I want to make a self bow, have questions

[marahat]

My parents' property in eastern OK has red cedar, hickory, oak, elm, ash, maple, osage orange, locust, black walnut, persimmon, and I don't know what all else. They have that though. Dogwood and redbuds everywhere too. The hickory has been seasoned for over 5 years, the red cedar and some locust over 10. And I think the black walnut and ash in the back has been there for three or four years. I have my choice. I started with traditional, a recurve 15 years ago when I was a kid, and now I'm really getting into it again. I really want to make a bow. Should I just pull up some reading and reference materials and just dive right in? Any advice on those wood types or anything else at all would be greatly appreciated. Also, can you make one out of wood that's green? Is that what causes the bows that I see that are "curvy" or "twisted up"? Or did the maker carve them and heat treat them to be that way? I just started researching this stuff today, so I'm pretty green myself. Help!

[SportHunter]

Sounds like you have plenty of really good bow wood waiting for you. You can learn most if what you need to know in here. Check out the bowyers bench forum.

If you were in a hurry you can cut and split some staves, rough out a few bow blanks and let them dry inside or in a hot box to really get into it quick. Or just buy a seasoned (dry) stave and start today. Then you can season your wood when you get around to cutting some and build yourself some stock.

Some reading: Traditional bowyers bible series, Dean Torges making the osage bow etc..

[Bjorn]

Move this over to the Bowyers Bench and go crazy! You will love it!

[marahat]

Awesome guys, thanks. I'm freaking pumped! I can't wait to get some time to mess with this stuff. I want a "real" bow, as you guys call 'em. I do have a 47# dan quillen (Archery Traditions) recurve that I'm currently in the process of getting setup for hunting and I'm still pumped up about that. Gotta save a little more money for the proper arrows. This is so much fun, I love these archery websites. We have rattlesnakes and copperheads, too. So if I can get a few bows made and get to where I feel like I've made a good one, I can deck that thing out with snake! I also have a little bit of rabbit skin glue, I can use that for a lot of different things, right? I was using it to prime canvases for painting pictures

[chanumpa]

Books;"Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans"by Jim Hamm,"Making Indian Bows and Arrows",byDouglas Spotted Eagle,And" Traditional Bowyers Bible"Vol.1,(for Starters").You need these.The Bowyers Bibles are usually available at most libraries and are a must.You have some really great bow woods at your finger tips,and the want.Primitive Archer magazine also has alott of good info.You will be building many fine bows soon!If you get too many copperhead skins give me a shout.I would trade good wood shafts ,etc for a couple.I am excited to see your selfbow evolution and welcome you to the gang.

[Fattony77]

FYI, Mar 21-24 near Perkins, OK there is an "open to the public" get together hosted by the Oklahoma Selfbow Society. It's called OJAM (Oklahoma Selfbow Jamboree) and it's the 9th annual. It's family friendly, available primitive camping (free), a lot of different primitive skills classes (flint knapping, cane arrow making, fire starting, etc.), archery vendors, 3D range and a fun "Clout Shoot" and of course bow making tools & instruction. I went for the first time last year & plan on going back this year, joining the society and trying my hand at it myself. Try doing a google search on the society for their website for a map & other info. Great group of people. Hope this helps & hope to see you there.     -Tony

[Terry Lightle]

What Tony said

[scrub-buster]

Gary Davis has a great DVD on bowmaking.  I think it is called Rattlestick.

The bows that are curvey and have a lot of character is just how the wood grew.  When you split out a stave it will follow the grain of the wood.  When you make the bow you go along with the grain.  If it is wavy then the bow will be wavy.  You can use heat and steam to bend wood.  Osage bends great with dry heat.

[marahat]

Awesome, thanks guys. I guess I need to figure out "tiller" and other important things like that. I was watching a step by step earlier where a guys was shaving little areas at a time to get the bow to bend correctly. And he had the bow horizontal facing upward on the wall, with a long string attached at both ends and some weight in the middle. I suppose this is pretty standard for testing the flexibility? Can I just rig something up in the barn for this? I'm getting ahead of myself, I know. First thing I need to do is locate my best dried wood and knock some staves out of it. And be reading these materials you mentioned in the meantime. Once I get this going (which it might be a little bit, I'm presently kind of busy), I'll post pics of my progress. Thanks again, guys.

[wood carver 2]

Don't forget to make a tillering gizmo. It's easy to make and there are instructions on this site.
Dave.

[wood carver 2]

http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=001047#000000
Try this.
Dave.

[marahat]

Awesome, I'll take a look at that, thanks!

[marahat]

That looks easy enough. It appears that how you make your gizmo can vary. Would it being longer or shorter affect the weight of the draw? I want to make sure I understand how to use this. You create some sort of device that will draw your bow back for you, and then, once it is bent, you run that along the bend and whereever that pencil touches the wood, you know you need to shave off a little bit. I guess the shorter one would be better then for when the bow is at a full draw? Do people ever make three different lengths and switch down to the shorter ones as they go? Do you always shave from the inside there where the pencil mark is? Or can you shave on both sides..

[mwirwicki]

If you need the Gary Davis DVD, I have them available for sale.  Gary and I are close friends.  I had him over just today.  The DVD is a great tool, especially on your first bow.  The books mentioned above are also great.  Read and watch all you can.  It will definitely help you, and get you pumped even more.  If it were me picking which tree, I would go for the osage.

[scrub-buster]

I wish I had Gary's DVD when I first started out

[okie64]

Hey Mark, what part of eastern oklahoma are your parents located? Im just west of Fort Smith a few miles, maybe we could get together and I could help you get started on the right track.

[marahat]

Dang, the osage is probably the only one that we don't have cut and stacked... I would have to cut some down, How long would I have to wait? You can't make it outa green wood can you? I think we have locust. Btw, my parents have about 70 acres of all those trees I just mentioned. Plus I have alot of other areas that I could potentially cut. One of the sycamores has a big burl in it about 30 feet up, I know people like to make different stuff out of that. I've often thought before of trying to get a small portable mill out there and selling some of the nicer wood. If I had a lot of good bowmaking material, and maybe invested in a wood kiln or something like that, do you guys think it would be worth my while? And I don't mean to get rich or really even to make a profit, I just mean to support my newly forming habit!

[marahat]

Hey okie 64, I didn't even see your post (I was still on page 1 of the thread!). I'm in Tahlequah, I teach part time at the university.

[okie64]

Osage is the best bow wood hands down. But any of the woods you mentioned will make a good bow. Black Locust and osage are pretty much the only woods that you can leave outdoors or in a wood shed for any amount of time and still make a bow from them. All the whitewoods will ruin in a month or two if the bark is left on them and they are exposed to the weather. A few years ago I had a huge hickory log that I left on the ground for a couple days in the summertime and by the time I got back to it and got the bark off of it the whole thing was eat up with fungus. You can quick dry a stave but its better if it is seasoned properly, we need to get together and I'll give you a good piece of seasoned osage to get started on while you're cuttin and seasoning other woods. If you wait about another month to cut your hickory the bark will peel off like a banana or sometimes it slips off in a couple of huge pieces. I work up close to your neck of the woods around tenkiller pretty much all the time. I'll shoot you a pm with my number and we can talk more.

[George Tsoukalas]

Welcome! Wow! That's a who's who of bow woods. I'd start with hickory. Cut it during the growing season. Seal the ends, split into staves and remove the bark before the hits the ground. That bark will pop off quickly. You are looking at the back of the bow. As okie mentioned, white woods (all except osage and BL) do not survive the weather well.  Osage is an excellent wood. BL holds a special place in my heart and will prepare you well for using osage. They both work best with a heartwood ring as your back. Please refer to my site for more. Jawge
 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html