Making bows of Green wood Vol.1- Rowan flightbow

O.k., first article 2011. It´s a “to be continued” of “Bow- staves- Vol.2- making a bow from green wood”

The mentioned rowan- bow is ready, but to far away from 50lbs at 23″: 27lbs at 23″, what´s wrong about it? I did the bow to thin! That´s all, cause of my lack of experience in making bows of rowan- saplings. To fail is the teacher you´ll never forget.

Anyway I heat- treated much more reflex into the bow, I didn´t succeed in increasing the drawweight: if there is to less material, it is a no- go to enforce a selfbow. It´s quite better to cut away to less wood 20 times than to cut to much wood away one time! It´s not possible to add wood to a selfbow. Usually I keep such a failed bow, sooner or later a customer will ask for it.

The bow was tested, 27lbs at 23″, I did no chronos, it shoots a 350grs.- arrow at about 130yards.

th rowan bow is on the left

The rowan bow at 18"- checking the tiller

Beside the failed drawweight the bow is matching my expectations. I want the slightly reflexed limbs to become straight when drawn, most working is just beside the handle, so there is a quite well energy- storage.

This bow is a kind of study for to more get confident with the deflex/reflex- design I´m actually studying.

The second trial with a rowan- sapling:

The rowan stave

What looks straight is a bit snaky and twisty too, but with someheat-treating I could get by with it.

This stave is still green too

Cause the stave is green, it´s really easy to straighten it finally, but there´ll remain some tracks of its naturally growing- pattern. That´s what makes selfbows such distinctively genuine.

Checking the center- line of the stave

The handle is almost completely beside the center- line. Laying out the handle and the skinny tips. I wanted to make a longer handle as usual for to shorten the working area of the limbs. Combined with the skinny tips, this is a way for to mix the qualities of a longer bow with the capablities of a shorter bow: good leverage and a quick movement of the limbs.

Working the stave roughly with the ax

My Swedish ax is one of the best tools I´ve ever bought, this blacksmith is making single pieces, just tell him what you want. The most important thing is a premium blade, highly durable and not to heavy. If an ax is to heavy, it is not possible to make exactly cuts and your hands will be tired soon.

Using my shaving horse beside the warm wood-stove while winter has heavily begun

 

The design is cut

The skinny tips- finally the tips will be thicker than the bending/working parts of the limbs

The extra long handle

So far: the bow is ready for to be clamped on the jig

Next volume will be focused on making a jig for drying a greenwood- bow, it could also be used for heat- treating.

Related Articles

• Bow staves Vol. 1- harvesting rowan and whitebeam (redhawk55.wordpress.com)
• Bow staves Vol. 2- making bows of green wood (redhawk55.wordpress.com)
• bow staves Vol.3- chosing, splitting, ……….picture heavy! (redhawk55.wordpress.com)

Asymmetrical bow- designs Vol.3- maruki- yumi made of juniper

Maybe you remember this stave:

 

juniper stave spring 2010

 

I have cut it last spring, just when winter has gone, look at: harvesting wood

In the meantime it has become a maruki- style bow, a yumi made of a single piece of wood, the fore- runner of the delicious to do yumi made of bamboo. It measures 75″ in length, 11/4″ in width at its widest point at the handle.

 

the juniper maruki- at 26",48lbs

 

There are still some details to work, tillering it at 30″, about 55lbs, sanding, polishing, coating with walnut- oil.

 

juniper- maruki braced- slight recurves

 

The recurves are steam- bent, the s-shaped natural growing was at first heat- treated, but without any appreciable succes, so steam bending was required. The bow insisted on keeping a bit of its natural shape, I agreed, the string is running across the handle. Juniper is quite delicious to heat- treat or to steam bend, cause of its content of essential oils. The workshop smells great when working juniper. Store the splinters as a remedy against clothes moths.

The ratio of the length of the upper limb to the length of the lower limb is 1.61- the Golden Ratio.

 

sideview- unstrung

 

 

belly view- s- shape, the string is crossing the handle at the left side, where the arrow is shot off

 

The string is made of linen, the slight recurves are wrapped with thin  buckskin, the handle is wrapped with a thicker buckskin, buckskin is naturally tanned with fat.

Eventhough I prefer short bows, I like this style of “primitive” yumi, due to its asymmetry it makes you feel to shoot a somewhat shorter bow than it really is. For to use it to full capacity, I guess I´ve to take some kyudo lessons.

This bow makes me feel very happy: juniper is one of my favourite plants, but I´ve never succeded in making a juniper- selfbow, they´ve all broken. I succeded in making shorter bows of juniper by backing  them with sinew, juniper is very compression strong but tension weak. But this stave is completely knot- free with very thin growthrings- perfect. Done as long selfbow, it is a durable character bow.

Bow staves Vol. 2- making bows of green wood

Remember this pic of  “Bow staves Vol.1…….” :

where is the bow?

The more bow- designs you know, you´ve done, the more bows you´ll be able to imagine in a tree, a branch, a sapling. It´ s very important to have a lots of  bow- designs saved.

At the left I´m just beginning with the splitting, it was hard, I almost missed to get a stave thick enough allover its length.

the rowan stave(the one in the middle)- at the left almost to thin, but it´ll work

Cause the rowan trunk was thick, the stave turned out to become very wide- about 4″. I just had to cut it smaller, while removing wood from the sides for to get the thicker inner part of the stave.

the rowan stave- allover width is now 21/2"

sideview of the rowan stave

Since some time I´ve in mind to do a flightbow with a deflexed handle area and very slight small recurves. The stave is matching more or less this design. It´s still not to symmetrical. Its length is 62″, so 50lbs at 23″ should be no problem.

I debarked the stave, an easy job to do when its still green. I cut it with the axe and the drawknife to its shape, worked out the handle and an allover thickness of  1/2″ in the limbs.

working the green rowan

yesterday was a great day- fall is just beginning, really hot outside since some days, cold nights anyway. I could work outside, just beside my workshop, a great day!

Notice the jig on the pic above( beside the bows limb at the right). I always cut patterns of the bows I´m doing. I make them of thin flexible plywood for to get by with the natural curves of a stave, you can reuse them again.

Finally the bow is “shaped” by using a straight stable squared wood, clamps and small wooden logs at different thicknesses.

"shaping" of the green stave

"shaping" of the bow- note the marks at its back, serving as an indication for to get a symmetrical design

As usual in bowery, waiting time now!  2 weeks at least, every 2 or 3 days I´ll check what happens. Rowan doesn´t split to easy while drying, I find it very suited for to do bows of green wood.

I´m becoming more and more a “green wood” bowyer. I did very good experience above all with plum, hawthorn, euonymus and blackthorn, all badly reputated for splitting while drying. Since I worked them being green, no split at all. Almost every bow I do for customers or my own is actually done of green woods. But for the bow- classes I do all the year round with kids and adults I use the long proven air- drying. I´ve always about 50 staves in stock, seasoned for at least 2 years in our barn: a dry and breezy place. Just about 2 weeks before a class, I pick up the staves I need , for to be acclimatized. I don´t use any hot boxes or other methods for to dry bow- staves.

Bow staves Vol. 3 will be dealing with some more samples.

Bow staves Vol. 1- harvesting rowan and whitebeam

Fall is just beginning, the first cold nights, in the morning and in the evening I light a fire in the wood stove in the kitchen. It smells and sounds of winter. Time for the lumberjacks to begin felling the trees  for to earn the money the forest district needs.   

If possible I cut dead wood for to make bows, look for “Harvesting wood- dead wood” .   

In the heights of the Black Forest the lumberjacks have to be very busy, cause the forests are growing faster, due to the fact that the  young ones are leaving their farm- homes for a kind of better life in a nearby city. It´s really very hard to get by being a farmer, cause of the law of inheritance grasslands have become more and more very small. Grasslands and fields are mountainous too.  

The forest ranger is never at a loss to be asked for fire- wood or bow staves, if you cut it by yourself it´s for free. I´ve noticed that the lumberjacks are leaving a lot of great wood, cause they are ordered to work fast and to cut the big trunks, the “moneymakers” and easy to work woods like pine, fir, spruce………….when the lumberjacks have done their job, my job begins.  

Last week the wooded slope opposite to our farm has been thinned out, the lumberjacks know me and have laid aside  2 whitebeams and 2 rowans. Not to big ones, cause the slope is faced to the northeast, so the trees there have been grown slowly and straight, with long trunks, so called norhtern wood. Last Monday I went for cutting the wood, taking it home and checking it out and splitting it to bow staves.   

Usually I pick up the whole tree, we need fire wood for our stoves, we collect the berries of the rowans for to make marmalade, the meal of the  dried berries of the whitebeams is a great additive in every kind of bread for a better taste and for to keep it fresh. My wife is a passionate weaver, she is using natural fibres only and dyes them with plants, so she needs a lot of leaves, bark and lichens growing on some trees.  

   

lichens growing on a rowan

Lichens are such a great dye, you get real unbelievable strong colours.  

beard- lichens(lat. usnea) are very interesting to watch at, these ones have blossoms looking like tiny ufos

remaining fire- wood and some fence poles- cut-offs, knotty, twisted.......

I check the cutted tree for staves by looking for knot free  straight or slightly curved  sections measuring about 80″ in length and 2″ in cross-section at least. It was a heavy job, cause the slope is steep and I had to throw the staves downhills near the track my car was waiting for to be loaded.  

rowan and whitebeam- a lots of bows

For an easier handling I split the bigger woods into halves before bringing them home.  

splitting a big rowan to halves

I prefer heads of axes and hammers for splitting woods, cause the splitting of bow- staves demands for more accuracy than the splitting of firewood.  

splitting the rowan- step by step

splitting rowan- the end is near..........

This rowan trunk is slightly reflexed making the splitting a delicious job.  

splitting the rowan- some blows from the other side are necessary

Almost done, there is a clean reflexed half for to make a bow, the other half is firewood.  

...........done, me too.........

It was a lot of wood, finally it took me about 7 hours to work on 2 trees. At home I did a closer look at the collected woods. It´s very important to look for a lengthwise harmony, when cutting the woods.  

grown harmony in the woods

grown harmony- cut it like the stave below

The harvest: about 12 very straight staves for longbows, another 10 staves for flatbows, some small diameter staves  to be used in bow- classes for kids.  

Now I´ve to be patient, my wife and friends call me very patient, drying time of these staves is beginning right now. About 2 years curing in a breezy dry place.  

I´m a patient guy but to curious for not to have given bow- making of green woods a try.  

where is the bow?

Next volume is dealing with drying and curing of bow staves and the making of  the bow I explored within the rowan above- a how to make a bow of green wood.

decrowning a bow-stave Vol.1- just a matter of perspective

Decrowning a bow-stave is a very useful way for to take advantage of small- diameter saplings.

Hawthorn, blackthorn, spindlewood, for to call a few of real super- bowwoods are shrubs or bushes, sometimes they grow to the size of small trees. Making bows of them is a delicious job for a bowyer, due to their small diameters they are high-crowned. High- crowned staves are a good choice for a longbow, but if you want to make a flatbow of such a stave you need to decrown it for to get a wider back.

a small diameter high- crowned mountain- maple- cross-section

Look at the cross- section and choose the growthring on top of the stave (the back of the bow), is it running through the whole length? If not, take one growthring deeper………..This growthring is a kind of guide to follow all over the stave lengthwise.

follow the top of the growthring in the center of the sapling

the "way" is marked

It´s almost the same story like to cut a whole growthring, follow the growing of the wood, every bend and curve and knot, the top of the growthring in the center of the sapling is the guide.

......the stave is decrowned- according to the growing of the sapling

It is very important to do the decrowning very equally, so the top of the growthring in the center has to be cut out in equal width all over the length, just as well as the other cutted growthrings. A perfectly decrowned back should look very harmonically. Look again at the drawing above: the sidecuts of the outer growthrings are paralleling the top of the center- growthring. The more perfectly you decrown the more stable the bow will be and it will bend more even, otherwise you could end up at some twisted limbs. Even decrowning is some delicious job to do, it is very worth for to know it. Otherwise a lot of great staves would be fire- wood or fence- posts.

side- view- after having laid out the design next step is to work the thickness of the bow

first bracing- still some tiller- work to do

Mindful readers of the bowXplosion know this bow. It´s one of the bows I used as a sample for to post heat- treating as a great way to enforce and to shape a bow.

Next volume will be on some samples and more how- to pics of decrowning bow staves.