student workshop

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archangel · #1 Post by **archangel** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:38 pm

Started the first bowmaking workshop with five of my students today. Our school is an agricultural college which caters for residential students in their last two years. Most of our students will move into apprenticeships either in trades or agriculture. After an initial briefing, they got stuck in and worked well for two hours.

The bow they are making is basically a bamboo backed, D/R laminated longbow. We are using two laminations of vertical flooring and one WA karri, a really stringy native hardwood. I had prepared all of the laminations before hand to save time, tapering each one on our industrial planer. Today they cut and shaped their riser from a block of jarrah, then thinned down the bamboo backing. Next week ... they will start glueing up using a simple block-and-board setup.

archangel · #2 Post by **archangel** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:54 pm

Few more pics of the guys in action .. their skills are quite well honed and as their maths teacher, it really is an awesome experience to see them working in activities beyond the normal class environment.

greybeard · #3 Post by **greybeard** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:39 pm

Hi David,
You are doing a fantastic job getting the younger ones involved in a project such as this. I'll bet that they are enjoying every minute of the project.
I wish my workshop was that big.

Daryl.

Steven J · #4 Post by **Steven J** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:07 pm

Well done Archangel,

I have just come of lunch which I have spent making bows with three other lads here at school. Two of the boys are making stave bows from Black Wattle, and one of the boys is making a board bow from a generic piece of hardwood. The board bow is for his history assignment. He is only intending a fairly modest draw weight of about 25lb so even the unknown timber should suffice.

It has been much harder going for the boys making stave bows. There is so much more timber to remove to get the bow to floor tiller. I think that I should follow your lead and either stick with board bows or laminated bows in the future. The two lads with the stave bows are also ready to start making some fiberglass laminated bows during their class time in Wood Tech.

We will keep building on Friday. I will try to get some photos to post then.

Steve

greybeard · #5 Post by **greybeard** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 8:11 pm

Hi Steven J,
I bet the boys are enjoying making their own bows.
It is indeed refreshing to see people such as yourself and Dave going the extra distance to help the youth of today.
All the best with the project.

Daryl.

Hood · #6 Post by **Hood** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 8:30 pm

Now why oh why couldn't my teacher be so nice as to do a project like this when I was at school

Way to go looks like the boys are having a great time.

Graeme K · #7 Post by **Graeme K** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 8:35 pm

Hi Archangel
Great to see someone passing on the skills --- the kids probably don,t realise how lucky they are and will only understandthat you gave them something of great value in the years to come.

Graeme

archangel · #8 Post by **archangel** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 11:28 am

To all,

Thanks for the encouraging feedback. These young guys have been the envy of 80 other students who did not get picked. I guess I would have to say that virtually all of the knowledge I'm passing on has been picked up from this website. In that regard, I want to acknowledge the fine thread posted by Jeff (Stickbow) in 2005 showing the making of a bamboo backed bow as the original source of inspiration. I have reprinted the post as our teaching reference manual. Here is the thread for this topic:
http://www.ozbow.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.p ... buildalong

Steve J - I have also found that having 5-6 guys at once is just about the optimum number. For Occ Health & Safety regulations, I have another staff member around from our D&T department.

Great to see someone passing on the skills --- the kids probably don't realise how lucky they are and will only understand that you gave them something of great value in the years to come

Quite right Graeme... it's pretty awesome to think that many years from now, the knowledge that we are sharing here in this forum is being passed on to yet another generation of curious net-searchers.

archangel · #9 Post by **archangel** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 5:51 pm

The materials being used for the students' bows are shown below. Raw bamboo backing will be shaped and tapered, then glued over the three mid-laminations later on. This two stage glueing makes it easier to get the curves using bocks of wood. It was decided to go with deflexed handle and slightly reflexed limbs as an easier build.

archangel · #10 Post by **archangel** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 5:59 pm

The method used to achieve a suitable taper for the laminations was simple: a length of pine board with strips of sandpaper taped over each other to provide the right amount of reduction. The bamboo lamination was held by the grip of the sandpaper and the board was sent through the planer/thicknesser a few times until the correct taper was reached. Keeping the settings for each lamination allowed consistency to be maintained.

Coach · #11 Post by **Coach** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 6:18 pm

Good on you Archangel

Maybe in years to come we will have some Bowyers to supply some custom bows

Just let me know when ya want those strings

#12 Post by **Stickbow Hunter** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 6:53 pm

Great to see David. As has been said, those lads are fortunate to have a teacher willing to spend the time with them to build these bows. I look forward to seeing the progress.

Jeff

archangel · #13 Post by **archangel** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 11:34 am

More progress made this week on the student's bows. Some had glued their laminations and handle last week and cleaned the edges and back for the raw bamboo. They used rubber strips to hold the bamboo in place and squeeze out any excess glue. TheThe other students prepared their laminations and glued up using the block and clamp method shown earlier. Despite advice about limiting the amount of deflex/reflex built into the limbs, a few have made theirs fairly radical and it will interesting to see how they perform. It's high maintenance having six teenagers at one time on the project but the guys are having a good time however and we're learning as we go!!

More to come to next week ...

yeoman · #14 Post by **yeoman** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:44 pm

That's good to see. Watch out rabbits in the school yard, eh?

Dave

archangel · #15 Post by **archangel** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:03 pm

Few more pictures, to show that the workshops are still running. Damn frustrating to only work two hours per week. However the guys are learning more every time and starting to see real bows emerging from the sawdust and shavings. We have floor tillered a couple after the raw bamboo backing had been added ... very powerful - just shows how potent bamboo can be, even when it's shaved down very thin. Lots of scraping from the belly to get them back to drawable weight. Next week we start work on their arrows - I have decided to include feather splicing for the guys who like the challenge.

archangel · #16 Post by **archangel** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:09 pm

Yeoman wrote:

That's good to see. Watch out rabbits in the school yard, eh

Sorry Dave, missed your comment. Being right out in the country (WA wheatbelt) our back paddocks are covered rabbits after dusk. There could be a few less bunnies (and foxes) once these guys start getting arrows on the target.