Homemade Recurve / Flatbow - 1st attempt

[JD1]

A Homemade American Flatbow / Recurve – Part one

I thought it was about time I learnt how to make a “proper” Bow. I have messed around making Bows out of 3 lengths of bamboo etc and various “survival” type Bows but although I have read plenty of articles about bow making I had never actually put any of it into practice on a proper Bow. Survival type bows are fine for in a crisis but wont generally last more than a few days so I wanted to try and make something that would last a bit longer.

After a bit of research I came to the conclusion that an American Flatbow (AFB) would be one of the easiest to try as a first attempt due to its uncomplicated profile. As this is my first attempt I haven’t worried to much about using a perfect piece of wood as I doubt very much that it will be that good a bow anyway. I hope to be able to make my mistakes, and learn from them on this Bow rather than on a perfect Stave.

It’s not strictly an AFB but that is the basis I have been working from.

It’s not finished yet but I thought I would post it as a Work in Progress, hopefully anyone else interested in doing the same can learn from my mistakes as I go along

The first step was selecting the wood to use, as I had some spare wood laying around after building a frame to fit over my raised beds I thought I would use it up on this project.

Length wise I just cut it to about 4 ½ feet. No reason other than that was the maximum I could get while avoiding Knots etc

Tools used so far: Standard Wood Plane, No2 Wood Plane, Spokeshave, Flat and Round Files, Sandpaper

The first step was to rough out the profile of the back of the bow and handle and then plane it down to a rough profile. As a basic guide I followed these plans http://www.vintageprojects.com/archery/f...plans.html although I didnt follow them exactly it did give me a good idea of the dimensions and ratios. The aim is to try and remove enough wood to leave just one growth ring along the whole length.

Second step was to mark out the side profile and again start to remove material. The main thing to remember in both instances is to not remove too much wood, you can always take more off but you cant add any.

With the profile roughly cut out I then clamped the bow to a bench as I wanted to try and make it into a Recurve, and using a block of wood in the centre I used “G” Clamps to gradually bend the limbs into shape. You can do this quicker by applying heat but I shall just tighten the clamps a little each day for a few days

Next steps will be to tiller the Bow and cut the nocks.

I did take photos of the various stages so far with my phone but after uploading them to my laptop they dont really show the process very well. I will do some more and post them later with the next steps

[Kenneth Eames]

JD1, Thank you for this, I shall certainly be following your posts. I will probably have a go some time in the future. Kenneth Eames.

[JD1]

As you can see from the 2 pics below my attempts at putting some bends in the bow to make it more into a recurve weren't a great success.

I was hoping that the wood had enough moisture in it to be able to clamp in place and let it dry out but obviously not there was not enough moisture in the wood.




My next step will be to add more moisture and then clamp again, and using a heat gun to speed up the drying process. In the wild you can do this over hot coals but I shall try the Black&Decker route first

I'm making plenty of mistakes but its better to get them out of the way now than when I really need to get it right

[NorthernRaider]

I thought the hungarian recurved hunting bows were shaped after steaming the wood for some hours first ???

[JD1]

(9 December 2011, 16:47)NorthernRaider Wrote: I thought the hungarian recurved hunting bows were shaped after steaming the wood for some hours first ???

With green wood it can often have enough moisture in it so it is not always necessary, you can clamp it and dry it out. Although my bit wasn't green I thought it had enough moisture in it but was mistaken.

Using a steam bath the recommendation is to steam it for 20 minutes and then bend/clamp while drying it over a heat source. If sinew is added, like on a lot of primitive recurves, that can help the bow hold its shape as it dries as well as adding strength.

I'm not going down the sinew route this time as i'm having enough trouble as it is

[Nemesis]

A mistake today is a lesson tomorrow, interesting thread and one I welcome, I will join you on this after the New Year as I have been meaning to do this for far too long, keep posting the mistakes JD1 it will help us/me.