r/Bowyer

Howdy y'all! 👋😁

Finished up some atlatl forshafts here after breaking a couple during my 4th of July demonstration. Wanted to have a good number made up so that I can practice without having to worry much. Might need to rework some of my darts for this thicker forshaft, but they should perform nicely 🙂‍↕️

Hopefully y'all think they're neat, and feel free to ask any questions! Stay safe and happy Knapping all! 😁

- u/SmolzillaTheLizza 🦎

Hi, I would like to make a Comanche type bow. I have been watching Mr. Willie Pekah's videos, but I cannot see clearly the shape of his bows. One interesting thing is the only one side notch in one of the string nocks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G1Vo9GV2H8

I have seen also Primitive Lifeways' videos. He makes his Comanche bow 42.2" long, 1.25" wide and it tappers in the last 5" of each tip to 1/2" wide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09cHQkVJdgg

I have seen also this video from the Comanche National Museum & Cultural Center. But again I cannot see clearly the actual shape of the bows showed. Just that one of them have a groove on the belly of each limb but not on the handle. But I cannot see the narrowing profile toward the tips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sez4GNIOaNY

This video seems also very interesting. But again I cannot see clearly the narrowing profile from the handle to the tips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxAExI-Ewrc

Sometimes I see the bows the same width all their length. Other times narrowing all the way from handle to tips. Or the same width but just narrowing the last few inches of the tips.

Can someone help me?

Is there anything wrong iwth my bow?

Here is the photo I mentioned in my previous post.

50@28”, 63 inches. This was a frustrating stave. While it was dense good quality yew it had lots of waves and twist and it took multiple repeated heating sessions fixing it to get the tips in line. All the heat correction caused a couple hairline drying checks to show up on the back, hence the rawhide backing (not structurally harmful but I just think they’re fugly). After rawhide backing and tillering, I realized it had started to develop a new twist (maybe from moisture from the rawhide?), which I couldn’t fix with heat without delaminating the backing, so I had to scrape wood on one side to try to weaken the limbs in the left right direction to bring the tip back in line and retiller. Consequently I’m not entirely happy with the tiller but after all the messing with it I rather call it done than keep tweaking with it and making it worse. The recurve tips are slightly working and bent in with dry heat. It shoots hard and fast, lots of early weight. Limbs are a little over 1.5 wide tapering to 3/8” nocks. After shooting, tips sit about 1.75 inches forward of center, from original 2.75” or so total reflex, which makes me suspect I slightly under built it, but I’m pretty happy with it overall.

Thanks for looking!

It's the only wood that is commonly available in my country :(
I've already made an attempt with a piece that didn't have very straight grain and I encountered pretty bad string follow and twisting.

Here is a bow I finished a while ago! Probably the PVC bow I’m most proud of. pulling 97 pounds at 30”

Russian olive was the first wood I ever made a bow with, I really love the heart wood color and I would love to make an English long bow with this piece, I’m sure it would perform best wide and flat but I would love to hear anyone’s experience with Russian olive for bow making!

The wood is black locust, I toasted each limb for a little over 30 minutes and I think I got a good heat treat but the draw weight at 29" is still 30# like it was before heat treating. Has anyone got any ideas why this is? I thought bows gain a few pounds when you heat treat. Is it because it is black locust or maybe because the bow is hinging? (Im probably going to sinew back and then try to get the hinge out)

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcGBCMAq4I6/?igsh=NnlpMjJ4NHB3bjc2

Hi there, here is something I’ve not seen before but thought a lot about. I’ve been thinking how a lot of the really ancient bows don’t have any string grooves, or obvious marks from a sinew wrap.

The obvious thing is the leather stretching, I would think this can be mitigated by using strong leather and pre stretching.

What about other effects on shooting? Do you think the leather would dampen vibration?

What are your thoughts on the matter?

Hi,

60" NTN 35 lbs at 27“. 1.5" wide hickory with quarter sawn white oak tips. Dark Red fiebings dye fading to black.

I promised /u/wildwoodek I would be back with a poor imitation of bow they posted quite some time ago that really inspired me and here I am.

Made a poor attempt at spliced tips that failed for obvious reasons. I used the same piece of hickory and spliced on some oak with a V splice. My original intention was to do some sort of molly with a spice being in the thickness transition but it didn't work out. I didn't think the bow was going to work out so I shelved it for a year and a half.

I was looking for something to do the other day so I picked it back up and said what the hell.

Did a pretty good floor tiller by eye then wrapped the splice before bending it. I tillered it quite a bit then cut the wrappings off, tillered the area under the wraps, then rewrapped that area. I thought I was pretty clever coming up with this until I came across a comment from /u/addeviant-again a day or two ago who advised I do this when I was struggling last April💐.

Overall it ended up being more "molly inspired" and the tiller could be nitpicked. The overall set is very minimal but if I were to do this again I would aim for less inner limb bending. I would also like to try starting with a blank a full 3/4" thick next time.

Sorry for the novel but I think it's nice to include the speed bumps.

As always, had a ton of fun.

Cheers

I was recently gifted this bow and I am haveing trouble finding out what it is

I finally was able to string the 1969 Ben Pearson (BP-H70-7359) that I found on FB marketplace last year. I restored the finish and replaced a limb tip ornamentation that was damaged.

This is a string I made, and it took me three tries to get the length right.

Shoots well, noisy as hell, but has a lot of power to it!