I'd been involved in archery and bowhunting when I was younger, shot an old PSE wheel bow, chased deer around the woods of New Hampshire. But life intervened and archery took a backseat. Anyways, some how I got a bug in my backside to build a bow over spring break. I did a great deal of reading over at paleoplanet, tradgang and primitive archer, and I'd suggest anyone who chooses to follow this instructable do a fair share of reading over there before proceeding.
So, let's begin, shall we?
So, let's begin, shall we?
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This wasn't the first bow. No the first bow was built using these old Pop Mech plans. However, it was powerful weak, only 20lbs at 28"s. So after further research i found the description of pyramid bows. Not wanting to design another weak bow, I entered the dimensions of the Pop Mech bow into Solidworks and recorded the displacement under a 20 lb load. I then designed the the new bow in Solidworks such that an applied load of 50 Lb resulted in the same displacement as the other bow.
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I have a little question. How did you made the bow string???
I have to thank you cause you got me into making bow and my owns strings.
I took the initial ideas from your instructible but turned out the piece that I bought had a defect a 4ft so I had to cut it there. So I made a short 4ft pyramid bow and it was allot of work seeing as I didnt want to use any powertools. I made it pull 50pds bends 11inches on both sides at max pull and the string is made from good old hemp cord. Made a waxed hemp endless loop bowstring that works like a dream just gotta twist it a bit sometimes but so far so good
So yeah.
Thanks very much for the instructible and ill upload the pics in the time being. In the meanwhile making the exact same idea except 7ft instead of 4 cause I found a nice straight piece and I wanna make an epic longbow from it
-ro
last one was iroko which i was very carefull with ...i was aiming at 35 pounds at 28 inches ........it broke at about 33 pounds at 28 inches.......
so im rethinking all of this.......ive been attempting the longbow concept that bends through the handle but yesterday i glued a riser on a piece of iroko and will attempt again with this new method.......i build as long as my wood will allow........the oak was 6 ft long..........the iroko are both 70 inches as i get two equal staves out of one piece of wood.......i think one of my mistakes is that im starting with my rough shape to thin and not leaving enough timber to reach my desired draw weights.......not sure what im learning but will get it right eventually.................i believe breaking bow may in the long run be more educational than it seems...... ...."a fully drawn bow is a 7/8 ths broken bow"
A bow should be 'exercised' on the tillering bar, pulling it to varying degrees starting from light to greater bends as you progress. It wouldn't hurt to flex the bow at least a dozen times at each stage of shaping. In the end, it doesn't hurt to tiller a couple inches beyond your target draw. That can help prevent failure if the bow is over drawn. Such tillering can also reduce string follow.
To the many comments about what type of wood to use, hark back to the beginning of this build along. He recommends a red oak board. You can find these anywhere lumber is sold, they are not expensive and just the thing to make a bow until you improve your technique. Learn to make a good bow first before going on to more exotic- and expensive- woods.
Another thought on backing came from another site. It recommended using layers of the drywall net stuff for seams and patching built up in layers with wood glue. It's durable, cheap and easy to make, and works.
This bow is designed for a 28 inch draw, for it's 68 inch length, so if you measure your draw, and keep the ratio. ie. multiply your draw by 2.4 to get the new bow length, you should be fine.
In your addendum you comment on references to backing the bow. I agree that it is not necessary but, disagree that it adds nothing to it. You are correct that it can help prevent or at least minimize any failure. But, properly backed it can help reduce the string follow almost inherent in any bow like this.
A possibly better solution for your string wrapping of your string knocks might be rawhide. A simple source of that are dogs rawhide "chew bones." You can get them in various thicknesses. Just toss one in a bucket and unroll them when good and wet. Cut strings of the thinner stuff while wet and lash it on. As it dries, it will shrink and harden. When fully dry, anything you have attached thus isn't going anywhere! Native Americans used rawhide to fasten anything they didn't want to come apart. They even repaired rifle stocks this way some of which are still holding after more than a century.
One more observation. You tillered to form but that's all. A bow should be 'exercised' on the tillering bar pulling it to varying degrees starting from light to greater bends as you progress. It wouldn't hurt to flex the bow at least a dozen times at each stage of shaping. In the end, it doesn't hurt to tiller a couple inches beyond your target draw. That can help prevent failure if the bow is over drawn. Such tillering can also reduce string follow.
Step 8.
Have you notice anything like that?
It's 68" 66 is nock to nock
Somewhere in the thread I told some one how to scale it. I'm 6'6" pull 28" so just do a linear scale on all dimensions to fit you.