Hickory self bow project

[hove131]

I have always loved traditional archery. I have shot compounds as well as traditional for about twelve years now. I build custom compound strings as well as flemish and endless loop strings for longbows and recurves. So I like to think of my self as the hands on, self service type. I have always wanted to build my own trad bow and I finally jumped to it with this self bow build. I didn't want to cut a stave down and have to wait for it to dry out so I went with a board build.



So here is my 6 ft Hickory board. I went through about 50 boards trying to find one with a decent grain. This board was fairly good BUT was the only board that had a nice bend in the end. I will have to put a heat gun to it and straighten it back once I get the bow closer to the floor tiller/tiller stage.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg245/Hove131/IMG_20111103_180708.jpg

Here we are all sketched out. I'm going with a pyramid design at 60 " n2n. The widest part of the limbs at the fades are 2.5 ".

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg245/Hove131/IMG_20111103_182518-1.jpg

I wanted to mock up the riser and just throw it on because I like to get ahead of myself sometimes. I just wanted to see how it would look. This is a hickory riser as well with an oak accent stripe down the center.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg245/Hove131/IMAG0478.jpg

Next step was to glue up the riser block. I went with an 8" long riser for this bow to keep it just short of the fades to prevent a possible hot handle from popping off.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg245/Hove131/IMAG0481.jpg

Now to the fun part. Filing down the limbs to the correct thickness. I used mostly a rasp and a stainless steel cabinet scraper (piece of stainless.) I have the limbs marked at 5/8" thick on each limb and I'm about 3/4 of the way there. I'm thinking I may have to go closer to a 1/2 " dues to the shortness of the bow so I can get it closer to bending for floor tillering.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg245/Hove131/IMAG0482.jpg

Before calling it a night I glued on the riser.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg245/Hove131/IMAG0487.jpg

I have been working on this bow for a few days now on and off. I will keep you updated on the build as I progress.

[Short Draw]

Nice build along.

Keep up the nice work.

Erich

[hove131]

Thanks bud. I'm new at this so no promises. Lol. I'm keeping at it though.

[stevelong]

NICE, it's always interesting to me how this progresses, I am several years from doing this, but it's something I might try down the road.
Thanks for posting it up.

[aroadik]

This is interesting, and Welcome !

[hove131]

I did a bit more shaving on the limbs. What a pain. I need a wider more aggressive rasp. Here it is at this point. The bow is just now starting to get a little bend at the floor tillering stage.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg245/Hove131/IMAG0492.jpg

[hove131]

A little more rasping and I'm starting to get some bend in the bow...Ok a lot more rasping. It seems like that's all I do. I did rasp down a 1" board though!

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg245/Hove131/IMAG0495.jpg

[hove131]

Rough shaped the handle into the shape of the bow. My next few steps is to steam form the bottom limb to get it straight (board was bowed at one end when I bought it but was the best grained board...reason for that,) flatten the sides of the limbs from the the rough cut outs, make a long tillering string and get this thing up on the tillering board. Any idea fellas on handle designs?Flat, dished, pistol grip? I left plenty of material to work with. I was thinking possibly a nice comfortable dish shaped handle.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg245/Hove131/IMAG0496.jpg

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg245/Hove131/IMAG0497.jpg

[hove131]

This board was bowed when i bought it so I will be heating up this section of limb and forming it back straight tonight hopefully before filing in the limb nocks and starting the tillering process. If you notice in the floor tillering pic of the limb bending it starts to bend a bit more in the middle section of this limb. This is what I will be correcting. I could fix this in the tillering process but i don't want to risk missing my poundage on this bow.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg245/Hove131/limbcurve.png