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A Kids Bow

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S. Heslop:
That's pretty neat! I remember watching a bunch of videos on bow making a while back, can't remember exactly why. But I thought that tillering process was pretty clever.

Manxmodder:
Very nice,Steve. A mate of mine who lives close by is a keen archer and has many homemade bows in his collection. He has a device very similar to your draw post permanently mounted on an outside wall  just outside the kitchen door. I am always amazed at the consistency and accuracy of a well made bow in experienced hands.....OZ.

vtsteam:
Thanks Tom, Simon, Oz!  :beer:

I very much enjoyed that, though it was one of the simplest types to make. I'm going to try a more difficult bow next -- one entirely carved from a natural split stave, instead of a board. I have a rather good sized limb of witch hazel that I cut last fall -- it was in the way of sawing a big dead ash tree. I think it should be pretty dry by now, and it's a pretty unusual wood for a bow. I think that would be cool. I also have some elm split, and I'd like to do more with black birch to see how well it works out in a full size bow. I think I'd design the tips narrower so the thickness could be greater there -- they got awfully thin in this first bow.

I'm far from an expert hand at archery -- but a good bow does seem to make a difference. Arrows I'm told make an even greater difference, but I'll leave off making those for awhile.

I recently re-read Zen in the Art of Archery and enjoyed it a lot. I've had little personal interest in woodworking these last few years, but the bow making does seem interesting -- and if there's one resource I have in abundance here it's wood!

awemawson:
No Yew in your extensive forest I suppose Steve ? That's the traditional long bow wood here, cut so the sap wood / heart wood join is in the bow so one is in compression whilst the other is in tension as the bow is drawn.

vtsteam:

--- Quote from: awemawson on July 20, 2015, 02:21:03 AM ---No Yew in your extensive forest I suppose Steve ? That's the traditional long bow wood here, cut so the sap wood / heart wood join is in the bow so one is in compression whilst the other is in tension as the bow is drawn.

--- End quote ---

No, none, Andrew -- yew is a Pacific northwest wood this side of the pond. For bow woods, my little microclimate favors black (sweet) birch, yellow birch, cherry, red oak, sugar (rock) maple, occasional hophornbeam, elm (surprising how many keep coming back despite dutch elm disease), black locust, one lone pignut hickory (which I won't be cutting!), ash, buckthorn, witch hazel (gets big enough), beaked hazelnut (which doesn't get big enough).

For non-bow woods: white pine, canadian hemlock, red maple, cottonwood, white birch, big leaf linden (basswood), striped maple, alder -- that's all I can thnk of now.

I have found one white oak in the woods lately. All of this is the lower15 acres or so. Haven't visited the ridge much in the last few years. Not keen to find a bear alone but might have to make an expedition soon just to find out what's up there.....

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