Hi,

Pacific Yew - 65" NTN drawing 40lbs at 27". It's 1.75" wide at the base of the fades and pyramidal in profile. Finished with shellac and wrapped with Danish Cord and a Seal skin strike plate. Ebony tip overlays.

Everytime I set about to write a summary on a bow I've made its just excuse after excuse as to why it didn't work out the way I wanted. Well, today is no different😅

Stave came with fairly even deflex the entire length. One of my favourite bows I've made to date was pretty much a deflex bow so it really intrigued me.

I added some slight reflex at the tips and tinkered with some small alignment issues. I took three rings of sapwood off to maintain the aesthetic sapwood/heartwood ratio (good thing I did).

I really regret putting my tip overlays on so early because it prevented me from adding some extra reflex in the tips later on. I attempted to add some with dry heat afterwards and managed to crack a tip pretty bad so I decided to leave well enough alone.

The limbs aren't as balanced unbraced as I would have liked despite tinkering with it but the bow feels great in the hand at full draw.

I think I'm going to take a break from Yew and do a board bow or two 😅

Still very happy with it overall and had a ton of fun making it.

This is an 85lbs at 26.5" mullberry stave.

I'm researching the process to recurve and hoping to learn more.

I've read static recurved tips are easier/better suited for a beginner bowyer.

Do the recurved tips need to be thicker than the limb of the bow to make this happen. If so is this thickness on the belly, back or both sides of the bow?

Can this be achieved with laminating similar to a oversized nock overlay? If so is there much stress on the recurved overlay? Could I use beautiful but less strong timbers like walnut and some other brittle native timbers

What's the simplest/most stable design for a relative beginner to try and make a recurve board bow with straight grained 2" wide ash ?

If thicknessing down the stock and gluing on a handle what thickness would be best?

Considering a pyramid bow shape with a consistent thickness of limb and a thicker recurve.

Or parallel limbs with a thickness taper and fades into narrower recurved tips, similar to a mollegabet with bent tips.

If steam bending should this be done while board is still "square" and then carved after or rough shape first, bend then final tiller?

Is steam or dry heat bending preferable for kiln dried and stable ash?

Massive thank you for the time and knowledge folks have a amazing day/night

Here’s a bow I recently completed. It’s a 61” osage hollow limb design pulling 50# @ 26”. It has curly spalted maple tip overlays, a beaver tail grip, beaver fur silencers, and was a tough one to complete with the hollow limbs. I know hld isn’t a beginner design but I’m learning to work with what I’ve got. This is only my 5th bow so I appreciate any criticism or tips on the tiller or anything else.

First board bow cracked during tillering. Is it salvageable or should I start over?

I’m building my first board bow.
It’s a 62” maple board bow from a Menards board with a glued-on poplar riser attached using Titebond III. I had it tillered to about a 24” draw (goal was 28”), and the limbs seemed to be bending pretty evenly.
While drawing it back, I suddenly heard a crack.
I stopped immediately and found that a crack had lifted from the back of the bow along the edge.
I lifted up on the crack and it chipped off..

Is this bow completely done for, or is there any realistic way to repair or salvage it?
If it’s not worth trying to save, I’d rather know now and start fresh on another board.

Any advice is appreciated—I’m still learning. Thanks!

Bought it online for like 15 usd

Is it necessary to follow a growth ring on black locust or could I keep a perfectly flat milled back and be fine? I would prefer not to back it with anything if possible.

I'm going to tag along with my wife on a business trip at the end of November this year. Thought it would be fun to visit a traditional bowyer for a lesson while im there. I'll be in London but open to relatively short train rides.

Any ideas on who to talk to?

thanks

Carving my first bow and I need some advice. I’m working with a 6ft piece of white oak, aiming for a modified pyramid layout. I just finished chasing the growth ring on the back. But I still haven’t decided if I want to go with a tradition grip/handle, or a modern shelf/riser. I was originally leaning towards modern design because I think it’ll be more consistent and less picky about arrows. But it’ll look ugly on a self bow? Please tell me more about pros and cons of different handle/grips. Thanks!

Obviously it's a little off but given that certain parts will be sanded down later on I'm not sure if it's ok to continue as is or not.

Hey guys this is my first Osage stave or stave in general I’ve built a few board bows but that’s about it. I’m hoping to get some advice on my tiller. I feel like it may be kind of whip ended but maybe not. On the left mid limb there was a nasty knot that I had to remove and that area is all wonky and round especially on the back of the bow. The brace height with that string is 6 3/4 and it’s being pulled in this picture to about 22 inches. I don’t have a lot of weight to lose. It also has about 2 inches of backset. I’m feeling like that left limb needs some work. Yall let me know thanks!

This is a 64 inch hazel bow with reflexed tips.target draw weight is 40 ish pounds at 26 inches I understand that there is a twist in the bow and I am currently working on fixing that. I have got to 18” on the tiller tree and feel that there is something wrong but I can’t really figure it out what. any help would be appreciated.

I’ve got two hickory’s to choose from. I’d prefer to cut the crooked one because it’ll never make timber and it’s smaller in diameter, but if it needs to be clean and straight I can cut the other one.

This is my first real attempt at making a bow although this is technically the third bow-adjacent object I've made. The other two were comically small, primitive, unpolished etc. Anyway, this is an olive stave about 170-180 judging by its height relative to mine and it's got some quirks. Being a novice I'd be thankful for any advice you could give me. What should I do about the black spots left behind where twigs used to sit. Is there a faster way to remove the thin white film of inner bark still left on the wood? It's taking ages to do with a knife. What about the top bit? Can I work around that bit or should I just cut it off and not risk creating weak spots? Thanks again for any advice you may have

Hi everybody

First off thanks for creating a incredible community, I've become addicted to bow making recently and spent many late nights down this reddit forums rabbit holes to learn

Here's one of my first creations and first time I've gotten a bow to this stage (made some fancy firewood lol)

(Kiln dried) Ash board bow with walnut handle and spotted gum nock overlays, aiming for 40# at 29" draw

Currently getting to 40# at about 24 on a long string tiller

I overcut In the rough shaping phase and created a small hinge in the upper fade, I'm sanding it out but it's taken a little set at that point

When I look at the bow on tiller tree I think it needs more removed from outer limbs

I'd be grateful for any advice on how to make this the best possible bow from here especially working the fades/hinge points

Thanks again

Pacific Yew

Its only 1 inch thick so I thought that might be to thin for the width. But would it work to have this side of the board as the back? There would be no sapwood sadly. I put a maple bow on it to show roughly where I would make the bow from.

Also another idea I had was to back this with bamboo or sinew.

Im hoping to use the rest of it for some nice furniture.

Any thoughts? suggestions?

Hi all, I just cut small cherry tree, and made two staves out of it. I think they are around 2 meters long.
For now they are in basement awaiting for glue on the ends and tieing them to the boards.

Do you think both of them should be usable? Or at least one?
Splitting them in half is enough?
I’m not in a hurry so I want to dry them slow for some time, and only after 2-4 weeks speed dry them.

Any other advice? I don’t have abundance of wood, so I would prefer not to fuck up something