# Making your own bow(added a video)



## ronmac13 (Oct 18, 2008)

Where can i get a kit or something to do this?


or how do you even do it?


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## Redbow (Oct 18, 2008)

Three Rivers Archery has kits you can buy and make your own bow, they also have bows that you can buy that are very near completion, that might be a good way for you to start with bow making! A bowyer has to start somewhere!

If you have never made a bow, get some help with this! There is information online that is quite good on how to make a bow, both laminated and self bows. A self bow is made from one solid piece of wood! Its not difficult to make a self bow but it does take a little practice to get it right.

Go to google and just type in making bows and arrows, or search Utube for info, there are quite a few sites as I said before to help you!

If you make a self bow, make sure the wood is cured before you attempt to make the bow, you have to season the wood for several months or the bow will surely break on you, green wood will not make a good bow at all. 

I hope this helps, good luck and take your time with bow making, it can be quite discouraging when you break the first two or three that you make! Just remember, if you construct a self bow or a laminated one and it breaks after you finish it, welcome to the club!

Always remember the wood is boss! If I can do it, so can you!

Hope this helps!


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## ronmac13 (Oct 18, 2008)

how do you cure the wood


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## ronmac13 (Oct 18, 2008)

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pretty cool vid.


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## Redbow (Oct 19, 2008)

If you cut down a sapling to make a bow out off, and a sapling is a small tree, hickory, oak, red cedar, dogwood, those are a few that will work for making a self bow, you need to put that wood in a warm dry place for it to dry. This drying process, also known as curing,  or seasoning, takes several months!

You can split the small sapling you intend to use for your bow and rough out the shape of your bow stave, a stave is the piece of wood you will use for making your bow. Then put that bow stave in the attic of your garage, a good place to dry out wood is in an old car or truck sitting outside in the sun. I am sure you know how hot it gets inside a car during the warm months. Tie the bow stave to a ceiling rafter in your garage in several places to keep it from warping if you go that route, I like an old car or truck better for drying !

I like to cut saplings in January, split them and put them up to dry until July or August! Even much longer is better for the drying of the wood ! Some bowyers even season their wood for two years or so! Make sure you seal the ends of your bow stave with wax, polyurethane, or sometimes I use just plain ole spray paint so the ends won't checker or split! If you don't seal the ends of the bow stave the drying process causes them to crack!

Look at the Three Rivers Archery site online, they have bow staves, or you can go to Lowe's home improvement and buy a simple oak board and make a bow out of it. I don't recommend board bows, they break too easily for me, the wood seems to be too dry for making a bow and they don't last for long! This is just my experience with board bows! E-bay has bow staves for sale, there you can find hackberry, hickory, black locust, black walnut, and many others including the king of bow woods, Osage Orange! Stay away from the Osage Orange unless you are experienced with working a bow stave, Osage is hard to work with but it makes a bow that will last for a very long time if done properly! You have to bring the Osage Orange down to one growth ring when working with it, its not an easy thing to do! Dogwood or Red Cedar does not require this at all!

I don't like kiln dried wood for bows, it is dried out too quickly and in my opinion the wood looses some of its ability to bend without fracturing or breaking. Dogwood is the best wood I have ever used for making self bows, it bends well, keeps its shape well without a lot of set or string follow and is pretty easy to work with!

Remember this, a self bow is easy to make but it probably won't last a lifetime, a laminated bow will last much longer like is presented in the video above. However, much more work goes into making a laminated bow and you need the proper tools for making them, it takes experience to make them, or much more experience that it does to make a self bow, it just depends on where you want to start. I would recommend starting out with self bows, but its really up to you! To make a self bow, all you really need is a good wood rasp, a Stanley sure form is what I use, a good knife, a rat tailed file or chain saw file for making the string grooves, and lots of sandpaper! You can split a sapling with an ax or hatchet but I use my table saw for that!


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## ronmac13 (Oct 19, 2008)

thanks redbow


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## Slingblade (Oct 25, 2008)

Check out Sam's page; it's got a lot of tips and tricks, he has laminated wood bows, fiberglass bows and board bows. http://www.geocities.com/salampsio/


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