How To Season A Bow Stave

I call back making my starting time bow as a kid. I found a branch on the ground under the Black Oak copse that grew in our g. There was a windstorm the prior evening and branches were everywhere. I found one with a curve and tied on a string. And then I grabbed a smaller, straighter co-operative. I placed this small co-operative on the string and shot it. It really worked! The arrow went ten feet — I was thrilled. Retrieving the pointer, I tried shooting once again. There was a loud "Snap!" All that hard work downwardly the drain. So much for my first go at bow making.

What is it that attracts people to want to know how to make a bow and arrow? Is it a skill that is in our bones? Does it trigger some fascination that is irresistible? I believe and then.

So how practise you make a bow? My brother Tim and I but finished a sweet class at Twin Eagles Wilderness School in Sandpoint, Idaho. If y'all weren't able to join us there, here'due south an overview…

Select Your Wood

My commencement attempt at bow making was actually non that far off. It begins with your Kamana skills — knowledge of identify. In full general, the hardwoods of your area are a good starting point. Beyond being difficult, the wood needs to exist rubberband, non brittle. Wood can be hard and brittle. So how do you know?

You lot tin walk exterior, observe some local trees or shrubs, and start bending wood. Or yous can try some research offset. Observe out what the natives of your expanse used. You might take heard of these 2 archetype N American bow woods: Osage Orange and Pacific Yew. For a long time these were the just forest that people thought would work for bow making.

You lot tin can actually make a bow out of whatsoever wood. The more than ideal woods volition exist much more forgiving, though. Here's a list to help you get started:

Bow forest

• Hickory
• Oak
• Pacific Yew
• Juniper
• Osage Orange
• Ash
• Elm
• Mulberry

If you live in the land of hardwoods, you can see from the listing that there is a bounty of woods from which to cull. If yous live in the Due west or the desert, you have fewer bow making choices. Where I alive, Pacific Yew, a tree that needs mature wood in which to thrive, is present in limited quantities. We have plenty of forest, only mature forest is rare.

Harvest

Once you have decided which species you are going to use, you'll need to observe a specimen to harvest. I take had good luck with finding large branches or trees that divide into a 5-formation. If you are able to locate this Five, you lot can harvest a stave without killing the tree. A bow stave is your base material for what will somewhen be your bow.

The platonic beginner'due south bow making stave will be directly and over 4 inches in diameter. The larger the bore of the branch, the flatter the back of the bow volition be (the function of the bow facing abroad from you when you describe it). More details on the importance of this to come up.

The other characteristic to be enlightened of is twist in the bow. This tin can exist difficult to assess, simply you should effort anyway. Examine the bark and see if information technology spirals around the tree. If it does, this volition not exist a skilful bow stave. Your goal is to find a straight tree or branch, twist-free, that is as tall every bit you are. Taller is meliorate; shorter can work.

Make your cuts and now you accept a bow stave! At this betoken, you take some options.

Prepare the Stave

The traditional process is to immediately coat the ends of the stave with varnish or glue. This will prevent information technology from drying likewise speedily — assuasive the forest to flavour without the ends cracking. Now set your stave in a cool, dry out spot nether cover. Let it season for at to the lowest degree a twelvemonth.

Yep, y'all heard that correctly. A year. {C}

Why so long? The wood needs to flavor fully before any stress is placed on it. If dark-green (unseasoned) forest is aptitude, it volition concur the retentivity in the bow. To encounter an instance of this, take a greenish co-operative from a tree. Curve it close to the indicate of breaking, and then let the wood go. You volition come across an "elbow" in the forest. This would not be skilful. The elbow creates a weak spot that will always be nowadays in the wood'south memory — a likely spot for future breakage.

When people hear about needing to expect a year for the stave to season, they often get disheartened. When you're excited to go out and try something and someone tells you to wait a year, what exercise you feel similar doing? Perhaps looking for something else to put your energy into…

Alternatives to Harvest

No need to despair. There are other ways to acquire a bow stave. You can hands purchase one online. There are several online stores that sell quality, seasoned bow staves for around $threescore plus shipping. Some other source is eBay. Be wary of wood that has been recently cut. It will be more expensive to ship (because it will be heavy), and yous will end up in the same predicament of needing to wait until information technology is seasoned.

The cheapest option is to get to a specialty lumber shop and discover a straight-grained wood. Attempt a ane-inch thick piece of hickory. In full general, hickory is the to the lowest degree expensive, near reliable woods. You can and then cut that woods past hand, or, if you have a bandsaw (the creme de la creme of a bowmaker's tools), you tin can rather quickly turn that lumber into a bow blank.

Seasoning on the Fast Track

Seasoning will go much faster if y'all rough out your recently harvested bow stave into a bow blank: a piece of wood that looks like a bow, simply doesn't bend similar a bow. To practise this, you will mitt-split your bow stave. This allows you to assess your stave for whatever twist. Ideally your wood volition split directly as an arrow (pun intended). If information technology has a niggling twist you tin manage. But if there is pregnant twist (more than xx degrees from tip to tip) you lot might have firewood instead of bow-wood. You can troubleshoot this to an extent, but the process is not beginner-friendly.

Rough Cuts

If your slice is direct, it's time to rough it out. Use a drawknife, or, if yous are experienced and cautious, utilize a bandsaw. Caution: bandsaws tin can turn your bow into kindling in the glimmer of an eye. Using a drawknife is an excellent skill to have in your dorsum pocket. It'south satisfying work.

Remove the bark first. If you exercise this at the right time of year, you can simply pare off the bark. If not, apply a drawknife and remove the outer bark and cambium only. The key dominion of bowmaking is to care for the back of the bow like a newborn baby.

Careful Carving

Next, y'all'll cleave the bow (meet illustration). Shape the handle to exist 4 inches long in the center of your bow, about 1½ inches wide past 1½ inches thick. At each end of the 4 inch handle, taper out sharply to the widest part of the bow, the showtime of two limbs: a height limb and a bottom limb. A good width near the handle of each limb is 2 inches. Now, taper both limbs from that two inch beginning to ½ inch wide at the tip of the bow. Leaving the handle as is, on each limb remove woods from the belly of the bow (the within, or side facing you when you describe the bow). Have each limb down to ½ inch thick.

You now have a bow blank. If your bow wood is green it will season much quicker. If yous're in a warm, arid environment, information technology tin take every bit little as a calendar week — a vast improvement over a year. One time your wood is seasoned, you're fix to take information technology to the adjacent level: tillering.

Tillering

The tillering stage begins the real art in bowmaking. And… is beyond the telescopic of this article.

Source: https://wildernessawareness.org/articles/bowmaking-basics/

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