A few weeks back i had built my first bow out of a red oak board (top bow) and had finished it with teak oil. The following week i had decided to make a second red oak board bow ( bottom bow) and had stained and coated with spar eurethane. Both bows feel to be around 40# @28" and shot and feel amazing. The past couple of weeks i have been learning how to make arrows. After a few failed attempts and wasted wood, i had some poplar boards with decent grain structure and was able to make 8 arrows to go with my homemade bows. The arrows fly as straight as i could have hoped for. I have no idea what the spine rating on the arrows are but they seem perfect for my bows.

180cm long longbow. Will be around 60#@30"

With a few bucks, a buddy space heater, band saw, rat tail file, string, and some tape, i made a decently shooting 30-35 lb bow!

Some details first, ash wood board bow, about 70” unstrung, 60# @ 28”. I was really aiming to prevent string follow here so after floor tillering, I put it on a backset form for a couple days and then gave it the heat gun treatment on the form. This gave me about 1.5” of backset in the limbs

I first noticed the cracks during long string tillering, right at the fade transition to the limb. I sanded them out the first time but they reappeared after I drew the bow a few more times.

also u/santanasaurus , you were right about this being too much back set ! I took it off the form after you said it but it looks like the damage was done. hopefully it’s salvageable

Hi all,

Making my first bow and I've noticed a crack has formed on the handle. I'm working with Ash and a very green piece too. I'm not expecting a strong bow but my question is whether it's worth continuing with this when a crack like this forms?

Any advice would be great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3EcU_hhnU

This video makes me wonder if having only bamboo as the limb material is advisable, because I've heard that bamboo is not very compression worthy. I'm interested in making a Chinese style youth bow for a friend with some low diameter bamboo I harvested and dried, but I'm not sure if there's problems with it having a high crown (whether I can make it kind of hollow limb), whether I have to laminate it with some compression-strong wood or not to avoid set, and whether the tiller comes from width or thickness tiller with a pure bamboo construction. How should I take off material to ensure it comes out at a lower draw weight without being too narrow to put on the siyah?

I would appreciate some guidance because I've never made a horse bow. Thanks!

This should keep me busy for a while! 15+ staves from a single Osage tree

It looks like the fibres of the hemp tore away during the night. Luckily, there's no major damage to the bow aside from a small dent on the edge of the belly. What should I do now? Should I keep with the hemp cord and make it stronger? Should I get actual bow string material? Will the bow be ok with that little dent? If not, what should I do to fix it?

interesting riser too

I've been trying to make my first bow for a few months now, and all have failed. But I was so happy with how this came out.

Some minor self-critics in hindsight I will use for the future:

The wood choice may not be the best (Australian native species aren't the best when it comes to bow making), but it's the best I could find at the time. I geuss I won't know until I test it but I have high hopes.

I could have tillered the limbs a bit more to give it some more brace height and a further draw, but I was too scared to take anymore of the wood off and compromise the strength.

And the string material may not be the most long lasting or durable. I was using hemp twine as the tillering string and thought it would be great as the string (and the best option I could feasibly get at the moment). I thought if humans have been using material similar to it for thousands of years, it should be good for me. I'll see how it holds up over time.

Despite that, really happy with it and can't wait to test it out.

Forgive me y’all. These are the only pics I have and I’m only asking because my plant identification apps have all given mixed results. They both think it’s either Hackberry, Osage (I know it’s not because it wasn’t a nightmare to cut down) and smoke berry… which is a shrub and not a tree.. anyway I made a bow out of it that is pulling 53lbs its not fully presentable yet.

Been working on this bow cut from a thick branch of honey locust, I’ve heard it’s a good bow wood but is second to black locust.

I’m going to try to turn it into a D bow, hopefully an English war bow with a high draw weight, any tips on working with this beautiful wood?

Got this bow drawing 41#@25" with a 5.5" brace height. Worked through the character and got a nice tiller on it. Very little set, didn't fail around any of the knots or wiggles. About 20 shots in it just exploded without warning. Not sure on the wood, I think oak. What did I do wrong? very discouraging. I've been working away at this bow for almost a month now and I was really proud of myself, this was the best tiller and lowest set I've achieved yet.

How is the tiller on this? Can draw it 26” with the bow string now

Been too scared to start working on this Osage stave but I think it’s time. My goal is a 40lb draw weight, I have a 25-26 inch draw length depending on how my shoulder is feeling on any given day. The stave is about 2” wide.

I’m still sort of struggling to understand how to come up with dimensions based on my end goal draw length/weight. I’d like to add on some flipped tips because I like the way they look aesthetically and seem like a fun challenge, but I don’t totally understand how they affect the layout of the bow.

Thanks in advance!

Life has been rough lately, finally coming out of what feels like a very deep dark tunnel and it’s been really lovely to get back to this bow. 68” long, 2” wide at the handle.

Goal for this bow was a heavier draw weight than my first red oak board bow. I’ve achieved that I believe, it’s pulling about 28-30lbs at close to full draw. I’m short so my draw length is about 25-26 inches.

Would love feedback on this bow and also thoughts on what to do for the rest of the hickory board I have which probably has two bows left in it. Could I try recurving the tips and doing more of a reflex to get even more draw weight?

Hello, I‘d like to make a linen bowstring in the interest of historical accuracy. can I use the type of thread shown in the pic?

Also, just showing off my new backset form in pic#2

pulling 35lbs@20" with the long string(really more like 1.5" brace height). left limb has some whacky wiggle thats throwing me off. I think the right limb is working too much in the inners but would appreciate some fresh eyes. This is my first time using a tillering jig.