Longbow build along (it's done)

[RGK]

Well with two Uncles dieing in two weeks and both funerals being out of town and over the weekends, I have not had much of a chance to get back to the bow. At least these long breaks have given each coat of finish a long dry time. I received the shafts in the mail so I can now start the arrows for the bow. In the mean time, I had a little time to make Josh an arm guard to go with the new bow.

I used 5 Oz. tooling leather for the face and 4 Oz. Buffalo for the backer.

 

 

I added a little tooling with his initials.

 

And made some antler buttons.

 

I used a dark red/brown stain and attached elastic/bungee material to hold in in place,

 

 

 

 

[Aeronut]

Very impressive work!

Dennis

[Cody Roiter]

Nice next you should make some arrows.
Cody

[WidowEater]

RGK needs to have some sort of TradGang award for this thing.

[Jedimaster]

Dude, you have serious skills.  I wish you would take me on as an apprentice.  Is there anything archery related you can't make?  Seriously, seriously impressed.  Looks like you'd been doing this all your life.

[RGK]

Originally posted by cody roiter:
Nice next you should make some arrows.
Cody

I started his arrows tonight. Gold Tip Traditionals, 35/55. I will cap them with 9 inches of white and then crest them with red, black and brown. The fletching will be 5 inch red barred and white barred LH helical.

 

[Oliverstacy]

Just read all of your posts and WOW is all I can say...makes me want to do the same thing.

I have a friend that has every wood working tool you could want and we're going to have to do something like this.  I think we'll have to split the cost and get some plans from Bingham and get to work.

Very impressed!!

Josh

[Shakes.602]

I am Very Sorry to Hear About Your Loss.  :(    FAMILY FIRST then Everything Else.
  This Has Been An  AWSOME  "How-To"!! "Archive Material" if there Ever Was!!      

[RGK]

In the spirit of this homemade bow project, I wanted to make josh a finger tab to go with the arm guard. At some point I will need to make a quiver as well. I traced the shape of my homemade finger tab for Josh's and cut out 3 of them from some medium thickness scrap leather.

 


I then stacked the 3 and used brass rivets to hold them together.

 

I then began to focus on the arrows for Josh's new bow. I got the shafts from my friend Paul at Badger Arrow

 http://www.badgerarrow.com/store/

I bought Gold Tip Traditionals because of the wood grain look. Paul at Badger arrow turned around my order in record time.

 

After capping the back 9 inches of the shafts with white lacquer, I started cresting the shafts using a color scheme that resembles the riser. I will write Josh's name on all the shafts.

 

 

The fletching will be 4 1/2 inch long LW barred turkey feathers. Since  nobody sells 4 1/2 feathers, I bought 5 inch parabolic cut and converted them to 4 1/2 shield cut.

 

Now the fletching begins.

 

One down, 11 more to go.

 

[tenbrook]

Coolest package ever!!!

[suttoman]

Man that kid is one lucky dude!

Without taking the time to explain is there a link or something you can direct me to on how to crest those arrows.  I have never bothered, just use the black carbon 35/55 Goldtips - but I must say they look really awesome.

Sutto

[RGK]

I just chuck up a practice point in my cordless drill and screw the shaft onto the point. I lay the drill on it's side and support the nock end of the arrow in a felt covered "V" block. Start the drill and paint away.

[Bigriver]

Pretty dang amazing stuff, lucky kid! Dad has crazy skills.

[RGK]

I'm in the home stretch now. The finish on the bow is now hardened. I have the first half dozen shafts fletched, I gave the bow a good rub down with OOOO steel wool to take off the shine and I made the rug rest and strike plate.

For the strike plate, I used 2-3 Oz. leather and for the rug, I used the fuzzy side of some adhesive backed Velcro strip I had laying around.

 

The leather was from some scrap I had so I needed to add some double sided tape to make it stay on the riser.

 

[adam]

That is an awesome looking bow!! Thanks for doing the build along. I plan on trying to build my first one in a few weeks.

[KYArcher]

This has been an awsome thread! Thank you very much for taking the time to share it with us!
                      KY

[RGK]

I spent a little time today adding a leather grip to the longbow. The finished wood was very slick and needed some texture. I started with a piece of 4 Oz. tooling leather and got it good and wet so I could form it to the shape of the grip. The wet leather is on the right. I gets much darker when you wet it.

 

While it's wet, it can be formed and shaped and stretched to fit the contour of the riser. Once I had it shaped, I used a blow dryer to dry it off.

 

 

So far during this build along, I have been pretty good about taking pictures of each step. Until now. I must be getting tired because I did a bunch of stamping and tooling on the leather but forgot to get pictures of the process. After stamping and cutting the leather to it's final size, I punched some lacing holes. I then applied a coat of rubber cement to both the inside of the leather and the bow's riser.

 

After lacing, I gave the leather a coat of Neats foot oil to restore the oils lost during the working of the leather and from blow drying. The oil makes the leather even darker. Now, you can see the tooling and stamping I forgot to take pictures of earlier.

 

 

Then I took it outside for a picture in natural light.

 

[BenBow]

Mighty Fine!

[Greg Szalewski]

Nice job Ron. I would like to see it up close one day.

[BMN]

Great stuff!