Going for it

[Jaikarr]

Hi, long time lurker on the forums. I'm finally going to give making my own bow a go.

Now, I live in England, apparently this means that it's nigh impossible to find a good selection of hardwood timber, and i can't just go around and cut some down for myself.

This is a problem, so when I finally find someone who supplies hardwood (or something that isn't pine) I jumped at the chance. So now I have a plank of Shorea. A tropical hardwood.

So I'm going to try and turn this plank into a bow. It's incredibly dense stuff and barely has any give at all when I put pressure in the middle.

I'm thinking of going for a pyramid design, like 4est trekker's tutorial, while the plank i fond has a very straight grain I'm going to back it with linen just to be safe. Here's some pictures of the plank:
 
 

Any suggestions or tips would be welcome...

P.S. I have no power tools, so the build will be pretty interesting.

[Wingless Arrow]

i am not posotive at all, but it looks like that grain is runnin the wrong direction. you might want to check that, unless im just seein things. good luck though!

[Jaikarr]

I can see what you mean, but I believe that's the tool marks, I checked the ends and it's definatley in the right direction    

So I've been thinking and I've come up with a general design. I'm going to take the board and have it cut in half down the length to give me two boards to play with. I'm going for a pyramid shape of the limbs, the widest part of the limb being 2 1/2 inches tapering to 1/2".

Bow will be 68" and I'll use the left over wood in the handle - to make sure there's no bending there.

I'm going to shoot for around 50# at 28" though I won't worry if it ends up below that figure. It's unlikely that the bow will ever be used for hunting due to me being in England and all.

Considering I intend to back it, do those specs sound sensible?

[Wingless Arrow]

is the board around 6" wide? cause if it were mine i would want at least 3" for the 2 staves from it. but those specs sound fine to me. your backing it with linen, right? so thats a little out of my area, i have never used linen. are you going for a long bow, or are you going to put some recurve in it?

[Jaikarr]

The board's 5" so if I wanted two staves it would have to be 2 1/2" each, hopefully I'll be able to get away with that by backing it.

I've had one linen backed bow which worked fairly well, I'm going to do more research into how to put the backing on though and see if anything else is appropriate.

I'm just going for a longbow at the moment, I don't want to start messing around with recurves just yet. Little by little and all that.

[Wingless Arrow]

alright, well you said you don't have any power tools. are you planning to cut it with a wood saw? because that will take a bit off of your measurements, even a band saw will, just not as much. you might just have to go with 2". it will effect your measurements more than you think. you should at least attempt some recurved tips. its not too hard, just a little heat and some clamps. you gotta make the leap sometime. its up to you though. i hope it works out for you.

-JL

[Jaikarr]

I stared at my post where I said that I had no power tools and thought long and hard. Before I knew it I had ordered a table saw to help with the cutting.

As this is my first bow I'm going to stay away from recurving the tips for now. I can always get creative later on.

[Wingless Arrow]

well unfortunately a table saw blade and a saw blade, are virtually the same. so it will still mess with your proportions. but 2" seems like it might work, you might have to do some glue ons for the handle though.

[fujimo]

i have done this before- when trying to get two bows out of a narrowish board.
cut one bow out say 3" wide , if thats what you need- down the length of the board.
then cut out two limbs that are apposed- ie they are tip to tip and the handles are at the ends of the boards- you will still get another 3" wide bow, as they fit in with the other bows tapers, then either splice the handle or make a two piece takedown- and if your board is a little longer than your finished length required- thats great, so then you can allow for the loss of length due to the splice joint.
good luck
wayne

[wildbill001]

Not familiar with that wood but if it is about as dense/hard as red-oak you should be able to go 2" wide.  I did on mine, pyramid style, and it worked well.

Bill.

[razorback]

John,
glad to see you getting into the building arena. Not sure on that wood, do you know if it has any other names. Also check with your supplier and find out what it is used for. Try to determine if it will handle the tension and compression of a bow. My guess is, if it is that dense then a pyramid might be way more wood than you need. It may have tendencies closer to osage or ipe in which case you can go with a narrower straight limbed bow. Though I would still be over cautious and over build it.
Get some practice on that stuff and your cherry stave will be a piece of cake next summer. I'll have it thinned down and dry for you.
Don't forget to post a bunch of pics as you go along.

[Jaikarr]

Don't worry Tony I intend to post plenty of Pics, with any luck enough for a build-along. That way people can scream at me if I get something wrong.

The wood's also known as indonesian mahogany, though there is little to compare it to normal mahogany. Apparently it's more like teak, everywhere I've look said it's tough dense wood that's very strong, so I'm semi-hopeful.

We'll see how a pyramid shape goes, if that doesn't work out too well I can then try a narrow limbed one.

[razorback]

Good, looks like you have enough wood for both designs. Try both and one might be perfect for it. You might have "found" a diamond in the rough of bow woods. Good luck.
I think Sean and Darcy are coming to camp this weekend, I;ll say hi for you.

[KellyG]

Jaikarr,
You could also make a mini bow. One with half or quarter of what you want, and test the wood on a mini bow first. I did that with a piece of unknown wood here and it exploded in a wonderful manner. I still think it would have worked I just rushed it and found out that if you pull just little more than you meant to with that wood it fail quick no warning. Just as thought.
Kelly

[razorback]

John, probably too late but I would think of a band saw before a table saw (or both). Much more useful powertool. It will do layout cuts, fades and rip if needed. jm2cw

[Jaikarr]

Yup I wish I had bought a band saw now, but I've spent too much money on tools as it is. I'll ask for one for christmas...