My great nephew is staying with us for the summer and he's been pestering me for a while to help him make a bow.
Making a bow is something I've wanted to do anyhow, so I finally agreed.
We were at the BOL and he saw a scrap piece of oak that he thought we could make the bow with.
Honestly I did not think it would work. Wrong kind of wood, and the grain is running at an angle instead of parallel to the wood. And it wasn't in the right configuration for either a long bow or a flat bow.
But we made a bow out of it anyhow. At his draw length it is only 10 pounds, so I guess that light it doesn't really matter.
Anyhow, I made a riser to stiffen the center of the bow, and tapered it off at the top and bottom. Then glued it to the bow with some Elmer's wood glue. The riser works like a champ!
To help season the wood, we made a makeship solar oven and let it bake in the sun for a few days. Before we did that it you could bend it this way and that and it would stay bent in that direction. Now it doesn't. When he wasn't looking I put it on the big belt sander to taper the inside of the limbs. The heat from putting it on the belt sander helped finish the seasoning of the wood. The shop wasn't anywhere for him to be, especially since I need to concentrate when running equipment like that.
We glued some pig gut sausage casing on the back to keep it from splitting. And I made a bowstring out of some heavy duty thread, wrapped and all.
It is just about 2" shy of his height, so it is sort of a long bow, but with flat limbs.
It has only taken a slight set from being bent to full draw. We broke it in by drawing it a little bit at a time at first, then a little more. I forced him to use short draws at first by making him shoot crossbow bolts. We gradually went to longer and longer arrows.
Surprised the heck out of me that it didn't split when he drew it all the way back the first time!
He's out there shooting it now. I think he is as surprises as I am how well it works.
I'll get pictures in a little while.
Making a bow is something I've wanted to do anyhow, so I finally agreed.
We were at the BOL and he saw a scrap piece of oak that he thought we could make the bow with.
Honestly I did not think it would work. Wrong kind of wood, and the grain is running at an angle instead of parallel to the wood. And it wasn't in the right configuration for either a long bow or a flat bow.
But we made a bow out of it anyhow. At his draw length it is only 10 pounds, so I guess that light it doesn't really matter.
Anyhow, I made a riser to stiffen the center of the bow, and tapered it off at the top and bottom. Then glued it to the bow with some Elmer's wood glue. The riser works like a champ!
To help season the wood, we made a makeship solar oven and let it bake in the sun for a few days. Before we did that it you could bend it this way and that and it would stay bent in that direction. Now it doesn't. When he wasn't looking I put it on the big belt sander to taper the inside of the limbs. The heat from putting it on the belt sander helped finish the seasoning of the wood. The shop wasn't anywhere for him to be, especially since I need to concentrate when running equipment like that.
We glued some pig gut sausage casing on the back to keep it from splitting. And I made a bowstring out of some heavy duty thread, wrapped and all.
It is just about 2" shy of his height, so it is sort of a long bow, but with flat limbs.
It has only taken a slight set from being bent to full draw. We broke it in by drawing it a little bit at a time at first, then a little more. I forced him to use short draws at first by making him shoot crossbow bolts. We gradually went to longer and longer arrows.
Surprised the heck out of me that it didn't split when he drew it all the way back the first time!
He's out there shooting it now. I think he is as surprises as I am how well it works.
I'll get pictures in a little while.
