Two new bowyers graduated this weekend just gone
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 8:04 pm
Hi all,
long time no speakies. I've been far too busy with work and family and such to do much bowyering lately, but last weekend had the pleasure of teaching a couple of guys how to make longbows.
Laying out:
One of the students was (is) a veteran archer and brought another bow to show off. A nice custom job from Italy. He had hoped to make his longbow with a larger section handle than is typical for the bows made on this course. This is the first time I've had a student make a bow on the course with a built up riser, and I'm pleased to say the result was rather aesthetically and ergonomically pleasing.
Here's a rough idea of what we would do:
The workshop is actually quite well lit, but the heat box throws the exposure well off.
About three hours of cooking between 55 and 60 degrees is enough to set the EA-40 Smooth On hard enough for our purposes. We're not the types to stand around and wait, so I put the box on a five dollar timer so tat in the morning the resin in set, and the bows have returned to ambient temperature:
Here I've more accurately drawn in the outline of the riser for the Student to cut and grind to:
Filing nocks:
The other bow was a more typical bend-through-the-handle longbow. Here we have the tiller on this bow sinking quite nicely, especially for a first effort:
Sinking the tiller on the other one:
The stave is Ironbark, and the riser is Spotted Gum. This picture is really quite a shame, as it doesn't do the woods or the finish justice. It truly was very beautiful. Now, there's a good lesson in this picture. Notice how the riser does not begin where the limb starts to significantly thicken out of the bending portion. If it did, the handle would pop off. It is important for the bow to thicken a good amount from bending thickness before the riser starts. Also, while there are two decorative peaks in the riser, in the center it actually only adds about 6 mm. This is more than enough to make the bow functionally completely stiff.
Here the two resultant longbows spoon on the table before being taken out to show what they could do:
Just shy of 50lb at 27":
A couple of glory shots:
EDIT: The next course, if anyone i interested, is October 9th to 11th. More details in the link in my signature.
long time no speakies. I've been far too busy with work and family and such to do much bowyering lately, but last weekend had the pleasure of teaching a couple of guys how to make longbows.
Laying out:
One of the students was (is) a veteran archer and brought another bow to show off. A nice custom job from Italy. He had hoped to make his longbow with a larger section handle than is typical for the bows made on this course. This is the first time I've had a student make a bow on the course with a built up riser, and I'm pleased to say the result was rather aesthetically and ergonomically pleasing.
Here's a rough idea of what we would do:
The workshop is actually quite well lit, but the heat box throws the exposure well off.
About three hours of cooking between 55 and 60 degrees is enough to set the EA-40 Smooth On hard enough for our purposes. We're not the types to stand around and wait, so I put the box on a five dollar timer so tat in the morning the resin in set, and the bows have returned to ambient temperature:
Here I've more accurately drawn in the outline of the riser for the Student to cut and grind to:
Filing nocks:
The other bow was a more typical bend-through-the-handle longbow. Here we have the tiller on this bow sinking quite nicely, especially for a first effort:
Sinking the tiller on the other one:
The stave is Ironbark, and the riser is Spotted Gum. This picture is really quite a shame, as it doesn't do the woods or the finish justice. It truly was very beautiful. Now, there's a good lesson in this picture. Notice how the riser does not begin where the limb starts to significantly thicken out of the bending portion. If it did, the handle would pop off. It is important for the bow to thicken a good amount from bending thickness before the riser starts. Also, while there are two decorative peaks in the riser, in the center it actually only adds about 6 mm. This is more than enough to make the bow functionally completely stiff.
Here the two resultant longbows spoon on the table before being taken out to show what they could do:
Just shy of 50lb at 27":
A couple of glory shots:
EDIT: The next course, if anyone i interested, is October 9th to 11th. More details in the link in my signature.