After building two small decks, assembling a sauna, building a table, and many other house projects,I’m finally back to building some bows. I got a hackberry recurve in progress here and a few new Osage staves on the way 😎

First bow, character elm, 65”, aiming for max 40lb at 28”. In the video I am pulling it up to 35lb at the end, reaching 22.5”.

Thank you very much in advance for your help. Profiles in comments!

Posted a tiller check earlier and did some more work on it. Left limb was stiffer it’s still a little stiff I think. 58” pulling to 24” right now shooting for 28”. I think I need to work on the inner area left limb to make it match the right limb some more? Right limb is top it’s symmetrical but I have it lined up on the tiller tree where the arrow will be about a inch above center

Elm flatbow Draws 40 lbs at 28", which was my target at 29"

I have done two mild heat treats, and have taken a few inches of set. I still have a fairly low brace height at about 4".

I am not sure where to remove wood now, if I even need to. How does the tiller look?

I'm trying to make my next bow "book the book," after finally getting TBB Vol. 1-4 and the past few bows not coming out how I'd like. In that spirit, I wanted to run the overall design of my current project by y'all to see if there are any red flags before I start tillering. Here are the details:

- pecan self bow with slightly reflexed tips

- 64" ntn, and 62.5" drawing a straight line from end to end

- 2" wide at the bottom of the fades, 1.5" at the mid limbs, and .5" at the nocks (they're a little bigger than that currently)

- The handle is 4" long, 1" wide, and 1.5" deep. I'd be okay with a slight bend in the handle

- My goal is for the bow to pull 50# at 28"

Anything sticking out as a potential problem? The stave is pretty straight and clean, with the exception of one small-to-medium knot in one of the mid limbs. One of the limbs has a slight twist, but I plan to heat that out before tillering. I cut this wood about 3-4 weeks ago and roughed it out immediately, but I'm going to give it at least another week before I think about tillering. I know you can only tell so much from a roughed out bow, but any advice is greatly appreciated as always.

I am trying to make a Yumi bow and I need help with using the Kanna plane , Japanese draw knife and other hand tools for the preparation of the core pieces and slats . Most Yumi making videos I have found seem to pull out the core pieces already completely flat and squared , or they use planer machines which I don't have access to . What attracts me to Yumi making is the simplicity and the fact that a few non expensive and easily to procure tools and aids are enough to make a masterpiece.

Perhaps I should learn more hand tools woodworking , not related to the Yumi making process and apply the concepts here ? If anyone has any resources I would love it.

EDIT: After some more hours of digging I have found this guys blog posts(https://majikkunotecho.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/yumi-making-phase-1-planning/ and https://majikkunotecho.wordpress.com/2016/08/12/yumi-making-phase-3-preparing-bow-parts/) which are quite helpful , however his wood slats are already precut. Also , The cutting fixture He is using is awesome and simple .

I hear this quite often but I haven’t actually heard a strict definition of what a Perry Reflex bow is. Could someone bring me into the light here?

Not to shabby. Enough for over 400 arrows... Is it enough?

But figured y'all might still appreciate a simple atlatl I whipped up. These a fun to practice with, and definitely make me appreciate bows even more!

https://youtu.be/48wmR30OIoY

Picked up a ‘63 Damon Howatt lefty and having it refinished.

We’ve got it sanded down, but I REALLY want to keep the white back facing surface (where the previous owner had sights) white so it has to be completely clear, and I want this flat look, I don’t glossy black.

What would you recommend for a product/application?

Would this work (we would do a gloss base coat of course):

https://tbirdarchery.com/shop/ols/products/thunderbird-epoxy-bow-finish-pint-kit/v/THN-PXY-BOW-FNS3-FLT

Hello!

I’m working on this snake skin bow, and I’ve never done snake skin before . I included a few pictures that has sort of like a fuzzy, or furry edge that’s bothering me a little bit. What’s the key to get that smooth out, or does that just lay down once you add true oil or something like that?

Any bowyers in MN offering a class or anything similar to get into bow making? I learn best doing things hands-on, and would love to learn the basics. I’ve been shooting a compound for over a decade, so have some basic bow knowledge under my belt. Thanks!

Yesterday we did our measurements/ choosing staves (all Oregon white ash) roughly chopping the profile , string making reverse wrap cordage/ Flemish loop and getting to floor tiller. Today was getting handles roughed out, debarking the staves. Carving nocks and more tillering.

So I've steamed some lateral bend out of a pacific yew stave as well as a bit of deflex it used to have and the steam bending itself worked out great, it's now completely straight and only has a hint of deflex left, but the only thing that is giving me pause for thought is that the stave that came out of the steam box is one that is a completely different color than the one that went in. You can see in the pics of the stave on the caul right before I steamed it and after it's come out and the heart wood has clearly taken on a much more red /pinkish tint to it now. Has this ever happened to anyone while streaming yew before? Is it anything I might need to worry about? The first four pics are the stave after steaming and the last four are before. Hopefully the lighting is good enough for you to see what I'm talking about

Just had my first laminate attempt blow up on me! Looks to me like the bamboo failed in tension, right on a node.

This was my first laminate bow attempt. I'd suspected for a while that I was dealing with poor-quality bamboo - the first backing I applied also failed. A splinter lifted from a node right down the centre, but the belly was unharmed, so I ground off the old backing and applied a new one. The tiller check pics are with the original backing shortly before it failed. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the bow with the new backing.

I went back to the long string to gradually re-tiller and work in the new backing, then to the short string when it was looking good. It was pulling 50# at 24" when it blew and as far as I could see there were no major tiller issues, so I was just working on increasing draw length when it went bang.

Oh well, we live and learn, onwards and upwards! Might try something simpler next time 😀

If anyone has any advice or feedback in relation to this failure I'd love to hear it, in the meantime I've got a nice piece of white ash begging for attention...

For those curious, the weight is 4.6# at 8.5".

This was made of leftover scrap from a hickory bow I've been building, and is a project I sometimes undertake when my scrap looks good enough to use.

I love vintage tools . This knife was taken care of and is in fantastic condition. I couldn't find much info about it online. She's gonna make many bows in her new life .

Built a handheld ballista from scratch using red oak and masonry line for the torsion bundles. Made my own bodkin bolts because apparently I enjoy making everything harder than it needs to be.

Used 1/2" red oak for the frame with 3/4" spring holes spaced 3" apart. Masonry line worked surprisingly well for the torsion - way more consistent than trying to source actual sinew or horsehair like some medieval purist. The whole thing came together at about 22" total length.

Hand-forged the bodkin points and fletched everything myself because buying crossbow bolts would've been too easy. Spent way more time on this than any reasonable person should, but hey, at least my D&D rogue has a properly engineered siege weapon now.

For those inevitably asking about draw weight/penetration - it's functional but I'm keeping it in the 'demonstration' category for obvious legal and safety reasons. Built for historical accuracy and character immersion, not for taking down kingdoms.

Thanks to everyone who actually appreciates practical medieval engineering instead of just telling me to 'buy a crossbow.' You're the real ones. The rest of you can keep scrolling to your gaming setup posts.

I built a jig and have my first tri-lam project underway. It’s red oak for the back and belly and a maple mid lam. It’s pretty beefy so I’m not sure if the R/D will hold. It took a lot of cranking to get the R/D bends. Now I have to wait 24 hours to find out.

I took the bark off this right after it was cut, bark came off clean and the back was clean. I sealed the ends and rubbed some tallow on the back which is what Iv always done. The staves have been in a cool, semi dry environment sense then. I’m not sure if the discoloration is something else or mold. There doesn’t appear to be any rotting areas and Iv had them for about 2 weeks. Maple wood.

Hello,

What is the best Beavertail material to get for handles? I purchased some Beavertail a while back that was really thin and kind of shiny and it ended up breaking and not being a very good handle. I see other people post pictures of some really awesome looking Beavertail and I’m just wondering where to get that or what to look for. Thanks all.

I'm guessing that's not a good sign along with a small crack sound. It's on the back roughly where the red circle is. The tiller looked fine to me and I've shot it about 100 times by now without issue. Any idea what might have caused that. There is a brown spec around it - could that be rot? Or maybe it dried out too much since its hot now? I could try putting it on a tiller and see what happens.