Bowmaking question

Re: Bowmaking question

Joe Bradshaw

Ellis, I took a class last year at Arrowmont on making a longbow. Our instructor was Brian Persico. Very good class. Brian's website is brianpersico.com. Shoot him an email and I'm sure he can help you.

Joe

Re: Bowmaking question *LINK*

Bruce, a MN Galoot

I would think it would be a spectacular looking bow, if nothing else.. I have made several laminated recurves and longbows. Here is a site that has lots of good info. I suspect TomD will be along shortly. He's done lots of this.


Traditional archery

Also  *LINK*


Stickbow

Thanks, Bruce

Ellis Walentine

I've passed this along to the boy. It occurred to me that the best bow blank might be one that is riven from the plank. More research to be done.....

Ellis

Re: Bowmaking question

Rum

I'm very much not an expert[1] but I found the "Traditional Bowyers Bible" series (4 books) to be generally quite good at explaining the basics (I know some folks disagree with some parts but in general its a decent basic introduction).

https://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Bowyers-Bible-1/dp/1585740853

[1] In light of being not an expert but having broken and ruined more than a few I would say start with some cheap oak or other domestic to get the hang of it before ruining a piece of rosewood. That will also help you figure out if the wood is appropriate for the project as a self bow or better done as a laminate.. in which case the options are a lot more open.

Re: Thanks, Bruce

EdSnow

Not necessary to be riven in the case of a laminated bow. In this case the rosewood would make a good compression side and the exterior could be the tension side. Bamboo and ipe is a familiar combo. Tillering, less than perfect wood can be interesting though.

poorfolkbows has some interesting information that might help orient whomever for success.

Re: Google "self bow"

Hank Knight

Ellis, a bow made from a single piece of wood is called a "self bow." Google "self bow" and you'll get lots of hits, some of which have good information on building one.

Re: Bowmaking question

TomD

I have never heard of a rosewood self-bow, but google has: https://www.google.ca/search?q=rosewood+self-bow&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=-19LWaDTL8PdjwStpZ7oCw

Basically there is a formula for determining starting points for different woods of different densities in self-bows. TBB 4 has a lot of info on this, but there are lots of online sources also. Though just skipping ahead to a buildalong is probably faster. With bows, you want to maximize you stiffness to weight ratio in order to reduce hand shock, and maximize arrow velocity. Lighter bow woods tend to make better wide limb bows (to deal with tensile failures), heavier woods are better suited to narrow bows, like longbows, though yew and osage are about as heavy as you want when moving in that direction.

Composite bows, whether made in traditional/natural format, or modern format, can incorporate more specialized materials, and techniques. This involved in the older bows breaking down material to deal best with tension, compression, and the neutral axis. So even heavier materials than the osage range can be used to deal with the extreme compressive loads (parallel to wood fiber axis).

On modern bows, one often finds exotic wood veneer used under clear, glass, a practice I find offensive, which is probably unreasonable of me.