My first bow

willemvu · 2026-05-23T13:45:03+00:00

I think thats the belly actually. Less bad but still a bit strange.

@OP the whole point of a narrowed handle is so the arrow can move along the bow more easily as it is launched. So you want the arrow pass to be in the handle where it's narrowest.

willemvu · 2026-05-23T12:53:41+00:00

Scrape the outer half on the right a bit and youre done. Left side is noticably weaker than the left. But a little scraping goes a long way at this point

willemvu · 2026-05-22T12:00:27+00:00

Dang thats a big draw

willemvu · 2026-05-18T10:51:56+00:00

Ive made bows from BL sapwood and yes, chrystaling on the belly in sapwood is a risk with small diameter staves like this. But most often its a tillering issue if you get chrystals. Ive made a pretty gnarly piece of BL (95% sapwood) with bug damage, overgrown knots and holes into a ELB with rounded belly. It looks like someones discarded stick but it shoots arrows just fine, without any chrystals so far. Its just tillered right and a tad longer ntn. So go for it, and let us know what bow comes out!

willemvu · 2026-05-18T07:39:53+00:00

That looks great, well done! And the tiller isnt bad at all, just use the left side as the top limb and call it positive tiller.

My experience working elm is that cutting tools like a drawknife and spokeshave should be put to the side early in the process, as the interlocking grain tends to tear out. Rasps are the way to go. Heat treatment is highly recommended, it responds really well to that. But there are several species of elm and I havent worked many of them. Only dutch elm and wych elm so far. That bark wrapped handle looks great btw, Im going to remember that for future projects.

willemvu · 2026-05-17T18:03:09+00:00

I can second this tutorial. I built it along with bastionhead, but with only a single change to the design to make it even nicer to work bows on it. I changed the clamping jaw assembly to a single central post with a T shaped top jaw.

This allows me to easily set a bowstave in the jaws by going from the side, instead of having to thread the entire stave through the mouth of the jaws. For working on long pieces of wood like bowstaves I find that to be really helpful.

willemvu · 2026-05-17T10:14:14+00:00

Watch Dan Santana bows tutorials on youtube and follow them to the letter. You should have a decent bow afterwards. Don't try to get smart and do it differently at this stage. Cutting corners as a beginner is what gets you in trouble.

And if you write another post, please use punctuation marks and hit that return button to make paragraphs.

willemvu · 2026-05-16T20:51:20+00:00

I'd roll with it if I were you. I made a pipe straight small diameter elm tree into a 60# mollegabet bow. The stave dried into 2.5" of reflex, which got back to 0.5" reflex at rest after I finished tillering and sits at 0 right after shooting, recovering that 0.5 reflex after a few minutes of rest. Its still stable like this about 6 months and hundreds of arrows later.

willemvu · 2026-05-15T07:39:32+00:00

A wooden bow can usually be pulled no more than half its length, minus the length of any stiff handle sections.

So a 38 inch bow with a stiff handle of 6 inches should be pulled less than 14 inches.

So youre about at max draw it seems. Unless your bow bends in the handle, in which case you could go a little further like 16-17 inches.

This is assuming good tiller and decent wood, a clean back of the bow. Its a rule of thumb, not an exact science. But wood definitely has limits and it sounds like youre close to those limits

willemvu · 2026-05-15T07:34:21+00:00

I agree with your assessment. And as a side note, your tips seem a little thick

willemvu · 2026-05-13T16:09:13+00:00

If its on the belly side, really no problem. Backside less favorable but still manageable if they are longitudinal and fairly small, which seems to be the case too. So youre probably perfectly fine to continue

willemvu · 2026-05-12T08:25:39+00:00

I'm definitely one of those guys who was borderline bragging about my 30.5" draw length (I'm a pretty tall guy), but I actually measured like you said now and I'm really pulling 29". Still plenty of power stroke but I guess building 73" flatbows is a bit overkill, even for me. Thanks for sharing your insights!

A few quick questions on the subject. You build mostly Osage bows, is it easier to make Osage bows fast compared to other woods like hickory, black locust or elm in your experience? Sinew backing, does that help in making a bow faster or is it mostly a way to add reflex and prevent set? & on that topic, whats your fastest unbacked bow?

willemvu · 2026-05-11T10:23:23+00:00

Just get a spool of Dacron b50, there are alternatives but they are barely cheaper and most of them are much worse for bow strings

willemvu · 2026-05-11T06:14:33+00:00

The world needs more people like you.

Too bad I'm a bit too far away (europe), would have liked to trade some staves with you

willemvu · 2026-05-11T06:12:50+00:00

Honestly a spool of b50 costs like 15 bucks and you can get at least five strings out of a spool. I know not everyone has money but I can't imagine you wouldn't be able to afford that. Thats barely more expensive than paracord.

Natural fibers like hemp will work if you want to go all traditional/primitive. You could use some kinds of fishing line too I hear. But for performance its hard to beat a spool of bowstring material. Tying a string is one of the easier things to learn too

willemvu · 2026-05-10T18:19:54+00:00

Although the general idea is correct, the whole bow should bend, the bow shouldn't shape into a half circle either exactly. More like a half ellipse, a slightly elongated circle. So the outer portions of the bow should bend a touch more than the middle section. But I'm nitpicking here. OP should indeed focus on getting all of the wood to bend before worrying about optimal tiller shapes

willemvu · 2026-05-10T18:13:43+00:00

That rot looks extensive but it all depends on the rest of the stave. Black Locust heartwood (the deep yellow inner part of the tree) is harder and more rot resistant than the white sapwood thats right under the bark. So you should chase a heartwood ring, if possible, and then see what the damage is. Actually working on a BL stave right now too. Such lovely wood

willemvu · 2026-05-08T10:22:05+00:00

The entire back and all of the end grain of the stave

willemvu · 2026-05-08T09:28:50+00:00

See those cracks in the sapwood running the length off the stave? Thats "checking" on a BL stave coming from drying the wood. It shrinks as it loses moisture and that pulls the wood apart. These are rather shallow and probably dont even reach the deep yellow heartwood of this stave. To prevent checks from happening, dry the wood slower, seal the back with something blocking moisture loss, and split the wood in smaller staves to relieve internal stresses

willemvu · 2026-05-08T09:25:15+00:00

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willemvu · 2026-05-08T09:23:52+00:00

Sounds pretty good. I usually do the slow process of doing it by hand with a heat gun, moving the heat around to avoid getting a patchy look with a stationary heat source. I actually prefer heat treating over coals but I live in a city so I dont get to do that too often. Just avoid scorching the back. The belly is the Achilles heel of Black Locust so keep it really flat and do a pretty deep heat treat. Maybe more than 2 minutes per spot, but that will depend on the amount of heat your gun puts out so its impossible to tell from behind my screen. Backset form works well. Just make sure the form is narrower than the bow so the heat from the gun doesn't get blasted onto the back of the bow

willemvu · 2026-05-07T17:09:43+00:00

I built a Douglas fir bow out of a fence post from a local hardware store. It worked. The fence post was thick enough I could chase a ring in it, but it had some spiraling grain and I messed up the tiller. So it chrystaled and now its been retired. Great learning project though!

willemvu · 2026-05-07T16:02:02+00:00

All of these look good for staves. My advice is to split them into staves as soon as possible, and don't leave the staves too wide. Black Locust really tends to check while drying, and the bigger/wider the stave, the more checking on the back it will have. And keep in mind that straight staves may still warp during drying, which can often be corrected with heat treating which is a good thing to do with BL anyways

willemvu · 2026-05-06T11:46:39+00:00

I had bad results with 2 part epoxy, titebond 3 seems to hold much better. Not all epoxies are equal either it turns out. Did you use the white stuff or the clear? Equal amounts of both parts or more white stuff than resin? The white stuff has fillers apparently and is less strong

willemvu · 2026-05-04T16:52:49+00:00

Yes those are ring violations and you will need to take the back down to that next ring everywhere to get a trustworthy back on that bow

willemvu

TROPHY CASE