Splitting an osage log into bow staves
Build Your Own Bow author, Jim, poses with the staves.
A straight Osage Orange log is like a log of gold to a self bow bowyer. As you probably know, Osage trees don’t usually grow very straight, so finding a clean, straight one is a rare find. My friend Brent brought one over to my house this weekend for us to split into staves. It was about eight-to-10 inches in diameter at the base and almost perfectly straight! He cut it down on his farm in northern Boone County, Missouri, and he wants to make a bow out of it since it grew on his property. That’s pretty neat. If he doesn’t get one made, then hopefully I can make one for him. I hope to make one or two out of it, too. 
This will be his first bow build, so I am encouraging him to make one by himself. Osage orange is really nice bow wood. It is rough and tough, and really forgiving wood for a first-time bowyer. Continue reading
Just say “no” to color-coordinated bow accessories
This is not an ad.
I’ve never been one to bash any form of archery. I love all types of bows. But, I just had to share this photo (at right). What has happened to “archery”? I mean, look at all of the stuff on this bow. I have to admit that when I first really got into archery and bow hunting in the 1980′s, I was into compound bows. When I was shooting compounds, I think that I had every type of gadget you could buy attached to my bow. I had a rubber baby buggy bumper string nock so my release aid wouldn’t pinch the arrow nock and break it. My bow had a kisser button, a dovetail sight with fiber optic, T-dot pins, an arrow rest, a cushion plunger, a sling for the grip, an arrow gripper to hold the arrow on the bow when waiting for a monster buck to come, some magic plastic string silencers, a peep sight on the string, and lots of dental floss to wrap all of this stuff onto the string. It also had a long, stabilizer rod that made the bow balance really nice when shooting, plus it looked like a ninja warrior special ops tool. Unfortunately, it came in a solid green color, so I made a template and spray painted it with a custom soggy bottom timber camo paint job design to match my bow.
When I got my first compound, I put a plastic flipper style arrow rest on it. I think it was call a “hunter supreme” or something like that…but it wasn’t cool enough…so I upgraded it to a spring-loaded “huntmaster 2000″. Very cool, and an even cooler name. The funny thing was, that new arrow rest wasn’t really an improvement. It had a bent metal launcher rod to hold the arrow against a cushion plunger, but the metal rod made the arrow squeal like a chased pig when I pulled it back, Continue reading
How to make a simple thickness sander for bow laminations
When I started making bows, I had to order finished bow laminations and overlays from a bow making supplier because I didn’t have a thickness sander. Even though buying prepared laminations was faster and easier, the problem was that I had to order everything I needed one or two weeks before starting the bow. Also, if I didn’t order enough lams or the right ones, or…smack me with an arrow shaft…I broke a lamination, then I wouldn’t have enough lams or overlays to complete the bow and production would come to a screeching stop. Plus, I had to order my lams in standard sizes, which wasn’t always ideal when trying to hit the perfect draw weight on a bow without having to sand the glass or narrow the limbs. Continue reading
How a recurve bow works
What is a recurve?
A recurve is a curved portion of the tip of the bow limb. Recurves can either be static (rigid) or working (bending). Many sizes and shapes of recurves have been tried throughout archery history, and are still very popular on modern bows. Most modern recurves can be called “contact recurves,” because the string “contacts” the recurved portion of the belly surface of the limb. On some contact recurves, the string will stay in contact with the belly surface of the limb all of the way from brace height until full draw. On other recurve designs, the string will lift off of the belly surface of the limb at some point during the draw. The length of draw where the string lifts off can dramatically affect the force draw curve of the bow. Typically, the later in the draw stroke that the string lifts off, the more energy the bow can store throughout the draw stroke and the smoother the draw stroke will feel.
A recurve creates the effect of a cam as the bow is drawn. Because of it’s tightly curved shape, a bow with recurved limb tips provides even more leverage for the string throughout the draw, which allows a recurve bow to store even more energy than a straight-limbed, reflexed, or even a reflex/deflex bow.
Thoughts about bow balance and vibration
I have developed a little different theory about bow balance than what seems to be understood and taught in most archery materials and what you read on most archery forums. Most people are just doing what they have been taught, what they have read, or what they have been told by others. Dean Torges’s article about dynamic balance really got me to thinking about this after reading his article that appeared in “The Bowyer’s Journal” magazine a couple of years ago…I think that is what the magazine was called for a time. The article is also posted on his website. Click here to read the article “Tillering the Organic Bow”. In his usual style, I think Torges does a poor job of explaining what he means. I was really confused by what he was trying to describe so I started studying what I thought he was suggesting by doing some experiments with a pivoting tillering tree like he suggests in the article. My experiments led me to agree with his teachings and to the tillering and balancing process that I currently use. Torges wrote more about this in his book “Hunting the Osage Bow.”
How to make a simple bow
When I was a young boy, my brothers and I used to make a bow out of a hardwood stick and a piece of string. This was always a fun project. Sometimes I like just messing around and decide to make a bow out of a stick harvested from the woods behind my house. You know, not every bow has to be what I call a “glam” bow…a glamorous, fiberglass laminated bow. Primitive bows made from natural materials have a beauty all of their own. Plus, they are cheap and easy to make. If you have always wanted to learn how to make a bow, but don’t have a woodworking shop, or expensive shop tools, you might consider learning how to make wood bows first. Heck, you might get hooked! Wood bows are a pleasure to make and shoot. In fact, one of my primitive bow making friends challenged me at a shoot one time that if I made many wood bows that I might get hooked and never go back to fiberglass. I guess that could be true! Anyway, don’t let a low budget stop you from making bows! Stone age man made bows out of a stick or small tree with a piece of a rock for a scraping tool. I think if he could afford his bow making hobby, then you and I probably can afford to make bows, too. Starting out making wood bows is the best way to start in my opinion. It teaches you how to make wood bend and the basic skills of tillering a bow. Continue reading
How to make and read a force/draw curve (part 3)
How to READ a force/draw curve
Welcome to part three of the series! In part one, we learned how to build a bow weighing rack and measure the draw weights of our bow at each one inch increment of the draw. We recorded the data on a note pad and saved it for part two. Then, in part two, we entered the data into a table in the spreadsheet template that I created for Microsoft Excel, and watched Excel automatically create a line graph showing the force/draw curve and calculate some values about stored energy and efficiency. Now, in part three, we will read the force draw curve, the values created in the table, and interpret what they tell us about the bow. This is the best part of the series! Continue reading
How to make and read a force/draw curve (part 2)
How to MAKE a force/draw curve
Welcome to part two of the series! In part one, we learned how to build a bow weighing rack and measure the draw weights of our bow at each one inch increment of the draw. We recorded the data on a note pad and saved it for part two. Now, in part two, we will enter that data into a table and create a line graph showing the force/draw curve. Continue reading
Finding time to make a longbow or recurve bow
Are you struggling to find time to build your own bow? Working all day every day, then coming home to do chores and family activities leaves you exhausted and completely out of time for working in your shop. You make plans to work in your shop on the weekend, but once all of the mowing, wood cutting, weed pulling, house cleaning, cooking, and laundry are done, its already Sunday night and the weekend is over. You’ve dreamed about starting your bow making project, but just can’t find the time to get started. Or maybe you’ve already started working on your bow, but now you seem stuck and can’t find your way back into the shop to get it done. Sound familiar? Well, hopefully this post will help you to get started on your bow project and get BETTER RESULTS.
Over the last few months I’ve made some MAJOR changes to the way I manage my time. This has resulted in less stress, less work, less information overload…and MORE TIME for working on my projects! All of this has come from three simple improvements that you can learn. These simple tweaks have transformed my life and I hope they can do the same for you, too. Continue reading
How to make and read a force/draw curve (part 1)
Building and setting up the bow weighing rack
Hey!…I’m so glad that you are here and interested in learning how to weigh your bow and make a force/draw curve! There is so much you can learn about your bow from the force/draw curve. Are you sometimes dazed and confused by scientific-type folks who use intimidating words like “stored energy,” “peak draw force,” and so on? If so, you’re not alone. This force/draw stuff can be very confusing. Let me encourage you to stay with me on this series…once you read through these posts and try it out on your own bow, you won’t be intimidated any more.
In this series, I will explain using simple words, and very little math, how to plot a force/draw curve and interpret the results for your bow. I won’t even write any formulas in the text. I’ll even provide a free download template that you can use to make your own force/draw curve using Microsoft Excel. Just follow this guide and you’ll learn how to easily make a FDC curve for your bow. I’ll teach you the graph reading tips you’ll need to easily read the force/draw table and force/draw curve to discover some important things about your bow…important things that you cannot learn in any other way. Let’s get started… Continue reading
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