Hand Made Bow

John Scifres · July 05, 2012, 10:35:00 PM

Been a while since I have made a bow without power tools. Here's one I mostly finished this week while at our family lakehouse.

I sorta cheated since this stave had been reduced with a bandsaw before drying. But all the final shaping was done with handtools, mostly a drawknife.

The stave has some natural reflex and a little sideways bend.

John Scifres · July 05, 2012, 10:41:00 PM

Here's the tool lineup.

Measuring and marking tools. Hatchet, drawknife, #49 nicholson rasp, half round file, nockfile, some B-50 and a scraper.

John Scifres · July 05, 2012, 10:52:00 PM

Since I had already chased a ring on this stave before drying, the first job was to mark it out at 62" total length and 60-1/2" NTN. 1-1/4" wide for one third of the limb and then tapering to 1/2" tips.

I mostly used the drawknife and then the rasp.

Thna I reduced the thickness to about 5/8".

John Scifres · July 05, 2012, 10:56:00 PM

I cleaned it all up with a rasp and scraper and then got to bending.

John Scifres · July 05, 2012, 10:59:00 PM

Upper limb is a bit weaker than lower and stiff at the outer half. I did a little work on the lower limb and the outer half of the upper limb and came up with this.

Looks good enough for a string to me.

First pull. Not too bad. More tomorrow.

Stiks-n-Strings · July 06, 2012, 01:36:00 AM

Looking good John!

owlbait · July 06, 2012, 06:19:00 AM

Nice pictures John. Thanks for posting those. Makes it easier for a beginner like me to figure out(maybe) what your doing. I like how you balanced that bend in the second photo.

George Tsoukalas · July 06, 2012, 06:44:00 AM

Nice, John! I t looks great so far. What weight are you looking for? Jawge

John Scifres · July 06, 2012, 07:48:00 AM

Thanks all. 50# or so is my weight goal. It's the lakehouse where all diets are suspended and the women won't allow a scale so I'm winging that part

Black Mockingbird · July 06, 2012, 08:10:00 AM

Looking alright so far...thanks for sharing john

You know your a bowmaking junkie when ya take a stick to work on while on vacation

John Scifres · July 06, 2012, 08:57:00 AM

Cute kid working on bow sidetrack...

This is Lainey, my 11 year old. She has a friend named Shelby with a birthday tomorrow who is a huge Hunger Games fan. Lainey asked me if I could make her a bow like in the movie. It didn't take long to convince her to help and this is the final scraping and sanding before finishing.

We dyed and put some teak oil on her last night. We'll do the finishing touches tonight. It's gonna be a wicked cool birthday for Shelby.

John Scifres · July 06, 2012, 09:06:00 AM

Back to the "Hand Made Bow".

First draw looks pretty good but a bit stiff in the upper limb and way too heavy. 30 full-length scrapes on the top and 20 on the bottom and here's where I am.

It's kinda hingy there at the handle on the upper limb and still too heavy. 20 scrapes midlimb on both and here's the result.

Getting better but let's try that again. 20 midlimb.

Lower limb looks pretty good but the upper still has that persistent weak spot at the handle. 20 more on the top only.

Better but still needs more at the middle. 20 on the top and 10 on the bottom in the outer two-thirds of the limbs.

Better yet. More later.

burnt · July 06, 2012, 10:22:00 AM

Looks good John. Didn't Know you had two workshops.

John Scifres · July 06, 2012, 11:03:00 AM

Yes, that's my vacation shop

macbow · July 06, 2012, 11:29:00 AM

Thanks for sharing John good looking bow and a pretty young lady.
Ron

John Scifres · July 06, 2012, 12:14:00 PM

There's a stiffish spot between the near handle and midlimb on the top and the bottom needs some work midlimb. Here's the results of another scraping session. I think I am down to 10 scrapes at a time here.

I am at full draw now. Weight feels good. Lower limb looks pretty good. Upper limb is flat in the middle. 10 more scrapes there.

Still need a bit there on the top but she seems to be rounding out. I think I am holding the string a little too high here and that threw things off a bit. 10 more scrapes midlimb on the top.

John Scifres · July 06, 2012, 12:17:00 PM

Getting closer. 10 more.

One more round.

That's looking pretty good. I'll get her on the scale at home and see where she finished weightwise. Got a cool idea for a finish on this one. Stay tuned.

LeeNY · July 06, 2012, 01:57:00 PM

John, great looking as always. How did you deal with the sideways bend, or did it take care of itself?

Lee

Sam Harper · July 06, 2012, 01:58:00 PM

Awesome build along, as usual, John. I like seeing the top limb gradually start bending in the mid section as you scrape between pictures. That is really cool.

John Scifres · July 06, 2012, 02:08:00 PM

Lee, it's still there. Haven't decided what to do yet. I'll shoot her in and see if it causes problems on release. Feels decent on drawing. I'm leaning towards correcting it though. I'd use a bed of hot coals instead of the heatgun just to keep in the spirit of no power tools. However, there is a burn ban here in Indy and it's looking like we might set our all-time heat record of 106 this weekend. It's only 100 right now

Thanks Sam. Very nice of you to say. I did a buildalong many years ago where I drew it by hand the whole way. It really changes things from using a tiller tree. I like it too.