Red Oak Pyramid Bow

Step 9 Finish

After finish sanding I coated the whole thing with a wax finish I use on my firearms called variously "gunny paste" "one third finish" etc. a mix of BLO, beeswax and turpentine. Finally, you can wrap the handle with hemp twine, but I like the bare wood..

Very pleased with the result.

Comments

[PaulReynolds]

I added resin coat to one of my bows. Gave it a nice waterproof coat and contributed to its strenght.

[theiceman]

great job with the bow... any thoughts on gluing several (maybe 3) layers of some type of cloth (silk, duck cloth) to the back of the bow to strengthen it and ward off splintering/cracking... that having been said, I personally like the finished look of the raw wood...  thanks for a great inst...

[sconner1]

I agree.
The grain is beautiful in the pic.
Especially with the wrapping. It's such natural look.

[Alpvax]

i am only 16 and know full well that my bows arent anywhere near as good. i make them from a straight hazel branch and as for backing... just leave the under layer of bark on, none of my bows have ever splintered, although after time they weaken (not made well enough)

[koga95]

i was 14 when i used elder wood. made 2, first one i used as wetwood. second i put in shed for like 2 weeks(ish) and it (2nd) worked amazing, broke window with it. =P

[flashu]

my grandpa and I used to make hazel wood bows when i was a kid, found though that the branches are best for arrows, as they tend to loose elasticity after a while. Got a compound at the moment, but definitely considering making this. Oak and birch are the best option for me at the moment.

[Alpvax]

yes, they lose elasticity, but our house is bordered by hazel trees, so when the bows weaken, just make a new one. find a long straight section, about an inch diameter, use that as the bow, remove the top, and you can make yourself some straight arrows. although i occasionally buy dowel to make arrows.

[shortw]

When I was a kid we used to make bows from hazel. We would cut the hazel in winter for use in the summer, we dry them for a long time. we found out the longer you dry them the longer they would last and do not peel the bark. I thought I would make one for my boy, but I am thinking of laminating it to prevent it to lose the elasticity and that should help.

[Alpvax]

I normally don't bother with the 6-month seasoning, just cut down and carve away part of the belly to make for a nice curve. Leaving the bark on the back of the bow helps prevent it splitting and snapping as easily.

[boredinclass94]

thinking about making this, anyone know what would be the best wood for this project?

[afridave]

yew.....its expensive and rare so dont bother.......orange osage,lemonwood are easyily available in the USA i believe...........basically any dense hardwoods are capable of making reasonable bows..........ive read oak with a hickory strip glued on the back works well.............

[spooninbrian]

The best wood for making bows is dead wood, Oak is the next best thing.

[MR.builderguy]

where might I get deadwood? what is it anyway?

[Tool Using Animal]

read the comments

[Kynan4th]

i think i shall make a pyramid bow, ive got nothing better to do, but i reckon ill save up for some ash, itll be harder to work, but worth it if i succeed, but with the height thing, should i do longbow measurements? height of the archer plus a hand? because 6' 4" of ash, plus the handle bit, is gunna cost alot

[blaflair]

i bought a rough cut board of ash with nice straight grain and free of knots for i think 8 bux. then they planed it for me. i am in the process of making the handle. it seems like its gonna be sweet though. i went with ash rather than oak. it seems like more ppl recomend it

[afridave]

i believe oak backed with a hickory strip is very good....i live in south africa and cannot find a piece of hickory for love or money.........

[Tool Using Animal]

I'm gonna guess your, umm, short? ;-) because If i used the height of the archer plus a hand, If need an 80 inch long bow, yikes.


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.

[Kynan4th]

cheerz :)

[afridave]

yesterday i broke my third bow on the tiller.........first one was oak which broke at 38 pounds at 28 inches....i was aiming for 40 pounds...........second one was imboia which i broke on purpose ...it was well over 50 pounds and about 29 inches when it broke
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"

[jr.tuckluck13]

great tutorial. i would go with dremeling out notches at either end of the bow for the string rather than gluing on pieces of wood. more accurate to originals. otherwise great

[Vick Jr]

About what wood to use: here's a list of potential bow-wood species.

Yew is the traditional wood, but i've read that Orange Osage works well too, and is easier to find. I know that American ash and lemon wood also work. Any kind of hard wood is good (in terms of species and physical properties). It should be as untreated and dry as possible. See this great page on making a longbow for more info. You can also use a high-compression wood and make a cable-backed bow (literally glue a high-tension reinforcement to the back)

Quick question: what did you use for string?

Great 'ible by the way. I shall begin work on my bow with the next trip to the hardware store!

[P4nz3r]

Solid 'ible!
I'm actually working on a very similar bow out of a small oak tree I cut down for it.  is it worth putting in any more work if the wood cracked while drying, or should I just scrap the project and use your method instead?

[Kynan4th]

oak trees take an age to grow, so if i were you id try my hardest not to waste it, though i would have thought oak isnt flexible enough for a bow

[15zhangfra]

humans take quite a long time to grow as well =D, and the bow will probably break anyways. i would recommend putting a backing of linen or canvas (another trip to home depot or lowes, but online stores have special backings) on it.

[Fzdowg]

not sure, but it depends on where the crack is and the amount of tree you have to work with

[badideasrus]

typically the answer is run like the wind. a crack on the outside would probably mean cracks on the inside. and a bow can exsplode if you have bad wood. the cracks are caused by the wood drying too fast. if you ever try again (should you feel like it) coat both ends of the log in latex based paint. should even out the drying period. takes at least a year though.... or you could buy pre dried wood.

[lowman.usmc.2844]

First off this is an awesome bow. Yours looks a lot better than mine. I was just wondering what size string did you get for yours?

[Tool Using Animal]

Thanks, I picked a 67 inch AMO string off of ebay from this seller

[Nattwood]

hey, ive started carving up the wood now that its seasoned and am just wondering if a handle like http://www.dryadbows.com/instock/images/WBBinstk06.jpg because i much prefer the arrow pass being carved in the wood and the pistol grip looks much more comfortable for shooting with, cheers.

[Tool Using Animal]

In this design the handle is rigid, so the shape, with the exception of the fades, is pretty much a personal choice. I might be concerned about how much material was removed for the arrow shelf, but other than that......

[Nattwood]

Hey, great instructable you got here, just wondering if a wood like red gum would work well? because the only kind of oak in abbundance at my hardware stores is tassy shee oak and that stuff, although heavier then pine, doesn't seem all that strong, however red gum is big and strong and native to my area so not unfairly priced, so quite easily accessible? One last thing though, im only 17 this year so i wouldn't be doing this, but how would an ebony bow go?

[X3R0117]

You've probably heard of ebony bows, but the truth is that the ebony is usually treated in some way so that it becomes stronger or more elastic. It's good for decorations, but otherwise, unless you lot's of money to spend, i wouldn't recommend trying to make a working one.

[Sponzyparadox]

An ebony bow is VERY expensive to make and is very brittle your best bet is to take ash wood and laminate over it. Ash is however a very good wood for bows it is highly elastic almost as much as yew and very workable. It is also available at good lumber yards

[stoobers]

I do wood turning with gum.  Mostly blue gum (E. globulus, in California).  It has a wild and crazy grain, but reminds me a lot of oak.  So maybe the red gum world work.  Maybe you could laminate several layers with some gorilla glue?

As far as ebony, it is super heavy and always seems brittle.  That is just my opinion.  Maybe the ebony you can get can flex more.

[Light_Lab]

Hi Nattwood, I am in Oz too. I tried lots of different woods to make bows when I was your age. I didn't try red gum specifically but I never found a eucalypt that didn't break. The best wood I found was lemon wood (see below).

[Nattwood]

i got some big ironbark that we're pullin down, and its eucalypt so it should be good rite? and if so whats the best part of the tree, cause otherwise its all firewood, so i wanted to know which would be best part of tree to keep a 3m chunk of.

[Tool Using Animal]

Hey, I did some poking around the net, redgum is a eucalyptus right?  If so Eucalyptus has similar characteristics to red oak, so it should work okay.  Ebony has a low modulus of rupture (it's brittle) would make a poor choice.

[Nattwood]

cool, the ebony was just a wondering, but the gum is good cause of the construction goin on around they're pullin down a bunch of em, big ones too, been around since ages ago.

[mistercaboose]

 im about to start with a wood im quite sure is red oak (or at least similar). i will probably make it more proportionate to my height (5'2)