Laminated bowstave

[orius]

Hi all,

I've finally got round to laminating my bow stave which has a hickory backing, a very tight grained mahogany center lamination and a white ash belly. Luckily the whole thing has cost me absolutely nothing as the materials were gleaned from aborted jobs ,bits laying around etc (reclaim, recycling sort of). The question is does anyone have the dimensions to mark the stave out prior to cutting the basic bow shape prior to tillering.I have seen some stuff on a couple of american sites which were either unclear or related to AFB's,Mine of course is to be an English longbow! The stave at the moment is 74'' long x 1 5/8'' wide x 1 1/2'' thick.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[LineCutter]

Basic instructions sent by email

[orius]

Linecutter,

Thanks very much for the instructions, I'll post the progress as I go along.

Cheers

[Greenman]

One of our more venerable members bought himself a billet from Quicks with the idea of making a 40lb bow, as a retired carpenter he is quite good with wood. However he couldn't get it tillered correctly, so he would shave a little off one limb,and then the other in an attempt to get it right,eventually the bow was whittled down to a draw wieght of about 10lbs and a caste of about 15 yds, and that was with the wind behind it.So I would take it easy if I were you, Good Luck!

[LineCutter]

I've only made 4 or 5 bows for the kids, but the answer seems to be to have a good idea what you are after (length weight etc.) Then cut roughly to size & start by floor tillering. Then put a string on & tiller properly, an inch in draw at a time, using a bow scale to do the drawing. Mark the stiff areas, shave a tad off of them & tiller again. Repeat say 50 times & you're near where you want to be.

Useful tools (after sawing to size):

• Spoke shave (I inherited my Grandfathers)
• Calipers
• Bow scales
• Tiller
• Narrow file (for creating temporary nocks)
• Sandpaper for when things get fiddly or need finishing off.
• Sharp chisel, for when you get impatient & have a lot of wood to remove (at the start, or to get a fit for the horn nocks).
• High breaking strain cord & a pulley, so you can draw the bow & stand back from it at the same time. (but check the draw weight by hand too, as the pulley can add to the draw weight)
• A good eye for the right shape & intuition for how much wood to remove.

Thanks very much for the instructions, I'll post the progress as I go along.

I'll expect pictures

[orius]

I hear what you say Greenman, its one of my biggest worries about this project. I guess easy does it and as linecutter suggests maybe expecting to repeat the tillering process up to fifty times might help avoid it.

[LineCutter]

Fifty might be an underestimate. Take it slow - "measure twice, cut once" & remember, you can't put wood back once you've removed it. You'll get the feel for things as you go, but essentially the closer to your end point you get the less you want to remove in one go before you retiller & reassess.

[laminatekid]

don't be to reliant on edged tools like planes and spokeshaves a rasp or file will save you a lot of grief when dealing with bow wood and remember a drawn bow is already 3/4 broken

[orius]

Thanks for the advice guys,
I'm getting real nervous now :-) Pictures will be posted if I can keep it in one peice.

[Yew Selfbow]

Orius
when you get down to the real fine stuff of tillering, you might want to invest in a good set of cabinet scrapers...