recurve bow

[JudgeBAC]

Definitely leave it unstrung when not in use.

[357maximum]

Gorgeous laminated bow. As a flintknapper/ primitive bowyer I KNOW it will be just the first of many. I make self bows of local woods here and you did give us permission to hijack the thread so here ya go.

Raw materials:

Hawethorn staves/red dogwood arrow shoots/colored glass from the old local dump:


Sassafras staves:


My bow bench:



Some primitive inspiration, LOOK MOM>>>>NO FIBERGLASS:














If you do decide to go the selfbow route I recommend The Traditional Bowyers Bible volumes 1 thru 4 and to join PaleoPlanet.Com. You can get all you need to know in them 2 places. The bows without fiberglass are almost free. Al they cost is some time afoot and in the shop and a little bit for stain/spar varnish/string material/tools. Learning to make a flemish twist string was actually harder than learning how to make a selfbow for me anyway.

[nanuk]

Gunnerd: if it is a fiberglass backed/bellied bow, then it can remain strung for a long time, but as rule I unstring mine as soon as I'm done with them

a taught string is much easier to cut than a limp one, and the short trip the tips will make can still take out an eye!

[smoked turkey]

Tim you are a gifted individual. I was impressed with your bullet mold, and now I am impressed again with your bow. You are also a very modest person, which is a good trait by the way. Nice job all the way around. Nice deer too!

[Bloodman14]

Nanuk, the bow is a Ben Pearson wooden reflex/recurve bow (laminated).

[W.R.Buchanan]

Tim; Great job on your bow. I'm impressed you can pull a 75LB bow! I would have to start at 20 and work up. Making bows is something that I have deliberately avoided getting into as I already have too many hobbies / projects going. But some day I'd like to anyway. Every once in a while I buy a copy of Traditional Bow Hunter Magazine and usually read it for a month. The whole process of making bows and especially making wooden arrows and a variety of broadheads is something I would like to do. Maybe next year. We have an well used archery range at our Gun Club that I built all of the hay bail tables for last year. Really like to get to use them sometime.

357: I've got to tell you,,, your flint points are very nicely done. Very symetrical and evenly made. I see flint knappers at the gun shows and I've seen alot of points. Why is it that the indians couldn't make points that are as symetrical as what we see today. I don't see the technology of flint knapping having advanced a whole lot in the last 2-3000 years, and those guys had all the time in the world sittng around a fire at night with nothing else to do but chip points. You'd think they would have gone for a little better product? I guess when you hang out with the same tribe for your entire life tech advancement is a hard thing to accomplish. No new blood or ideas so to speak.

What was the green glass for? Scrapers? or more points?

You guys are really something special.

Randy

[waksupi]

I've made several laminated long bows over the years, and they are a very easy project to do. I never did the recurves, as I didn't have a lot of faith in being able to do the curves properly in the press. Also made a lot of sinew backed bows over the years.

I was at our club rendezvous this weekend, and some of my friends were there doing knapping demonstrations. These guys are real masters. The young guy here is an incredible knapper, and was teaching the masters a few tricks they didn't know!

[waksupi]

A couple of our archers, with self bows. This couple shoots yearly at the Longbow Safari.

[357maximum]

357: I've got to tell you,,, your flint points are very nicely done. Very symetrical and evenly made. I see flint knappers at the gun shows and I've seen alot of points. Why is it that the indians couldn't make points that are as symetrical as what we see today. I don't see the technology of flint knapping having advanced a whole lot in the last 2-3000 years, and those guys had all the time in the world sittng around a fire at night with nothing else to do but chip points. You'd think they would have gone for a little better product? I guess when you hang out with the same tribe for your entire life tech advancement is a hard thing to accomplish. No new blood or ideas so to speak.

What was the green glass for? Scrapers? or more points?

You guys are really something special.

Randy

The green glass is for point making. I like to make my giveaway points out of something pretty and I clean the woods up as a byproduct.


As far as the Natives making pretty basic points....they did not need to make them pretty....ugly points still do the job nicely and it bothers ya a bit more to lose a pretty point. I make mine a symmettrical and purdy as I can because I cannot help myself. My first clubby and ugly points shot just as well and I am sure they would kill just as well. EFFECTIVE NEED NOT BE PRETTY.

[MBTcustom]

I'm impressed you can pull a 75LB bow!

So am I honestly! I built the bow and had two weeks to learn to shoot it before bow season. I dang near blew out my shoulder, but I got my deer. Its a lot easier now though. Next time I'll definitely make it a lighter pull.
The good news is that now I can draw a 50Lb bow and hold it for a second or two so I can place my shot.

[nanuk]

....
The good news is that now I can draw a 50Lb bow and hold it for a second or two so I can place my shot.

don't do that with a selfbow, or one not backed/bellied with something very durable

they have a nasty habit of 'splodin' when you do that

[357maximum]

don't do that with a selfbow, or one not backed/bellied with something very durable

they have a nasty habit of 'splodin' when you do that

WHAT????? I have left a selfbow on the tillering stick for 30 minutes trying to induce some "friendly" set. I do a controlled snapshot but I have held them for up to a minute in order to strngthen myself. I am either reading your words waaaay wrong or you be smokin something illegal.

I have "sploded" a couple self bows but they were all due to pushing design limits or overdrying the victim.....I.E MY FAULT


It is far better to
1.read
2.do
3. and then preach


....skipping step#2 ....bad...very bad.

[MBTcustom]

ten-foe there good buddy. I have always heard that a self bow can take a set if it is strung for more than half a day. That was my reasoning for going ahead with fiberglass laminated. In retrospect, I realize that my bow is rarely strung for more than 6 hours at a time anyway so all this theory is a bit of a mute point.
I do want to make a self bow someday, and chip out some stone points for it. That would be the most exhilarating experience to kill a deer with 100% handmade equipment.
I think I'm going to take a break on the recurve this year though. I have a score to settle with some of the swamp deer in Bell Slough. They think they are safe at 50 yards, and last year they were right! This year will be a different story. Gonna bust out the compound again.

[357maximum]

Nothing wrong with that. I still have a stable that includes some fiberglass curves and even one aluminum thing with wheels. When I wanna truly eat I carry the wheels. When I am full, busy or just too darn lazy to do the "after the shot" work I carry equipment that limits the chance of that actually happening.

[MBTcustom]

I thought I would add for those of you who would like to get into traditional archery, but dont want to make one yourself, I recently got to shoot a bow that was branded Samick. Excelent bow for a very low price. I found them all over e-bay for less than $150 in any draw weight your heart could desire. Observe:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samick-Sage-...item25709391e9
I have shot one of these, and I honestly don't see how they can do it for that price. I was expecting junk, but it was smooth, it stacked easily, it was natural, and wasn't overly loud even without string silencers. FYI.

[EMC45]

I have a Samick and it IS a good bow. 60lb draw 28in limbs IIRC. I need to shoot it some more. It is a 3 piece with bolt on limbs.

[nanuk]

357Max.... my comments from experience.

if the bow it built to the limits, it can't take a timed stress.

if you overbuild the bow, THEN it can take extra. a Glass backed bow IS overbuilt

My birch bows were not... too short, too narrow for the wood.... Even backed with hide, probably would have collapsed.

I have since learned to take a pretty fast smooth draw.

[MBTcustom]

Nanuk speaks truth. When the bow is built to be as light and short as possible, then it needs special treatment. Kind of a pain, but there is something special about a bow that is built as described, (fragile though it may be). Black Widow recurves are the same way, even though they are fiberglass, if you dont string them just right, they will do a figure eight in your hands. I erred on the side of caution with mine, but an experienced bowyer will build his bows to a certain compromise between durability and performance.

[longbow]

I never unstring my wood bows while shooting or hunting even if I am out all day. I have never had one explode and they have never taken a significant set. Most are not (in my view) "overbuilt" they are typical limb widths and weights for the style of bow. I have one red oak bow that is admittedly "overbuilt" ~ it has about 3" wide limbs at the handle tapering to narrow tips. It is the heaviest draw wood bow I have made at 65 lbs. Most are 50 to 60 lbs.

I have shot my bows in 35 degree C heat to -15 C cold (that's 95 F to 5 F) without any failing or taking serious set.

My favourite is a yew stick I built about 12 years or so ago and I have shot it steady since. In fact I just came back from the provincial traditional championships this last weekend and shot that same bow. If I do my part I can and have scored right along with laminated longbow and recurve shooters.

My first exposure to a real traditional longbow was at the 3rd North American Longbow Safari in Claresholm Alberta. Two fellows I was shooting with had selfbows made by a noted bowyer who's name I won't mention because I am not sure what he says about this but they unstrung their bows after every shot. When I asked why one of them looked at me like I was an idiot and said "...you have to or they will take a set".

Well, I didn't know anything much about wood bows then so figured he must be right.

After I built my first yew bow I decided that if it took a set, too bad, because it seemed to me that any bow worth shooting should be able to stay strung for a day at an archery shoot or hunting. If not it wasn't much good. Well, it is a narrow yew bow, not terribly well crafted and it has very little set.

The next one was a better bow and also has little set. And so it went on. I have had a few bows break but not because they were held at full draw too long.

If the topic is flight bows then that is a little different as everything for flight shooting is run to the limit and it is quite possible that a flight bow is so close to the edge that extended draw time could result in set, chrysaling or failure.

I am thinking a bow built for hunting, all day shoots or war should be able to be left strung and shot all day without issue. I doubt the British longbowmen unstrung their bows after every shot and I am betting the bows lasted more than one day. I wouldn't call that overbuilt, I would call it designed for a purpose.

I have been making and shooting wood bows for about 12 years and find them as durable as my laminated bows (which never get shot anymore).

My thoughts anyway.

longbow

[MBTcustom]

All I know is that the trad-bowyer in Fayetteville Arkansas by the name of Dick Palmer showed me how his favorite stick and string bow had taken a set over time. When I say time, I mean years. I think that's ridiculous to be unstringing a bow after every shot myself, but I was taught to unstring it at night, and whenever it is not expected to be needed. This is the first time I have ever heard of an exploding bow too, but I was referring to the "taking a set" part. I am not saying that if you leave the bow strung for a day, that it will be permanently bent the next day, all I'm saying is that unstringing the bow and not holding it at full draw on a regular basis may mean the difference between a bow that lasts 15 years, and a bow that lasts five years before taking a set. However, this is only what I have been taught and not what I know from personal experience.
Longbow, having clarified my position, I would like to know your thoughts. Have I been taught to flux with wax here, or am I right?