Trad Gang
Topic Archives => Build Alongs => Topic started by: superkodiak on April 08, 2006, 01:16:00 AM
-
Well fellas, I just joined up on this sight a little while back and have been studying up. I figured today might be a good day to start a bow. Now, I don't have all the tools necessary to do this, but! I did manage so far. The tool that I am currently using is an Ulu that I made a couple months back for scraping hides and cutting leather. Not sure if you guys have ever used one of these. I am still looking for a good drawknife. It is a little hard on the wrists, but needless to say I won't need to go to the gym to work out for a while. Although, if I keep it up I might look like Popeye... =) Anyways, I got a piece of inferior osage for nothing with a nicer stave that I bought and figured some practice might be in store before I do some work on a nicer stave that is drying.
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/DSCF0003.jpg)
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/DSCF0011.jpg)
-
So far today i just got the bark off and have been taking the sapwood off slowly but surely. Just for those of you out there that are wondering why it looks like I am inside.... it's because I am! I work at a christian college here in Pa as a Resident Director. I don't have a garage or anywhere else to do some work, so here I am in my apartment. God Bless my wife, she said I can continue as long as I clean up. =) Fair enough. I hope she doesn't see the next picture, I am not really sure she know how bad this can get.
As a side note, the students here are going on spring break, so I have a whole week of vacation. I might try to put together a Bowyers bench to help me work the stave a little easier. As for now, I have been working on it as you see it in the pictures.
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/DSCF0014.jpg)
-
Maybe tomorrow I'll take it down to the good stuff! I can see yellow...=) Just want to give out a quick thanks to Daniel for helping me out with the drawknife dilema. Blessings!
-
Originally posted by superkodiak:
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/DSCF0011.jpg)
Curious about your tool, a Ulu?
Did you break it or is it suppose to be that way? :confused:
-
well its's a start and we all start somewhere. that Ulu is beautiful. Kudos to Daniel.....Mac~
-
I'm not surprised you are working at a Christian college. Your wife must be a saint. :notworthy:
I hope she likes yellow decor when you go to scrapers and sandpaper. :D
-
Great start Shawn, keep us posted.
-
Yep, the Ulu is supposed to look that way. It has an antler handle on it. It is a tool that eskimos used to scrape fat and meat off of hides, and for other daily chores. I could see it being a very useful tool in the kitchen.... and as I have been informed by Daniel.... it was traditionally used only by women.... that is until now. =) I did actually make it for it's traditional use, to prepare hides for the tanning process. My wife is a sweetheart, but I might be on the couch once everything in the apartment is covered in yellow dust. Nothing a dinner and movie can't fix, right?
-
there is more work to be done! I might grab a bite to eat and bust out my Nicholson 49.... after doing some research it looks like you guys really enjoy that file, so i figured, sure why not, let's give it a try. I got it in the mail a couple days ago. Can't wait to use it.
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/osage2.jpg)
-
So I took it down to a "decent" ring in the osage. Remember that this is just a scrap piece that was given to me in order to practice a bit. There are lots of knots to work out! I finally got the wood worked down to a manageable piece... there might just be a bow in this freebie! Anyways, things are really shaping up, and the #49 is amazing. I don't really know what I would do without it at this point. The picture above is of the back of the bow. I didn't get a chance to work on the stave as much as I wanted to today, but I'll be sure to keep you posted. My question for you guys, what kind of dimensions should I be looking at in order to make a flat bow? The stave wasn't very thick, so it might be best suited to at least try to work it into that style of a bow.
-
Had some great weather here today in Western PA, so I headed out to do a little stump shooting, collect some rose shoots, and yes..... create some more yellow dust. Since the sun was out, I took it outside a while until dark and I am just no taking a break to type this up. I'll post some more pictures soon. One of my concerns at this point, is that because the stave was pretty thin, I wasn't able to save a great deal of wood for the handle. If I am going to put a handle on this bow, what kind of wood should I use? I don't really have anything available at the moment. Aren't some Native American bows without built up grips? Ok, back to work! =)
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/osage5.jpg)
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/osage4.jpg)
-
Started to fade towards the tips and near the handle. Things are shaping up. My wife came home from work tonight and was surprised to see "a bow" So, I must be making some steps in the right direction. I'll work some more tomorrow!
-
Cool thread !!!
-
Looking good! Your patience amazes me :notworthy:
-
Listen, its obvious, the man has talent, lots of it. Very nice looking bow. Keep the pictures coming :)
------------------
The most valuable gift is a good example
-
Nice job so far. You don't need a built up grip, make her a semi-bendy handle bow. If it ain't a primo piece of wood more bending limb is better anyway.
-
I'd follow George's advice, and if ya need a handle, super glue some leather on there and form it like you would wood (no pun intended) :D
-
Thanks guys for all of the suggestions! I don't know what I would do without ya. I am off tomorrow, so I am going to pick up some lumber to put together a bowyers bench. I think it might help out some of the awkward handling of the stave. I'll be sure to post some more pictures soon.
-
Alright, so I am back at the bit! I decided to take today off from bow building.... and build a little something else. So, it was getting kind of tough to work on the bow just propping it up on that target you see in the photos above. I figured it was time to build that bowyers bench that I have been talking about. So! I went to pick up some lumber and put one together. Let me tell you, it's so much better. I only used it for a little while, but it's going to be a delight. I even made a little storage area below for all the tools and whatnot. I am gonna get some photos up ASAP. =) Have a blessed Easter.
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/bowyersbench1.jpg)
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/bowyer3.jpg)
-
Now I'll get that bow done for sure! I think the next thing I need is a tiller tree.... maybe I'll take care of that in the next couple days. =) Do you guys think that I should put a backing on this bow, being it's my first and all.... or should I go for it all! I mean, I did start this project with the understanding that it might not work out. If that's the case.... I am alright with that. I have some billets that need some lovin.
-
Alright, I had a wonderful easter with my wife's family and I am back here at the college finally. The students are coming back today from their break, so I should be pretty busy helping them all get settled and catchin up with them. However, I had about 2 hours this morning to do some more shaving so I got right to it. I decided to take the bow down to a better growth ring in this osage. Should be good practice, and if the bow is too light in draw weight, my wife has been itching to come out and stump shoot with me. She doesn't have any equipment, and I think this could be a nice gift if it turns out ok. Here are some pictures of my progress. The first one is chasing a new ring.
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/osage6.jpg)
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/ringinit.jpg)
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/workbench.jpg)
-
My baby is in the background. This was the first recurve I got when I started shooting trad-equipment. It's a bear superkodiak, and I was blessed to take a nice doe with that bow this past archery season here in Western, PA. Needless to say, I am hooked. The picture above is basically my mess in our small living room apartment. =) You guys that have garages and work areas don't know how good you got it! Another reason why I decided to chase another ring on this stave as because of a couple checks that ran into the back of the bow. After I removed a ring they were all gone. =)
-
pretty soon I am gonna have to heat her up and try and take some of the twist out of her. I'll add a pic here in a moment to show what I am working with. Now, I have read a whole deal about how to make the tips recurved, but not too much about this problem. Let me know what you guys think, or if there is a link somewhere on this sight to explain how to get rid of this. =) Thanks much, guys!
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/helicopter.jpg)
-
Looking very good, thanks for taking us along :thumbsup:
For taking out that twist just heat the twisted with a heatgun until it is to hot to hold. Once it's good and hot you can just twist it with your hands.
Good luck!
-
Where in Western Pa???? St Vincent?? St Francis??
-
Grove City, Pennsylvania =)
-
SuperK, you are doing a great job with this bow. No backing needed!
To straighten, use heat gun and some blocks of wood and clamps. Set the blocks up so that clamping will pull the stave into shape. Slowly heat and test with hand pressure till it gives. Then clamp and let cool. To take out twist, use a pipe or cresent wrench to get twisting leverage and do the same heat until it wants to give. Twist and clamp or hold till it cools. Use leather or other pads to keep from maring the wood with your clamps.
Looks to me like you have the feel for working with wood and following a natural and flowing shape. Keep it up and keep us posted.
-
Outstanding efforet. Stave looks great. I'm sorry. I must have missed what problem you are trying to fix as itloks great to me. In one of the apartments where my wife and me lived I used to do my woodworking in a spare bedroom. Keep up the good work. Jawge
-
What I wanna know is Where do ya get a ULU?? :confused: Thats a Nifty Tool!! I cant say I have ever seen one at Wally World or any of the Various Home Improvement Wharehouse Stores???
Good Job on that Bow too!! I am watching this one Too!! :thumbsup:
-
[http://www.ulu.com/]
-
You could buy one from the site listed above, or you could buy just the blade from Jantz Knife making for about $5 and attach your own handle. That's what I did! =) It's not all that difficult and boy it sure does work nice. There might be a better way to make a handle specifically for bow making by extending the handle out further, maybe making it larger? I also used that Ulu as a scraper to shave off some fine yellow curls. Be careful though, you must be very masculine in order to use it.... =) Daniel was gracious enough to inform me that traditionally, these knives were for women.... LOL. It was originally designed to scrape hides and to be used in the kitchen. I think it's found a place among my other tools.
-
LOL....Superkodiak, I can see ya gettin pretty good with that Ulu of yours. Your right, they are pretty handy to use, I use one too... :)
Daniel
-
I bought a cheap one from Smokey Mountian Knife Works. I see it and thought it was different and added one to my collection. They can be used for many different applications but I mostly use mine to look at. :)
-
Hee hee looks like he must've seen Calvin's bow building threads. Hope he has a good vacuum.
Seriously, it's looking great so far!
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/straightened.jpg)
-
So I took some time this morning to heat up the osage and straighten her out a bit. There was a little twist, so I got that all worked out. It turned out pretty good. This was the first time that I have ever done that, so thank you to all those that have helped me with this process. Also, many of the how-to's were very helpful in learning exactly what to do. After I straightened it out, I decided to put the string grooves in. I'll add some closer photos of the finish product there. If I get some time tomorrow, I am going to put that tiller tree together so I can get ready for that whole process. =) I AM LOVING THIS!
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/stringgroooves.jpg)
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/stringgroove.jpg)
-
wow, what a nice job you are doing for a first bow on a such a knotted piece of wood :notworthy:
-
Thanks For the ULU Info!! Looks like a Handy-Dandy tool to have!!
-
Alright, I am back at it. I finally got around to making a tiller tree. It's nothing fancy, but it's good enough to hold the bow and work on the tiller. =) I started with a longer tiller rope. It is 60inches the same length of my bow. From here I began to draw the bow some.....
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/tiller1.jpg)
-
After checking out this tiller pic, I made a few marks on the limbs and did some scraping. Things started to shape up so I put her back on the tree and checked it out. I am gonna stay here for tonight. I really would like to hear what you guys think. This is all new to me! =) Here are two pictures of the tiller.
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/tiller2.jpg)
-
I thought it would help if I put the tiller tree and bow against a wall with bricks (for reference), so I took another picture in my kitchen... not so far from the living room. Hey, it's a small apartment. Once again, God bless my wife for putting up with all this.... which reminds me, I am gonna need to sweep up some shavings from making that tiller tree earlier. =)
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/tiller3.jpg)
-
OK, fellas. I am stopping here for the night. If you can comment on the tiller, I'll know where to start tomorrow or the next day. Did I mention that I am loving this?! OK, it's time to clean the mess up.
-
both limbs need to bend a fair bit more at mid limb, it's looking a little hingy of both fades. What weight are you at?
:)
-
well, at 18inches it's at 35 pounds, so we should know a little more once I work on it some more! Thanks for the comment Luke, I'll try to work on the midlimbs later tonight.
-
Worked on the tiller some more tonight after a Wedding Rehearsal for my cousin Mike. =) Congrats Mike and Melodi, may God richly bless your lives together. Any help would be greatly appreciated with the tiller.
-
ttt
-
Still waiting for some comments on tiller before I continue in the process. =)
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/bowbent.jpg)
-
Here is one last picture to show what tiller looks like. I think I am going to end up taking it down to about 35# weight so my wife has a bow to shoot with me. =)
-
you still need to get more midlimb bending, especially on the left limb. Very flat there. Right limb from midlimb to the tip needs work
Can we get an unbraced pic?
-
Luke is right on in his advice, if you come in under weight it looks like you can pike it (shorten) and make up some weight. Most importantly, get the limbs bending evenly.
-
i can't belive your wife lets you do that inside the house ;) ;)
good on her !!!
....first bow ever ? doing good, but yeah get those outher limbs bending a bit :bigsmyl:
-
LOL, yep the wife lets me do all the work in the house as long as I clean up when I am done. =) Well, I got some time to do some more work on the tillering. I made a decision today to take the weight around 30# for my wife. If you read through all of this you remember that I started off with this being practice for a nicer stave that I bought. Since my wife has been asking me when she could come and shoot with me I figured, shoot! WHY NOT! =) So, I shaved the bow down until it hovered around 35# around her draw length of 25 inches. and took a few more pictures. Here they are. I got the mid limbs and tips to bend a bit more like you guys suggested.
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/tiller8.jpg)
-
I figured I might as well have my wife put a few shots through her bow. =) Needless to say, she is really excited... but I'll let you guys see that for yourselves! =)
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/fulldraw2.jpg)
-
ummmm, don't tell anyone but she took a few shots in our hallway... LOL good thing she is a great shot!!!!
-
She is shooting one of the arrows I made from a shoot a couple weeks back. I hope to make a couple more for her so we can go stump shooting for my birthday next month. =) Hey! She said she would do it! Ya gotta love her for that.
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/greatshot.jpg)
-
Do you guys think that I need to work some more on some of the tiller before sealing the bow and putting a handle on it? If you could help me out with that, it would be great! Hope you enjoyed these last couple photos, I know I certainly have. =)
-
Well done. Well done, Well done !
-
For a stave like that and a first time effort, I would call it good :thumbsup:
-
My wife took some time today to check out the post. I put a couple coats of Tru-oil on the bow today and got her lookin pretty good. I am gonna get some leather soon from a trade that I did here on Tradgang and put a nice grip on it for her. It's too bad I don't have pink leather... my wife is a girly girl and would go crazy over that... =) I also worked on a couple shoot arrows today, I'll post a couple pictures of those in the next day or so when they are done. I didn' go as far as putting self nocks on them, but rather just glued on some plastic ones... I'll add more pics soon enough!
-
Sweet thread!! I enjoyed coming along. Thanks for sharing it with us.
MacGilla
-
Nice job on the bow! :thumbsup:
I don't have any pink leather, but I do have some bright red stuff that would work perfectly. Not quite as girly as the pink, but closer than brown or black!
If you want some PM me your address and I'll send a piece out.
-
Gotta love cute chicks and archery don't ya? I love the expression on her face. Nice job on the bow.
Looks like she took the Jawge look and stepped it up several notches eh?
-
=) What do you guys think I should name the bow. Should it be something girly!? LOL the first thing that came to my mind was that the stave has a bunch of knots in it.... hence "knotty..." and my wife is a red head... Jeremy offered to send me some red leather to make a handle on the bow... should I call the bow "knotty red head" maybe "knotty red" If you have a good name for the bow, LET ME KNOW! =)
-
"SweetHeart" because You Made it for Your SweetHeart! I know, Mushy, but with as Much Happiness there was on Her face after she shot it, ya gotta do her Justice for MANY things! You got to do it all of that IN THE HOUSE, and I am Sure she was slobbering just to get ahold of HER BOW!!
Great Build-Along, and like I said, with a Smile like that, "SweetHeart" will do them BOTH Justice my Friend. YOU are a Very Lucky Man!
Good Luck and Good Shooting for Years to Come to BOTH of You!! :archer:
-
Yep, I like "Sweetheart" too, nice job on the bow, keep up the good work.
You don't want people to get the wrong idea about your lovely wife ;)
-
I think "Sweetheart" it is. I just read a couple of the last posts to my wife and she is grinning ear to ear. Thank you guys for all the comments and help in building this bow. I'll post after I get the handle sewed on and touch up the bow some. =)
-
I just want to thank Jeremy for sending that red leather for the bow grip that I finally had some time to put together. I think it turned out alright for the first try and I must say it adds a great deal of character to the bow itself.
-
Being that I am a flyfisherman and tie my own flies, I had a ready supply of interesting feathers. So I picked a few and added those onto the grip with some beads (the wife gladly donated those to the cause =) I'll add some pictures of the finished bow and I'll also add some pictures of the primitive bamboo arrows I put together the other day for myself.
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/grip.jpg)
-
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/superkodiak/bowfinished.jpg)
-
Just wanted to thank you all once again for all of your help. My wife and I went and shot together on Sunday. WHAT A BLAST THAT WAS! =)
-
wow, you certainyl did a very nice job on a gnarly piece of wood. You should be proud :thumbsup:
-
That came out looking g-o-o-d! :) :thumbsup: I really like those arrows too!!
-
Neat stitch job!
-
Excellent! Bravo!
F-Manny