I have been gathering tools to start making selfbows, I don't have them all yet, but have enough to start a board bow.

Well I started out wrong on the very first cut, I was hacking on the back of the bow instead of the front, that is alright, just another step to make sure of on the next one....Ha!Ha!

This bow may not work, but I'm getting experience, I have worked with wood in the past, but it was making cabinets, tables, benches, rocking horses and many other things, this is different and with the help of some really great guys on this site I'm sure I will succeed.

You can't tell from the photos too much, but I have to work on the what lamb bowyers call the fades, I'm not sure what you call it in a self bow.

More photos later.....Any and all comments welcome whether positive or not, can't learn if everyone is easy on you....Thanks everyone

I will cut out the general shape of the limbs next then start testing for tillering and scraping and thinning until I get it to where it will start bending.

I feel sure it may break, but the next one I will be a little bit braver........Ron

Just put backing on it and it could be fine.

Ron, you need to work on the "fade area" a little. I personally would go 2" from the end of that riser block and decrease the thickness from full thickness at the block, to 1/16" less at the 2" mark. The start tillering from there.

Thank you Frank, The limbs are bending pretty easily now so it will be a very low poundage piece, but as I said, I'm a learnin........

You're doin' great Ron, looks good, and yes, they are "fades" on self bows. And like fdp said. Wyatt

RonG, so glad you are starting a bow. That's awesome.

Yes, mid limb on is way to thin.

The handle area is also problematic. The taper has to extend into the board itself or else handle will pop off.

May I recommend a bend in the handle bow for your next with no glued on handles?

There is more on my site. http://traditionalarchery101.com Jawge

I got the fade area tapered into the limbs. I floor tillered and it seems to be ready for the tillering station, I will put a scale on it and only move it a little checking as I go.

George, I can easily remove the handle with my bandsaw and hand planes.

George, I got way to aggressive with the draw knife and removed a lot more than I thought, will be much more careful next time, I have to contribute it to excitement.

I will continue with this one until something bad happens then I can mount it on the wall or kindling....Ha!Ha!

Thank you everyone for your input. will continue after church tomorrow.............Ron

Fun. The best way to learn is doing. Keep at it Ron. JF

Ron, you don't even need a draw knife on a board bow. Especially is if you start with a board 5/8 to 3/4 thick. Get you a good wood rasp, or a Sureform rasp.

Draw a line on the edge of the edge of eack side of the board. Use the rasp to take the limb down ONLY on the sides, just to the line. That will leave a craown in the middle. Rasp the craown down falt with the side. Take a scraper and smooth it out. Then work from there on withjust the scraper. Making sure you keep the passes on each limb long and evem.

Frank I just figured that out, oh well I got carried away.

NEXT!!!!!!!

I will mess with this one a little longer, I think I might have another piece in my shed that I can start on.

Shaping wood is fun, plus I need the exercise..Ha!Ha!

Ron, just continue with the handle. I was talking about next time. Have fun. Jawge

Ron,

I am just working on my 2nd and 3rd bow builds now. But I have worked several staves and scraps after I saw they weren't going to work out. Getting some word working practice on wood where it doesn't matter is a good thing.

I am trying to up my bandsaw and belt sander skills now (just for rough removal). I did my first board bow using only a rasp.

After I hacked on one limb with a draw knife is when I realized that was too much and then I got out my sur-form tool and cabinet scraper and did the rest, this piece of red oak is still 1/2 inch thick on the tips and this piece is 70" long, I wonder if I cut off 2" on both ends and make it a 66" bow if I could salvage this one or just continue with it the way it is.

Worked on it a little more tonight, the photos aren't real good in artificial light.

I floor tillered it and I believe I need to file in nocks and set up a tillering board, I compared the pressure it took to flex this bow against one that is 50 lbs. and I believe it is close to seventy pounds, looking for a 45 to 50lb bow.

I didn't flex it too much, followed the bowyers bible and Jawges info.

It seems to rebound very well, I didn't feel any give or weak points, I may luck out on this one so I will keep my fingers crossed.

I need a tension meter to keep an eye on my progress, any suggestions would be appreciated, I'm getting hooked on this, I may have to order about a pickup truck full of staves...Ha!Ha!

If this one fails, I have learned a lot, nothing wasted.

Thank you all who have given me info and support......Ron

The first picture is an optical illusion, both limbs are the same thickness.

You can see three of my helpers, the fourth can't sit still long enough....Hyper!

Looking good, Ron. There's still a bow in there. I'd leave it full length, at least for now.

The 'fades' on selfbows are also called dips... short for Buchanan dips. Be careful there where the handle dips or fades into working limb thickness. As they shape the handle and dips, a lot of beginners find themselves digging a depression there or creating a spot that is thinner which means it will be weaker, increasing the likelihood of chrysals or breakage in that area.

Thickness should decrease from handle to tips, never getting thicker anywhere along the way. You can use outside calipers, or dial calipers to check your progress. I made a useful little tool for checking taper and I'll show you a picture of it later... I'm stuck at work until late tonight.

Thanks Jeff, I did some more work on it today and posting pictures.

I can see how easily that can happen near the grip, I was careful not to do that, I wish now I had made the grip longer so it would fade in more gradual.

I have been using a micrometer as a caliper,(you use what you have)..I still have a constant taper in the limbs and they are both equal as far as measurements, that is why I think I need to put it on a tillering board from here on out, because as you know wood doesn't care about thickness when it comes to bending equal.

Thanks Jeff, I would really be interested in that tapering device.

More info:....The back of the bow is rounded slightly and the belly is flat, I'm making sure I round the edges after removing more wood, I do know that sharp edges are where they can break or splinter.

I need to make the grip a little thinner, but won't worry about that until the bow is near completion as per Jawges info.

Instead of attaching an arrow rest, I would like to cut one into the bow, I will get more info from the experts before I try that.

Now to work on getting a poundage scale and building a tillering station, now for the tedious part......Ron

Ok, will someone answer this one, when tillering how do I know I'm drawing the bow 28" if I'm using a loose piece of rope to draw the bow.

I know when you have a 28 inch draw it's not really 28" because you have 7 or 8 inches between the string and the bow that is the brace height that is included in the draw.

So how do I determine how much to draw the bow to get my final poundage and string length.

I really wish you well. Tried making 4 of them...All broke..Gave up.I'll just continue to shoot my Black Widows !!! Guess I don't have your patience !!!Hope all goes well. Whitie

Ron, the 28" is measured from an imaginary point 1 3/4" in front of the pivot point of the grip... so for your handle shape, set your stave in your tillering tree cradle, measure up 1 3/4" from the belly side of the handle, put a mark on the wall, then measure down from there 28"... or just measure down from the cradle 26 1/4" and mark it. That is where you will ultimately pull the string to for a 28" draw.

Once this is marked on the wall under your tree, you can hang a yardstick down plumb from the cradle, aligning the 28" mark on the wall with 28" on the yardstick... then you can use the yardstick as you tiller.

Looks good Ron. Looking forward to seeing it flinging arrows. Lance.

Thank you Jeff, I read the books, but was unable to find the measurements, I finally figured out how you get to the point of stringing the bow for the first time and I will carefully work to that point.....Thank You

Desperado, Sorry about the bad luck, could have been the wood and not you. I don't have a great piece of wood here on this one so it may break, but I will try to find a better piece for my next one.

Thanks Lance, I'm looking forward to that also.

You know guys, it looks like I may have to start making strings for my bows if they work out.

The next thing will be wearing deer hide moccasins, bear skin clothing.....never mind, the brain just wandered....LOL!

I got my tillering station partially built, all I need is a wood ruler and a scale, I have been scraping on the limbs to get them even through the whole range, first picture shows the left limb stiff in the fade area and the last picture shows that I got that area to bend equal to the other side except I need to take a little bit more off to get the right limb down as far as the left.

I'm pulling around 45 to 50lbs on the limbs, That may be two much, not sure.

Every time I remove about ten to fifteen passes with the cabinet scraper on each limb I set it up and draw the bow at least forty times, then I let it rest (me too) for about ten minutes before I take anymore off.

This evening I removed a substantial amount of wood, my cabinet scraper rolls up a curl of wood about like a hand plane.

I made about thirty passes on each limb tonight.

I need to install a ruler and a poundage scale before I go too much more.

Thanks for looking.....Ron

it's difficult to tell in the photo, but it looks like the left limb is hinging slightly about eight inches from the grip.

will have to straighten that out tomorrow.

:) JF

Ron, those are some dang nice looking yips on that bow. A lot nicer then the ones on my first, well, more than one.

Thank you Frank that was really nice.

I am reading and taking my time, I hope it comes out.

I have a question, I drew the bow 10" as described in Jawges website I am reading 45 lbs. now I have a long way to go to get this thing to 28"

My limbs measure across near the tips 1.062" (1.1/16) The limbs measure across just above the grip 1.687 (1.11/16)

I didn't measure the thickness which is what will determine the poundage, but as you can see in the photo it's getting thin.

Should I narrow the limbs a little or leave them that wide, or maybe just narrow them more at the tips.

The poundage is close to what I want 45 to 50, I'm afraid to make the limbs too thin and cause them to break.

Asking the experts!!!!!!

It's very difficult to take a photo while holding 45 lbs. tension with the other...Ha!Ha!

Actually the bow tips extend below the 2x4 about two inches, the bow sprung back when I snapped the photo.

I may use my Cannon to get better photos.

Jawge suggested to string the bow at this stage, will this be close to my finished string length?

Help!!!!!

I took a bunch more off the limbs tonight and was able to pull the string another 4 inches while maintaining 45lbs.

I miss measured on my limbs, measuring on the belly the limbs measure 1.750 all the way down until about 8 inches from the tip then it drops to 1.5" then to 1.062 inches wide.

Do I need to taper my limbs more as far as the width.

Ron, it's looking good.

Important: it's ok to tiller with a long string like you're doing, I do it too, BUT, you have to keep in mind that a long string causes the limbs to bend a little differently than a 'proper' length string will. When you switch to a shorter string that actually braces the bow, it will cause the outer limbs to bend more. It can also change the draw weight.

The longer the tillering string is, the greater this effect. This is why, from the beginning, you should adjust the tillering string's length so that at rest, it's under no tension, but lays close to the handle, within a couple of inches... AND tiller with it only until you have the limbs flexing enough to brace the bow at a low brace height... a brace height that holds the string about 3" away from the handle. As tillering progresses and the bow is drawn farther, the brace height can be increased.

Thank you Jeff, I will make up a string to do that with. where I have it now should be about 5 to 6 inches brace height and have approx. 45lbs then I will resume tillering. After it warms up of course, it's 36 this morning and I have no heat in that building, don't want to flex cold wood.

Ron, are you familiar with the timber hitch/bowyer's knot? It's quite convenient for this sort of thing. It allows you to make a string length adjustment in less than a minute.

Yes Jeff, I was a lumberjack in my younger years.

Well I worked on the bow some more and got the limbs tapered from mid limb too tip on the width.

I tillered with a shorter string and the tiller changed drastically. I straightened it back out and I had a bow string that was three inches shorter than my bow so I strung it, and right now if I pull the bow back to about 20 inches it feels like around 60 lbs.

So back to the removing of wood. I am sending a couple of photos. The string is dead center the extra string you see is the shadow of the string. With the bow strung the tillering is a little off, but will correct that as I go, I hope!!!....Ron

Further info, The bow measures from nock to nock 68" With the three inch shorter string I have a fistmele or brace height of exactly 6"

I'm not going to draw the bow to 28" because that would overstress it, I'm looking for 45 to 50lbs. I would guess if I drew it to 28" and if it didn't break it would be around 70 lbs. Just going by what it felt like at 18".

Now here is where it gets touchy and critical.

More pictures tomorrow.....Thanks for looking...Ron

Is that another bow in the closet?

That will be, That is a Hickory stave that Jeff Durnell sent me.

That will be my next one, I keep it in the house because of the humidity here in Florida.

This is my catch it all room, you can't see, but we have boxes of stuff stacked up from our house remodeling, getting close to getting it all back in place......Thanks for looking at my first bow build in many years.

Ron, keep scraping an exercising the limbs, never going beyond your desired draw weight until you get it about 5 ponds over your target weight at 28". After you shoot it a while, and do the finish work it should fall right in place.

Have you got a bow scale ?

Thank you Frank, That is what I will do.

I had a string for my re-curve that was the right length so I strung it up carefully using a stringer and I measured 35lbs at the strung up weight, I drew the bow back about half draw and it felt pretty stiff so I took pictures then immediately unstrung it.

I don't have a bow scale, but I do have a Salter hanging scale that I attached to the pull handle on my tillering device and when I pulled on the scale it measured how much poundage I had, I never pulled the bow past what I wanted to end up with except last night when I strung it and pulled the string, I may have gone over just for a moment.

I hope I didn't hurt it.

I will start removing wood with my scraper and exercising the limbs and see what I get.

Thank you..................Ron

I went to my local bow shop, they didn't have a bow scale.??????

I will check back with them today maybe the owner will be there.

I am making my own ruler large enough so I can read it from a distance as I pull the limbs.

Ron, brace photo looks good but you may need to work mid limb to nocks as you tiller.

I just lay down a strip of masking tape and mark it off in 1 inch increments. I label every 2 inches.

Since I measure draw length at the back of the handle that's where I measure from on my rope and pulley.

Looks like you are doing well.

Jawge

Thank you Jawge, I was measuring from the back of the bow also, just like you would when measuring your draw length, thank you for the reminder. ....Back to bow building.....I didn't write work because it's not, it's challenging and fun, especially when everything is working out.

Ron

Well folks, I removed a little more wood from the limbs, then restrung it, I was exercising the limbs pulling the bow to 20 inches measuring 35 lbs. on the 15th pull I heard that noise I wish I didn't, she snapped,

before I started to exercise the limbs I made sure the limbs were even and looked good.

Well I guess I can start on my next one it will go much better and I won't have to ask so many questions.

She was looking good, I thought I had a keeper.....Ron

I forgot to add, she broke clean no splinters.

Slightly used bow for sale, CHEAP!!!!!!!....Ha!Ha!

Desperado, Don't feel too bad about your bow making failures, I just joined you, I just broke number one!

Dang it Ron. That sucks.There's one for the learning books. Is the next one gonna be a board bow?

I was thinking starting on the hickory stave that Jeff sent me. But maybe another board bow might be the way to go.

Most guys say the boards are hard to find one that has the right grain for a bow so I will think on it a couple of days maybe Jawge, Jeff, FDP or Pearl Drums will steer me towards what to tackle next.

I do know one thing, I have learned a heck of a lot on this first one.

Regardless the next one will go a little faster.

I'm sorry Ron. I must've been really lucky, so far the 3 I've done are all in one piece. Good luck on the next one,Lance.

Thanks Lance, The way the break looks it may have been a soft spot in the wood, the bow was feeling great I wasn't overdoing the break-in, I scraped the limbs equally and sanded with an 18" sanding block to get the belly nice and even.

It's wood you can expect these things.

What wood did you use and were they board bows?

Sorry to see that, Ron, but it's not uncommon with oak boards. I'm more of a stave guy myself, so the hickory gets my vote :^)

Thanks Jeff, I really thought I lucked out on this board, but I was expecting a problem before I finished, I messed up by starting on the wrong side of the board before I realized it and removed the wide grain wood on that one limb. I don't remember what its called, but I read that the late or early wood should be left alone and remove the narrow grain which is the inner part of the tree.

So I'm sure it was me that caused the problem.

I do still have that board that I cut this piece from, I may look for another piece out of it, but in the meantime I will start on the Hickory...Thank you for your support.....Ron

Ron G, that's the way it goes. I had 14 or so go on me in the beginning or come out too light.

I ran out of log staves after I started being successful and that is when I started with boards. I don't think I've ever broken a red oak board I've chosen.

Regarding boards it is essential that the grain be straight. I look at the edge grain.

There's more on my site regarding board choice.

I also suggest you forget about handle add ons. Let the handle bend. Don't narrow it. Leave it full width.

The board bow buildalong on my site uses a 1 x 2 (1.5 in). You can rip it to 1 3/8" to get 45-50 if you do your job.

Anyway, have fun.

Jawge

Oh and no knots allowed no matter how small. I had a hickory board break at a tiny knot I missed. Jawge

Thanks Jawge, This one looked pretty good, I cut it from a large board I had, I was pulling 35lbs at 20 inches and everything looked good.

when I started on the bow I started to remove the wood from the wrong side, I had the wide grain at the back of the bow but somehow got it turned around and removed that outer wood from the board on one limb, I'm sure that was my downfall on this one, I'm looking in my stash to see if I can find the board I cut this one from and try again.

The grain ran straight along the narrow side of the board, top of the board had a darker wide grain and the belly had narrow grain, I thought it was going to be a great one.....Ron

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