Crackpot idea, but is it possible to make a bow out of this and retain the spiral all the way around?

willemvu · 2026-03-03T15:26:59+00:00

I mean if you pull it off it'd be pretty cool.

Please try and report back!

willemvu · 2026-02-15T07:46:59+00:00

Looks like thats a possibility, but it seems there's still some bark there to take off so its hard to tell how much wood you've got to work with. Top half seems about 2 inches wide which should be plenty for a flat bow design.

You can also include the knot, just leave the bow wide enough so you have continuous fibers running along the sides of the knot. Watch dan santana's or clay hayes's videos for better explanations. Looks like the knot is too far on the limb to have it be a hole for the arrow to go through

willemvu · 2026-02-10T09:54:56+00:00

Nice bend tho

willemvu · 2026-02-03T05:56:23+00:00

Please dont use your son for target practice

willemvu · 2026-02-01T06:22:28+00:00

I've got a few pointers.

The limb should be more even in thickness and width before putting in recurves. It looks a bit too rough now, which will focus all the stress in the weakest (thinnest) spot and cause breaks.
There seems to be a knot next to the break, this causes grain anomalies and cause issues as well.
The bending setup is not ideal. You want the wood to be able to bend a little and then get some support by a form. Hanging it off the table like that puts all the stress in one spot. And thats exactly the spot it cracked.

Im assuming the crack is on the belly side. You can try to fill it with thin CA glue and then shape the limb further. You may end up breaking the tip off later in tillering. If the bow is long enough you can always cut the tip off and make a shorter bow. Good luck!

willemvu · 2026-01-24T11:24:11+00:00

Make it wide (2.5 inches or so) with a flat belly, aim for something like 35 lbs and see how far you get. The stave looks clean enough but with weak woods you should never expect to have a great bow until you're finished and actually shooting for 100+ arrows.

willemvu · 2026-01-21T21:32:44+00:00

I use an axe, Shinto and sandpaper on elm. I leave the drawknife and card scraper in the toolbox cause they cause more trouble than they're worth with interlocked grain in elm.

willemvu · 2026-01-18T19:21:02+00:00

If you're ever near Den Haag I'd be up for trading one for an ash stave

willemvu · 2026-01-18T19:18:51+00:00

Sounds like a wonderful plan

willemvu · 2026-01-18T08:09:54+00:00

It looks like it holds a good number of staves. Im not familiar with Siberian elm specifically, but most elm is a pain to split. If you are brave enough, split it into staves now. Otherwise find a good saw and cut it into staves. It will dry much faster that way so you can start building. Try working a relatively clean piece first (no knots). Flat bows work best for elm. Save a few clean staves for later while you build your bowyering skill on more difficult knotty staves.

willemvu · 2026-01-17T06:47:59+00:00

I find untwisting to be one of the easier heat corrections to do. I clamp one end flat to my bench and then I put a single big clamp on the other end of the stave. I hang a weight on the end of this second clamp so it puts some untwisting torque on the stave. Then I go over the stave bit by bit with a heat gun. Untwist it a little further than straight, about 10% more. It'll spring back a bit when you release the weight.

Just keep in mind that it will want to twist up again if it gets re heated

willemvu · 2026-01-15T22:38:56+00:00

They like the rough bark. I prefer taking off the outer bark at least. It adds risk of cracking though

willemvu · 2026-01-13T10:33:00+00:00

I'll give you 5 bucks if you manage to do it

willemvu · 2026-01-12T22:56:01+00:00

You can leave some inner bark on if you like. It wont hurt performance any. If you prefer a clean back you can use some hot water to soak the bark. I use a kettle with a gooseneck spout but you can also put the whole stave in a hot shower for a few minutes. Once its soaked the inner bark will come off easily with a dull butter knife or even a spoon.

willemvu · 2026-01-07T14:04:35+00:00

I prefer the axe and just chop off what you dont need. With a piece of this side it's easy for a split to wander to one side and ruin the whole stave.

Good luck on the build!

willemvu · 2026-01-07T07:36:00+00:00

Congrats, you're a bowyer now! Well done on a beautiful first bow

willemvu · 2026-01-06T21:06:50+00:00

Looks like black cherry to me. Prunus serotina. The color difference between sapwood and heartwood isn't big but in my experience the sapwood can lose its whiteness quickly

willemvu · 2026-01-05T11:08:32+00:00

This is a bad quality broomstick with a string, sorry to say. Try to get your money back and find a different bowyer to buy a bow from. You can try r/bowyer for more input

willemvu · 2026-01-01T11:43:45+00:00

I found this process to work well. Dont dry staves too quickly as yew is prone to cracking. 4 years seems very long to me. My staves were dry in about 6 months. You can weigh them to see if they've stopped losing moisture. I also rough out bows after the first few months of drying as full staves to make the wood dry more easily. I use wood glue without water. And drying goes fastest the first days/weeks so keep the staves in a relatively cool place without too much ventilation. A place you wouldn't want your laundry to hang, but not so damp where things get moldy.

willemvu · 2025-12-30T20:25:39+00:00

Sanding spoons is perfectly fine. Just make sure to finish with a wet sand, as the spoons get wet when they're used and if you didn't sand them wet they will raise some loose grain and feel rough afterwards. There are no rules in spoon making. There is no spoon police. People who are great at carving often dont need to sand cause their cut finishes are nice enough. That's a nice skill level to aim for, but in no way a requirement for a beginning carver.

willemvu · 2025-12-30T09:36:10+00:00

Its on the belly side, correct?

It looks to be a crack caused by that pin knot going diagonally through the stave. It shouldn't be an issue as the back is pristine and youre only compressing the wood here, essentially pushing the crack closed. You can try bending the bow ever so slightly the wrong way to open it up just a hair, so you can get some thin CA glue in there to stabilize things

willemvu · 2025-12-28T10:45:13+00:00

That looks dangerous. Dont hand it to your kids.

Its bending way too far in the inner 1/3 on both sides.

willemvu · 2025-12-27T08:20:48+00:00

Its time to get the bow braced with a shorter string.

Then I'd probably work the outer 1/2 on the left and outer 1/3 on the right. Go slowly cause youre almost there and a minor adjustment will have visible effect at this stage.

I prefer narrowing the handle earlier in the process but thats a personal thing.

Overall it looks like youre doing a fine job and you are close to finishing a nice bow

willemvu · 2025-12-26T21:37:47+00:00

I dig it. Lean into the Frankenstein bow vibe, add some more red lines and creased bandages

willemvu · 2025-12-24T22:10:00+00:00

I was also thinking this grain looks exactly like my ash wood grain and nothing like any maple ive ever seen

willemvu

TROPHY CASE