Weekend Bow Build

[jtbluefeather871]

I visited my folks and my sisters family this weekend. They wanted to learn to build bows and figured that since I've built a few I could teach them.  We ended up with five bows in the two days we worked on them. All were built from red oak. We used silk ties to back them, and a short strip of hickory on the back so we could glue up risers and backing in one shot. (I had to be home on Sunday, so we had a time crunch.)  But after teaching everyone the basics, they basically worked on their own. I assisted with tillering advice, helped them make strings, tried to fix a few hinges... that sort of thing.

Here's a before shot - after we talked about what to look for in a board.



I was hoping for one shootable bow, but everybody can shoot their bows and we all had a great time! Bows range in weight from 20-35#, the longer two (ouside bows) are 72" the shorter three (in the middle of the group) are 66". My buddy joined us on the second day, so I let him finish the "demo" one I was building.



And the obligatory full draw shot...


Tillering isn't perfect, but they did a pretty good job for their first bows. I thought you pro builders would enjoy seeing a group of new trad archer addicts being born.  Everyone in the group wants to build more bows and they are already excited for the weather to warm up so they can shoot in their yards.

Enjoy!

[KellyG]

Great looking bunch of bows. Sounds like there where good times had.

[Pat B]

Very COOL!!!

[Nim-rod]

Looks like alot of work went into those handles. I like!

[jsweka]

That's a fun winter weekend!

[JamesV]

Very nice family project.

James

[Ranger44]

Looks like a good time jt.  Where in MN are you from?

[jtbluefeather871]

Thanks all. I forgot to mention that we went from start to finish in 24 hours.  I just blogged about the whole thing over at  www.mydogshoba.blogspot.com  if you're interested. Ranger- I'm in Rochester. Where are you at?

[mwosborn]

Very nice!  

[4est trekker]

Very cool!  Takes a lot of planning and effort to get that many first time bowyers to all produce bows that draw and look that nice in such a short amount of time! Well done.  

[wood carver 2]

What a nice looking bunch of bows. That's a fun way to spend a weekend with friends and family.
Dave.

[JJB]

Looks like a lot of fun there!
-Jay

[D]

Heck yeah thats awsome.

[Ranger44]

Ranger- I'm in Rochester. Where are you at?

I'm near Wabasha!

[jtbluefeather871]

Ranger- I'm a little jealous that you're that close to the river!  What are you building for bows over there?