Making bows

[Mikey]

Making a bow ...

so I have two staves coming to me ... A 72 inch clean Yew (yes I said Clean... I am stoked that I dont have to glue to peices together)
and a 73 inch Hoghorn???

I dont wanna mess these babys up ... where can I find the best info to turn these into a a long bow and a re-curve

[Dillershortbow]

just a little advice from someone who dabbles in making bows a bit. Don`t start with yew wood. Try buying a hickory or white oak board and make a couple of bows out of them once you figgure out what you are doing. Then start with a piece of yew wood.

oh ya buy a copy of the boyers bible

[petew]

Here are some helpfull places. make your first bows from boards like red Oak and Hickory or maple. Learn to tiller on cheap material then go to Staves. I made some good shooters from Red Oak, Hickory and Maple boards.
The Bowyers Bibles are good for getting started.
You are lucky to get a good yew stave. I have been trying to find yew for a while now .
Osage is hard to find here , it makes a great bow.
Here is a great tool for holding the staves or boards. http://www.stavepress.com/

http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

http://sites.google.com/site/onemississipp/bowwoods

http://poorfolkbows.com/index.html

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php

http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=125

Pete

[Edmond Y]

I am now at the second run of a red oak broad bow, the first one couldn't made it before finish the tilering. This one I already found several mistakes. The first mistake is choose the wrong broad which has a grain run out from the side and the grain show this wood is quite young but I thought I only make a 30 lbs bow, no big deal, but the limb recover speed is very slow because of the wood is not hard enough.

The second mistake was I made it too short( AMO 58"), If I need to draw 26", the limb stress really high, so I have to shorten the handle and thin out the limb, I don't think I make it to 30" lb but it surely still work for kids. This pic was took after 10 second of tilering with 15 lb and long string at about 15" draw as you can see the bow still looks bended. I haven't start short string yet.

Any advise is welcome.

http://i35.tinypic.com/2ynp7om.jpg

Edmond