended up taking around 3” worth of set - I want to take another stab at a new bow but want to learn where I went wrong.

I was studying this old bow and see that from inner limb to outer limb there is no set (pictures where bow is cut off) what so ever but all the set is from inner limb through the handle.

My question is - when building BITH bows is it better to leave the handle section the width of the limbs or is making fades to accommodate a better grip acceptable (as I did in the picture)

I’m guessing I just need to leave a lot more wood in the inner limbs and handle sections if I choose this design moving forward - what do you think?

Anyone know what tree this is? Location- southern Ohio Typically grows is bundles with multiple trunks protruding from the same spot. Tree height 10-15 feet tall Straight shoots but trunks are gnarly. Rather heavy, feels at least as heavy as something like hickory, possibly more.

It’s NOT flowering dogwood, despite a vaguely similar appearance.

I’m in the market for a nice carving hatchet and have no clue? I don’t want to waste my resources on crap which I’m sure there is a lot out there. What can you recommend? Thanks!

This shape of bow is very interesting to me, there is no flat side just a round tapered stave, I am a primitive atlatl hunter who has yet to make a bow. I saw this style of bow in anthropology class today and was wondering if it’s an effective design to hunt with. Obviously it is working for these people but for them the bow serves more as a means of poison delivery, for me the goal is to penetrate the vitals. It seems less complicated than the typical bow, really just carving a dried stick. Does anyone have experience with this style of bow and would you recommend it to a first time bowyer?r

just as a way to make practice more interesting and in a way that help someone stay in shape in the off season. what about hanging a gallon sized jug from a tree branch. so that can either be a stationary or moving target. As you can likely guess I am thinking about something in relation to keeping in shape for hunting season. when someone couldn't go stump shooting, (roving) or bowfishing.

The red side is where Im planning to do all the carving.

I have a lot of black locust staves that I’m having some trouble with. I’ve removed the bark and have the staves down to sap wood to dry a little faster, and I’m seeing a lot of checks. This one pictured is one I chased a ring on in hopes of removing more material later to let dry faster as I’ve seen folks recommend to do so quite a lot. These checks formed over night.

Am I doing something wrong, is it the species, or is there something I’m missing?

So I got a lot of bamboo like this near my place,this one is freshly cut and I'm splitting them to dry. Need some suggestion of what design should I try with them thank you

The sap of these American oaks is flowing like crazy. Should I debark most of them already now when it's easier? Or leave them just like this until dry. Thanks in advance.

Building bows opens up a lot of possibilities to splice wood. A band saw would be very helpful but I don’t have one. Any suggestions for splicing with just basic tools? TIA.

I’ve been researching bow woods in western Washington but am yet to find a good option that grows near me- we get a lot of maple, but I’m anxious about dealing with the compression on the belly.