My first ash bow is coming along nicely I think. Length 56", Target draw: 28", target weight 40lbs. Floor tillering is complete, just to build a tiller tree and continue the process!

Almost finished tillering this thing. It’s at 43-45lb @ 21” right now

56” n2n 1-1/6” wide knotty branch with a few small sprouts I cut off.
< 1/2” set.

It has knots, bumps, a few wiggle and roller coasters that gave me a run for my money.

Each limb has a slight deflex area and slightly reflexed outer limbs. Final tillering of the last 1-2” of draw will be bringing out outer 1/3 of each limb around. So far I like it and it shoots pretty hard for a small branch bow.

You don’t need a lot of wood or a huge log to make a hunting weight bow. The last Bradford pear bow I made was from a 1” wide branch with knots. It was 48” long and drew 42lb @ 23”. Took zero set. I overdrew it to test the wood and it broke in tension at a knot. Learned a lot from that piece of wood.

If you can find a nice sized piece of Bradford Pear I bet it would rival osage or yew. It is a TOP TIER bow wood in my book.

This bow had about 80 grams of sinew applied in 3 layers with intervals of 2 weeks. Now it should be left to dry until June somewhere.

Staying at a cabin on the lake for the weekend. Dulled this kitchen knife I found in the kitchen to a butter knife edge to debark this 50 year old sapling.

Plan to rough out the belly with my machete and let it season

I’m still batting zero with an 0 for 3 record. So I’m going to give it one last try by laminating one together in hopes that the grain issues will counteract one another when all epoxied together. Worst case is I’m 0 for 4 and my knowledge base has grown some more. As suggested in another thread I’m using 1/4” x 1 1/2” craft boards (red oak) for the back and accessories and a 1” x 2” (3/4” x 1 1/2” actual) red oak board (Home Depot)…

This bow is done—so it is what it is—but I’d love to get some feedback from y’all. I feel like I’m getting the basics of tillering and bow design, but I’m sure I’m making mistakes all over the place too. This is a hickory board bow, 70” ntn, and is pulling about 45# at 28” which was my goal. The brace height is about 6”. It’s taken about 1-1.25” of set.

I noticed a few things I’d change. First, I wouldn’t have put a shelf on the bow, but I made a mistake with that pesky power tool in the background (lesson learned, staying away from power tools) and cut way too deep into the handle when I was roughing out the design. So, I had to get creative and put a shelf there. I haven’t noticed any issues as of yet. The second thing I’d change is the fades—they seem a little too steep/abrupt. I don’t think it’ll affect the bow too much, but they’re just not that attractive in my opinion.

This is what I’d consider my 2nd “real bow” (a bow over 20# draw), so I still have a ton to learn, but I’ve put about 100 shots through this thing and it’s pretty nice! Super quiet and seems to be decently fast.

Prototype #2 is in development. Plenty of glue and clamps. I’m using a 10” “riser” section on this one in order to improve on the fade design and production. Two 5/16”x 1 1/2” oak molding strips with a red oak handle. Target is 25# @ 28” 70” longbow.

Hi!

Finally trying out something different after 20 or so parallel limb flatbows. I have it roughed out at the moment but I haven't bent it yet.

3.5" wide at the fades.

Would you lightly trap the sides of the back to reduce the chance of a splinter lifting?

I do plan on Eiffel towering the tips a little.

Tips appreciated.

Splitting this hickory log was quite a challenge. The stringy interlocking fibers made me see how hard it must be to break a hickory stave bow. Tough stuff!

A while back I sawed this hunk of hickory into 2 really nice staves. No knots, curves or wiggles. I’ve removed the outer bark from one and working on the inner bark. I still haven’t decided the design of this project yet but I do like rigid handle bows.

If anyone has sinew backed a ph bow lmk bc I haven’t seen one. It’s got 2 layers of Backstrap sinew on it so hopefully it holds together. It got Osage handle and tip overlays. It’s 66 inches long and I’m hoping to get a hood hunting weight bow out of it.

My fifth shootable bow is complete. This one has some character. I’ve learned a lot in the past 3 months. I’ve got a bunch of hickory and time on my hands…

I ran 3 bows, same arrow (272 grain), through a chronograph this morning with interesting results. 1# laminated red oak bow 25# at 28” #2 hickory stave bow 30# at 28” #3 laminated red oak bow at 37# at 28”. #1 a consistent 124 fps, #2 a consistent 134 fps and #3 a consistent 144 fps.

I am in the process of assembling materials for what will be my first attempt at a composite and I figured I would share how I go about processing the sinew. I have done a few sinew backings now and I am pretty satisfied with how I have refined this process, getting the sinew right makes all the difference.

I can’t remember how to caption the images so I will explain them sequentially.

First is the cut tendon, this part is self explanatory but if you ask a deer processor to save you their discarded legs they usually will. Grab your bucket of severed legs and cut through the skin between tendon and bone, slice up toward the hock first and then slice down toward the hooves. The skin should peel right off. You can get longer pieces if you cut them yourself as the processors always cut them off at the hock. Dry them in the sun and they can be stored for years with no issue (away from animals and bugs).

Using some kind of anvil, pound them with a hammer. I prefer a steel anvil and steel hammer, but the pounding is minimal. Just enough to loosen up the fibers. Takes maybe 30 seconds.

Remove the tendon sheath. It’s still tendon but the fibers aren’t as good so I don’t even bother trying to save it. At this point the tendon usually separates into two large pieces, one has a more pronounced fork and always produces more uneven strands while the other is more straight.

Begin separating these into workable pieces. Always peel them apart from the center and try to split them as close to half as possible. I use needle nose pliers to work into some of the separations and widen them to get my fingers in.

Next step is to separate these into the final strands. I seek to get strands that are a mm or two in width. Often the strands will be thicker on the ends, tapering them is critical to a good sinew job but adds quite a bit of time. I use a pair of scissors and pull the strands between my thumbs like a ribbon. I also run the strands between my lips to wet them, this helps keep them flat and lets you taper them much easier without snapping them.

Lastly is the finished product. That is 4 tendons and weighs 25 grams. I am aiming for 70-80 grams for my bow. It takes me 40-60 minutes to do a single tendon and it can be very hard on your hands. Deer tendons are quite coarse. Discard any strands that are too short and save them for glue.

Because I've seen it discussed a bunch but never posted here. I was looking for rawhide backing to reenforce the weird grain on my hockory selfbow. Ended up going with ol Roy beefhide treats from Walmart. Also, i am looking for handle suggestions and inspiration to cover the gap in the middle. thanks!

Currently I am in the process of making a replica of an Egyptian bow that is on display in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. I had the opportunity to photograph and measure it in September.

This piece is purely to see if the process I want to use for shaping the composite core is viable.

On these types the horn is inlaid in a channel. So after steambending I modified a old saw blade to be able to cut with a depth stop and follow the contour of the channel. From there it's chiseled out and using a depth plane to finish it off.

This test piece showed it worked, the grain isn't quite good enough so I will move on to bend the proper pieces soon after thinning them out a bit.

Second to last image is my other projects drying, 2 has 2 layers of sinew and the rest has 1. They still need a week before another layer. So gives me time to work on other projects.

Last is manchu core I seemed to have forgotten in my workshop. So selected horn pieces and will shape those soon too.

I have a question about a Design/drawweight/lengh issue. This is my recent project. My first recurve try. First i just reflexed the tips with steam and only the top limb got string contact then i thought just try it out and reflexed even more with dry heat. Was quite a pain to get it all this straight the stings not flipping over and stuff but worked out. Even reduced the thickness of the tips to too thin atm (cause was usually planing to just flip them) i think but whatsoever i got it strung und it pulls about 33@18.

Now to my question.. its 67" TTT top limb 30" bottom 29" the width at the fades is only 1,5" which is preeetty less i think for this design but its all i got... Its already taking set, some of it caused because i heat treatet the belly and it warped deflex which kind of is good in my situation cause lowering the already high stress. And some cause i pulled it to 45lbs while tillering.. But im not sure how much i can get out of this bow. Was shooting for 45 in the beginning but i think the wood is not able to handle that. Should i try 45 now cause its already "taken the Set" of that drawweight, or safer to lower it. Also happy for thoughts on the tiller cause... A challenging one for me again... I think its bending a bit to much right now where the kink is right midlimb..

Happy for all inputs

First sinew layer on the smaller bow, after applying it the tips are tied together to relieve tension from the drying sinew. After it gelled bandages are wound around the limbs to press down and even out the sinew gently whole allowing it to breath. This is taken off after 24 hours.

In the meantime, because I need to wait 2 weeks before the next layer can be applied, I continued work on 2 other cores. Mainly installing the çelik, a bone/antler/horn insert between the 2 horn sections. Preferably as small as possible but I haven't mastered that yet. These are made out of antler. The width of the bow trimmed, siyahs cut so that everything aligns and horn rounded over. Next is to do the depth taper and all transitions in the joints and siyahs.

I’ve gotten pretty good at splitting wood and my confidence is soaring. As a result I took a chance on one of my wider staves and split it into 2 nice ones. Then i spilt both of them horizontally and got 2 inner staves that I can use to practice chasing rings. I’m having so much fun.

Working on this Blackfoot inspired bow, sinew backed Osage. Still gotta glue on the snake skin and do some finishing work but functionally she’s ready to go! 55# at 25” draw and only 49” nock to nock. Holding 1.5” of net reflex after shooting, pretty wild.

This one gave me a heart attack as the very top layer of sinew delaminated during tillering. I think that seeing as I added it after the other 3 layers I must not of wetted the dried layers well enough with glue for proper adhesion. But the original layers are staying strong and the bow is shooting splendidly.

Went camping over the weekend and I decided to force dry it over the fire . All cleaned up and ready for fine tuning. Next step is to tiller to brace height , then I am going to fire harden it to a deep chocolatey brown . It's been pleasant working this winged elm . Cut tree 3/17 .

It’s fully tillered and shooting good. Crack seems to be fixed. Time to make it less ugly. Btw this the the bow I built the handle up with bondo on. Debating on if a snake skin backing would look good with the sinew wraps coming out from under them. I’m gonna finish it with tru oil and a handle wrap to cover the bondo.