Making father and son wood recurve bows

How to make a Bow, a String or a Set of Arrows. Making equipment & tools for use in Traditional Archery and Bowhunting.

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
Message
Author
deldridg
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2016 8:21 pm

Making father and son wood recurve bows

#1 Post by deldridg » Sun Jul 17, 2016 9:26 am

Hello all and cheers from Sydney,

this is my first post here and I must say it's great to see so many folk hand-crafting such beautiful things out of wood. Great to see these skills being maintained.

When our little boy was about 3, my wife made him a tiny "bow and arrow" set out of a few wooden skewers. Young William spent hours and hours firing this little thing (arrows all had corks on them). Now he is 6 and a very active little outdoors man and is showing a real keenness to become more serious about archery. I took him to Abbey Archery at Cherrybrook the other day and he got to fire a little compound bow (Bear Cruzer Lite) which despite his tiny frame, fired an arrow at an astonishing pace. He was hooked (we didn't buy).

For years I have hand-made furniture, trying to use traditional approaches where possible: hand-cut dovetails, mortise/tenon joints etc. with fine timbers and now am starting to think seriously about making a matching recurve bow set for Will and myself. As a side note - I also shoot large format and old manual film cameras and am drawn far more to the beauty and simplicity and corresponding challenge of using these beautiful pieces well, hence our inclination to make and fire our own more traditional archery equipment rather than buying high-tech compound bows. I can only imagine how satisfying it will be!

So after that long-winded intro, I would love to chat with anyone who can lead us. I am currently researching the following:


- plans that I could scale to make 2 timber only laminated bows (his span is 114 cm => draw ~18", mine is 176 cm => ~28"),

- Australian timbers that may be suitable - for starters we'll stick to timber, maybe look at fiberglass for the next ones,

- undecided on take-down or not,

- any recommended timber suppliers (I use Trend Timbers out at Windsor).


I can see archery being a fabulous hobby for us to add to our growing list. How wonderful if he can also be involved in the design/build as well.

Many thanks for your time and I look forward to sharing our progress with you!

Regards,
David

User avatar
bigbob
Posts: 4098
Joined: Sat Jul 10, 2010 8:55 pm
Location: sunshine coast

Re: Making father and son wood recurve bows

#2 Post by bigbob » Sun Jul 17, 2016 10:23 am

grey beard has posted several posts on building an all wood recurve, and a nice one at that. alternatively have a look at Sam Harper's site I think its called poor folk bows. He has a terrific 'build along on there for a recurve.Good luck and you will find plenty of help on here anyway.
nil illigitimo in desperandum carborundum
razorbows.com

hunterguy1991
Posts: 859
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2012 10:18 am
Location: Woodford Queensland

Re: Making father and son wood recurve bows

#3 Post by hunterguy1991 » Sun Jul 17, 2016 6:11 pm

Bamboo back and a Spotted gum decking board would do the trick... Kerf cut recurves will hold far better than steamed ones. I did a thread a while back about one i made using this design and it worked really well.

As Bob said, definitely check out Greybeards recurve posts.

any questions just ask

Colin

deldridg
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2016 8:21 pm

Re: Making father and son wood recurve bows

#4 Post by deldridg » Sun Jul 17, 2016 7:30 pm

Many thanks Bob and Colin. I will certainly follow up.

I've done a lot of reading online and as usual, often come across contradictory information and most wood-specific info relates more to the US than here. What I've not really come across is info related to scaling.

If I were to, say make a bow that is something like 30-40 lb at 28" for myself, how would I scale that down? And given this, if I am to make a scaled down bow for young William, are there rules of thumb that will give me some indication of size if I wanted to make him a bow that would last until he's, say 10 (he's currently 6)? ...or am I asking too much?

Of course I could go right down the trial and error pathway but with limited time, I'd love some insight first if possible.

Anyway - many thanks again,
David

hunterguy1991
Posts: 859
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2012 10:18 am
Location: Woodford Queensland

Re: Making father and son wood recurve bows

#5 Post by hunterguy1991 » Mon Jul 18, 2016 8:32 am

There are scale laws that i have used in my studies at University that i can find again which will be applicable for scaling down a full size bow. You would need to scale the draw force first and use that relationship to scale the length, thickness etc. The trick would be to give yourself enough timber to tiller the bow but be close enough that you aren't way over weight.

User avatar
GrahameA
Posts: 4692
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2005 4:28 pm
Location: Welcome to Brisneyland, Oz

Re: Making father and son wood recurve bows

#6 Post by GrahameA » Mon Jul 18, 2016 9:08 am

Morning.

My $0:02.

Olde time longbow 'Rule of Thumb'. Length of bow equals 'Height of archer plus a fistmele'.

Experience suggests that a bow that suits a growing person one month will be too short a year later - if that long. A bow that is over-length is better than one that is short. Bow performance (Bow Efficency) will be down as a result of relatively high 'Mass to Bow weight' ratio and relative high arrow mass to bow stored energy.

Build a bow for an adult first, then build one for child.
Grahame.
Shoot a Selfbow, embrace Wood Arrows, discover Vintage, be a Trendsetter.

"Unfortunately, the equating of simplicity with truth doesn't often work in real life. It doesn't often work in science, either." Dr Len Fisher.

deldridg
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2016 8:21 pm

Re: Making father and son wood recurve bows

#7 Post by deldridg » Mon Jul 18, 2016 2:43 pm

Many thanks Grahame and Hunterguy,

as recommended, I will start with a bow for myself as I stopped growing about... um about 30 years ago. After that will get young Will to help me make one for his little frame.

Have just ordered "The Design and Construction of Composite Recurve Bows" by John Clark which should answer a lot of questions and stop me asking dumb ones here. :smile:

Looks like John (Ausbow) can supply to my simple needs at this point.

Many thanks for your help - I think this will be a very satisfying road to travel, especially with my young fella!

Cheers,
Dave

User avatar
GrahameA
Posts: 4692
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2005 4:28 pm
Location: Welcome to Brisneyland, Oz

Re: Making father and son wood recurve bows

#8 Post by GrahameA » Mon Jul 18, 2016 3:13 pm

Afternoon.

[quote="deldridg"]... Have just ordered "The Design and Construction of Composite Recurve Bows" ...quote]

Now for the good news. If you follow John's words you will end up with a good working usable bow .. plus a whole stack of knowledge. :-)
Grahame.
Shoot a Selfbow, embrace Wood Arrows, discover Vintage, be a Trendsetter.

"Unfortunately, the equating of simplicity with truth doesn't often work in real life. It doesn't often work in science, either." Dr Len Fisher.

Post Reply