My 1st was osage and I screwed it up. 2nd was ash and it's still shooting. Hickory is readily available and cheap and it makes a fine selfbow. Make a few then start tryin other woods.
Hickory bow- 66" nock to nock. 4" handle centered in the length-1.75" deep. 1-5/8" limb width at handle to 16" from nock then taper to 1/2" nocks. Start with 5/8" thick limbs from handle to nock. Whittle from there to desired draw weight. I use heavy grit sandpaper at this point. sand same amount from each limb and after sanding say 50 passes then bend bow on tiller tree. ALWAYS bend bow after wood removal before draw.
Hickory loves moisture so keep it in the house or basement to protect it until you're done.
This is a simple easy to follow example that will get you bending wood.
My first bow was an osage selfbow, it's a shooter, and I still have it. It's not pretty and certainly not the most efficient bow I ever made, but in light of the fact that up to that point I had never even SEEN one... it's ok I suppose.
My second bow was osage as well, considerably better in all regards, and hunt worthy. I've had wonderful hunting success with it.
Advice? If you use hickory, or any such 'white wood' (where you'll be using the sapwood for the bow), and you didn't cut it yourself, make SURE you get it from someone who knows what they're doing. I've had truckloads of hickory(and many other woods, including osage) given to me by well-meaning folks that was completely useless for bows because it was improperly cared for.
If the prospective supplier can't tell you when a whitewood like hickory was cut, how long it layed before split and debarked, and brought inside to begin drying... don't bother with it. Osage can be left laying on the ground outside sometimes for months, while whitewoods degrade very quickly. When it comes to whitewoods, I cut them, split them, and bring them inside, all in the same day... the next day at the very latest. They may not HAVE to be done that quickly, but I'm not taking unneccesary chances with my bow wood and bowmaking efforts.
I had a guy give me a whole truckload of BEAUTIFUL hickory splits one time, but unfortunately he'd kept them outside on the ground and covered with plastic for several weeks. He thought he was protecting them from the elements, but because of ground moisture, trapped condensation and resulting internal cell degredation... it LOOKED ok, but once I got to bending it, it was like rubber, no resiliency, and all worthless.
These aren't static pieces of furnature we're making here, bows of wood are VERY dynamic pieces and need to meet certain, special requisites... inside and out. It was a shame, he was proud of all that beautiful, straight, clean hickory, and I burned every single piece.
Understand too that there are many good wooden bow designs out there, even though many good bowyers subscribe solely to one theory or another. I don't generally make my hickory bows as described in The Bowyer's Bible unless it's a replica or something. I more follow the Dean Torges "Hunting the Osage Bow" school of thought on the deal, and merely widen and lengthen the osage bow dimensions when using white woods. The above is a VERY good book by the way... the only book on the subject in my posession when I began, and EVERY ONE of my first attempts resulted in functional bows.
While this bowyerin' thing is largely about experimenting with different woods, techniques, and designs, making your first bow or two slightly 'overbuilt' and along the lines of a basic time-proven design will give you a little error margin which is a good thing for a new bowyer who doesn't have his tool using technique or tillering skills yet refined. It gives you a little wiggle room. Now is the time to learn those skills and the basics of design(and their combined effects) more than push the limits of the woods capabilities.
There's years worth of learning and experimentation ahead, so don't try to learn or do too much too fast, but pay GREAT attention to detail, take LOTS of notes, realize that more can be learned from mistakes than successes, so scrutinize them closely and make any needed corrections/adjustments, but most of all... enjoy your journey... it's truly exraordinary, and I envy you.
"So long as the new moon returns in Heaven a bent, beautiful bow, so long with the fascination of archery keep hold of the hearts of men." Maurice Thompson
If you are an avid hunter you have to becarful though, once you start building bows you might like it so much it could cut into your hunting time.
I'll be doing similarly come spring... turks with an osage selfbow, multiflora rose shoot arrows, pounded trade heads, home-made slate call, no blinds or decoys.
That time is usually spent just admiring their work, and treasing them into trying their hands at some of the other 'supportive' arts to go with their wood fetishes. Like stone work, or the ten thousand projects that lay at the end of the blood trail:)) Some have taken the 'bait':) I've had the distinct pleasure of listening to some of them descibe, almost verbatim, the exact emotions I felt when I took my first deer with a bow made by my hands, and an arrow made with stone tools, tipped with a lethally sharp stone point, out of a quiver made from the brain-tanned hide of the previous one.
It's real difficult not to 'feel' everything I tried feebly to put into words here, when someone hands me one of their own wood bows.
Charlie, I'd humbly suggest you hurry up and get yerself a few good pieces of wood, and then promptly stop hurrying..but get started on yer own trail. The 'panel' that's already chimed in here will provide all the encouragement and help you need, no doubts.
Git yerself some wood..and git going!!!
:)
Ron, not all selfbows are created equal. If they splintered or otherwise failed, they either weren't constructed correctly, made of less than good quality material, or they were abused, damaged, etc. You can't just leave them strung for months like you can a bow entombed in fiberglass, but a good quality selfbow is very durable, reliable, accurate, and effective. It's also not fair to judge all selfbows by what you've seen in novice work. Everyone has to start somewhere, but do you judge all glass bows by a new bowyers first attempt or two? or even their first several bows?
That said, I've seen many fiberglass/wood laminated recurves with limb twist, tips torn down and out, delaminated, AND even MORE where the glass failed at the riser fadeouts from general use. Most of which were by big name makers. In my experience, glass bows aren't inherently more durable than selfbows.
My favorite, and hence most-used, selfbow is osage, 60# @ 28", 7 years old and has had thousands of arrows shot from it and it looks and shoots no different now than it did when it was new. Not a single issue ever and no indication that it doesn't have many thousands more shots, and many years of hard use left in it.
Like Ed said, the few selfbows that didn't survive for me, were those whose wood included a major flaw(grain, knot, knot hole, etc) REALLY heavy 'character bows', or were those of 'untraditional' bow woods in my extreme experimental phase. Bowyers tend to push the limits of the material and design, either due to lack of experience, or after they gain some experience and seek more challenge in their craft. We tend to try to coax bows from wood that have 'fail' written all over them, because when it works out... we've invested more of 'us' in them, they look really cool and are very unique.
But in all fairness, and reality, such bows don't fail "because they're selfbows".
I trust each and every one of my hunt-worthy selfbows with my life.
My suggestion is to read "Hunting the Osage Bow" and beg, borrow, or steal a clean osage or hickory stave. That gives the highest odds for a solid, hunting weight bow right out of the starting gate.
If you can find someone to mentor you, I went to a bow building class and came out with a nice Osage bow.
