Got the bug...bow #2 is underway

[Yew Selfbow]

Now that I've had my first "fix" of making my own long bow, I'm hooked, and bow #2 is underway. This time I'm it's all home made.
Last year, I was thinning out and laying the Hawthorn hedges around some of my fields when for some reason I saved a hawthorn stave to use as a hedgestake. Well, it's straight, dry , with no cracks so it's going to become my first home made self bow. The grain is beautiful and dense , so I'm looking at at a bow of around 60lbs.
I rough cut the stave last night and followed a growth ring to form the back and I have to say it's looking good.
I'll post pictures if anyones interested..

[tel]

Would Pip have overseen the last project if he'd known you were going into competition?

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Yew Selfbow

I'll post pictures if anyones interested..

I'm sure most folk on here would love to see the pictures. It sounds like a very interesting project.

[Yew Selfbow]

Originally Posted by tel

Would Pip have overseen the last project if he'd known you were going into competition?

I'm no competition Tel I can assure you. We did discuss it in the pub... he thought I was bonkers...

[Yew Selfbow]

Not alot to see at the moment. The stave is still a little wet. I did a moisture test last night. It's coming out at around 20% I need to get it down to around 8 - 10% before I can start some serious shaping.

[Radar_UK]

YS - from start to finish how long would a project like this take ?

[Yew Selfbow]

Originally Posted by Radar_UK

YS - from start to finish how long would a project like this take ?

Not as long as you might think Radar. because this second bow is a self bow (i.e. made from a single length of wood with no glue or laminations) The initial cutting out is done on a bandsaw and takes only an hour or so. The initial shaping of the limbs takes a little longer because you have to follow the grain and the growth rings of the original wood. Scraping what will become the back of the bow with a cabinet scraper is one of the most pains taking tasks.You have to start by identifying the single growth ring you want to follow and scrape away all surplus material that is not part of that growth ring. In Hawthorn the growth rings are very tight so you only have 1mm or so to play with.
Tillering is the tricky part. Because the stave has all the lumps and bumps of the original wood , these form hard and soft spots that have to be tillered in such a way that that the limbs"come round" to form a smooth arc at full draw.
All in all I'd have to say theres about 20 hours work in making a self bow..

[Yew Selfbow]

At the first tiller, my first attempt at building a self bow went BANG. Splinters of wood all over the workshop....
Oh well..... back to the drawing board....

[tel]

oops...sorry to hear that YS - can you pinpoint the problem?

[laminatekid]

Originally Posted by Yew Selfbow

At the first tiller, my first attempt at building a self bow went BANG. Splinters of wood all over the workshop....
Oh well..... back to the drawing board....

oh the joys of self bows....you never know whats going on inside the stave!!