sourcing bow staves

[dave_t_aber]

hello,
A mate of mine wants to make a longbow, preferably with a bamboo backing like the bow i have just made. I need to source him a stave first, preferably lemonwood, but I would be happy with hickory, ash or a similarly easy to work wood. I can only find a few places in the UK that sell staves, and most of them are quite expensive.

Anybody know of a UK, or possibly a close european country based supplier of staves, at a reasonable price?
cheers
dave

[jb.68]

Originally Posted by dave_t_aber

hello,
A mate of mine wants to make a longbow, preferably with a bamboo backing like the bow i have just made. I need to source him a stave first, preferably lemonwood, but I would be happy with hickory, ash or a similarly easy to work wood. I can only find a few places in the UK that sell staves, and most of them are quite expensive.

Anybody know of a UK, or possibly a close european country based supplier of staves, at a reasonable price?
cheers
dave

Try approaching Pip Bickerstaffe, I just bought mine through him. Lemonwood, Greenheart and Hickory, for a couple of bows. Brought it as laminates and glued it up. If you aren't able to glue it yourself though, he may well glue it up too for a reasonable cost.

[dave_t_aber]

Ok, thankyou, I will contact him.

I have just seen that flybowshop.com has hickory board staves for 15 euros, which should be ok if backed i suppose.

cheers

[RichardH]

I've been thinking about buying some stuff from Flybow to make a longbow.

I was thinking of getting a bamboo stave and then some of the laminations to make up the core and belly - the laminations come in pairs 40" long rather than single lengths though, so I'm still at the "not sure" stage.... I'm sure the correct glue would be strong enough though. Another thought was the maple staves they have - so go bamboo/2 piece core/1 piece maple / 2 piece osage for the belly. But this all may be a bit ambitious/silly as a first attempt.

[BorderBows]

We sell flatbow bow blanks, and sell laminations/blanks.

Send us a PM if you have any questions...


Sid

[dave_t_aber]

ah, I hadnt heard of your site, I will look on it for future reference.

Richard,
Ive ordered the laminations (maple) from flybowshop.com, and ive ordered 5 x 8ft lengths of 120mm diameter bamboo from the web, for making the back and belly of the bow i mentioned. Im going to put it towards other bows too, im not just buying for one bow! If you want some bamboo, I can maybe post you a split length of the bamboo when i get it, if you are prepared to work it down to size.

What glue are you intending to use richard? I used cascamite for my last bow, even though some advised that it might be too hard, but so far its worked fine. I am trying Urac 185 glue now, as ive heard that is perfect for laminations, as a course of experimentation. I think the most important part of gluing, is not the glue, but the consitent clamping when the glue is curing.

cheers
dave

[jb.68]

Originally Posted by RichardH

I've been thinking about buying some stuff from Flybow to make a longbow.

I was thinking of getting a bamboo stave and then some of the laminations to make up the core and belly - the laminations come in pairs 40" long rather than single lengths though, so I'm still at the "not sure" stage.... I'm sure the correct glue would be strong enough though. Another thought was the maple staves they have - so go bamboo/2 piece core/1 piece maple / 2 piece osage for the belly. But this all may be a bit ambitious/silly as a first attempt.

I agree that as a first attempt it may be a bit ambitious. The one I am making at the moment is all full length laminates. However the one Pip made for me has a lap splice in the belly and in the core. It is 90lb and that joint don't move one bit. The advantage of using two pieces is that they (normally) come from the same stave and therefore you get a matched set of limbs, making a much sweeter bow. The Bamboo gives a fantastic backing so I hear, though I have no experience of it personally.
Good luck with it.

[cestria]

Depending on your woodworking skills, a source of exotic wood is john boddy timber The wood is not available in pre-cut staves so would need a fair ammount of work.

[BorderBows]

Our 70/72 inch longbows are bamboo/hickory faced, just like the Raven all wood flatbow we have.

We make tapered/parrallel cores in lemonwood, hickory, bamboo, maple, as standard stock items, and other timbers depending on what bows we need to make at the time, or we could glue it together for you and allow you the fun of tillering it, your call.

We also do this for the Kestral/Falcon, just with a more simple handle as blanks, which are on our price list as the Odin and Thor.

Either way, we are always pleased to here that people are experimenting.

In our years of bow making we have used Urac/ cascamite and we now use an epoxy glue, but for a longbow, all are good glues.

[dave_t_aber]

Ah, thats an interesting link cestria, shame they arent abit closer, as i expect that getting a quarter log couriered could cost abit, i will keep it in mind though.

nice to get confirmation on the glue front, cheers.

thanks for the advice.
dave