Hand Carved Bow (Video, Pics)

by nepheron

6.2K4724

Intro: Hand Carved Bow (Video, Pics)

 I made this over a couple days. It's the third bow I've ever made.
Its made of a hickory stave I bought from a flooring manufacturer (who sold it to me for $3.00).

24 Comments

thegoldenjackal 11 years ago

i have heard of oother people carving bows that usally snap after a while. has yours snapped yet or is it still in good condition?

curious youth 12 years ago

make an ible please ? it looks great :)

nvxcmz 14 years ago

is the back of the grip made of a different wood than the rest of the bow ?

nepheron 14 years ago

 Yes, it is.

A longbow is made of two different pieces of wood glued together.
A selfbow, I believe, is made of only one piece of wood.

In the picture, the blue part is the handle, and the red part is the limb. When the blue and red part are glued together, you have a longbow. If you just have the red part, you have a selfbow.

nvxcmz 14 years ago

cool, thanks for the info.

nvxcmz 14 years ago

great job on the bow, you are an excellent woodworker. 

Hawkeye Lyles 14 years ago

Nice bow, but where is the video you mentioned?

nepheron 14 years ago

 It's embedded, directly above the comments. Can you see it? if you cannot, you may need to upgrade your Flash Player.

Hawkeye Lyles 14 years ago

There is a big, video-sized empty space above the comments. I probably do need to upgrade my Flash Player. Thanks for the quick reply!

Hawkeye Lyles 14 years ago

I updated my Flash Player and the video magically appeared! Lol - Thanks for your help.

nepheron 14 years ago

 Great! What do you think of it?

Hawkeye Lyles 14 years ago

It's awesome. I have been thinking about buying a recurve for hunting, but I might just make my own now.

g-tech 14 years ago

 hi, i was wondering where you got that stave from? there are not enough good bow building instructables, you should really make one.

nepheron 14 years ago

 The stave is from a flooring manufacturer. Hickory is fairly common at lumber yards ect.

Hickory is crazy springy and forgiving. It looks better than wood of a similar price, and the grain does not have to be super straight. When you select your stave, remember that it CANNOT HAVE ANY KNOTS IN THE GRAIN.
Knots= fail :)
Also, hickory isn't all that hard. It sands away like balsa wood, but it is heavy and sturdy like oak.
The wood structure itself looks like a mix between oak and very pale mahogany.

Bottomline: if you plan to make your first bow, get the straightest grained piece of hickory you can find. 5 ft long, 2 inches wide, 1 inch thick. Google "selfbow".

Good luck!

nepheron 14 years ago

 A 56 inch cheap bowstring from a local hunting place.
Jute cord works fine...but I learned this AFTER I bought the bowstring :)

rimar2000 14 years ago

What wood did you use? (what tree)
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