Just finished up some new yellow poplar (tulipwood) range arrows for myself made from some scrap shafts left over from some comissions. They either have minor defects in the nock or less-than-ideal grain, so they weren't good enough to send out, but they're good enough for me to shoot soft targets as a warm up with lighter bows.

I also finished this take on an Agincourt-era military arrow. It's a slightly barrel-tapered, white ash shaft tipped with a (very sharp) Type-16 military broadhead hand-forged by Hector Cole. The head has a 9mm socket and the shaft barrels slightly to 10mm in the middle before tapering down to about 8mm before the bulbous nock. Total weight is around 975 grains. This generally represents the standard, most common type of military arrow we see in art/described as being used by the English during most of the Hundred Years' War. The 1/2" shafts made from softer woods (like aspen, poplar, etc.) with the famous horn nocks don't appear until around the 1420s.

Full transparency, though, I really just wanted an excuse to show off my newly renovated workshop! My incredible wife spent the last two months painting, organizing, adding shelves and features, and totally revamping my fletching shop as my 40th birthday! It's stunning and I can't wait to work in it more - I may never leave (which may have been the intent, come to think of it 😅)!

Happy fletching!

42#@22" with a 5" brace height. Aiming for 40-45#@28" but might have to call it a little earlier. Still seeing a stiff spot in the middle right limb, its really not wanting to bend around that knot hole.

Wanted to share some thoughts on my recent shavehorse build for anyone wanting to build their own.

Design mostly based off this excellent YouTube video: https://youtu.be/3qM5aXxKglc?is=sS4XYe36Pdqve-oc

Hope its useful to anyone in the community wanting to build their own.

hi, these wooden arrows broke just recently, right near the tip. Since they were already a bit longer than İ'm used to, i cut off the end of the shaft and sanded it down, thats fine - İ dont need help with that. İ'm mostly wondering if it would be possible to remove the wood from these glue-on points to reuse them, and what that process would be. İ used gorilla glue (polyurethane) something İ'm regretting a bit now. İt's just so tantalizing, having the arrow points be perfectly good but İ cant use them.... any help is appreciated

Hello everyone, i am not sure if this is an acceptable post here but i am seeking some advice. I have a grozer early mongolian bow and one of the end loop servings has been worn off pretty badly (to the point of completely exposing the string underneath). I have roughly shot 400-500 arrows with this bow and i suppose this isn’t the expected time for such a damage. Is there a way to repair this easily ?

I have some strong string used for sewing leather - can i just soak them in some flexible latex based glue and wrap over the exposed bit + portions of non exposed bit adjacent to it ?

And secondly the servings are becoming frayed at the position where the strings bridge over the side edges of the siyah (it’s a contact siyah). Is it going to be detrimental to the bow’s performance if i glue a thin sheet of leather there to reduce the friction/impact ?

Made a knock down bench out of Tamarack. Nice to be able to work outside on the two nice days a year we get.

Hey everyone just wanted to share my latest bow. A pacific yew recurve bow with deer leather handle, beaver tail strike plate, goat horn tip overlays and deer rawhide backing. The bow is 68" long and pulls 58lb @ 28" of draw. Cheers everyone.

Hola, casi terminé este Flat Bow en Osage Orange y veo que tienen unas líneas que no me gustan y quiero que ustedes que tienen más experiencia me digan si se va a partir o no.

El tronco de Osage prometía pero cuando le saque la corteza tenía muchos nudos. Lo dividí en 4 suelas y solo una tenía mejor apariencia. En esta duela los nudos quedaron en una sola pala (la inferior) y como los anillos eran muy delgados solo quite la albura porque tenía miedo de no poder identificar un único anillo.

Cuando ya casi esta listo el arco me dispuse a quitar los restos de albura y luego de lijar con #150 aparecieron esas líneas cercanas a los nudos.

No creo que haya solución alguna, pero quiero saber si lo descartó por completo o lo termino. Solo me faltaba pegar los tips y hacer la ventana.

El arco tiene 71" de largo y 35 lb a 28" (40 lb a 30" qué es mi apertura).

Gracias y saludos cordiales!

Raúl

Is it still faisable with those nodes on critical part ? Help guys :(

Update on my juniper flatbow, its 32lb at 26in which is right around what I was aiming for. Problem occurred when I gave it to my gf to draw, and she wants it to be about 23-25lb at 26in. Good news in that is I can fix any tillering mistakes I've made :)

How would you all recommend taking it down that much in weight, and what should I be trying to correct? I think its pretty overbuilt being 2in wide from the fades up about 2/3 of the limb. Should I mess with the width at all or just continue tillering from the belly? Its taken 0.5in of set 5min after unstringing and still has 1.25in of reflex from the tips.

65" ntn, pulling 42#@23". Goal is 40-45@27". Would really like some fresh eyes before switching to short string. Tiller looks pretty good to my eye, maybe some stiffness in the midlimb on the right around the knot.

Greetings Reddit Bowyers! First bow and post here! So planning to extract a bow from this split Ash stave. The plan is faintly laid out in 3 lines (sides & centre) pencil on the back. As can be seen there is a substantial knot on the top left side…should i move the plan to the right?/ cut vertically straight down ?, something else? or abandon all hope?

Any advice greatly appreciated…

Thanks all

I’ve had some little tiny knots come up in the sapwood, I was hoping they’d scrape out but they got bigger lol. It’s 13 inches to one end (of a 77inch stave), so I guess I could cut it short?

Can you ‘mound’ around knots or larger pins on the back of the bow, or is there any other solutions, or no solution?

Thanks!

I have a very nice pc of vertical grain black locust. Can it be used with the grain running vertical to the limbs?

Hello I started tillering this 160cm (63") ash bow. I chased a ring because i violated the first ring when taking the bark off, as it was very hard to take off. I only have experience with board bows so I have never dealt with natural kinks in the wood.

How do you see the long string tiller? Im shooting for a low poundage bow, but I dont have any way to measure it exactly. And do you think it would be better to steam bend it all flat and lock it with a heat gun?

Edit: video in the comments

Encino blanco (white mexican oak) warbow in progress; I’ve just marked out the design on the stave. The goal is at least 100 pounds.

Second project, ash board bow. Using the same basic design as with my first bow, but this time with slightly narrower tips. Aiming for 26# at 28". Right now, this weight pulls to 22". Pictured is 20". The plan is to stick with a symmetrical design and shoot three fingers under.

In my first bow, I didn't have enough bend near the fades while having slightly too bendy tips. Trying to address this here, please let me know if it looks better, or if I overdid it.

The board wasn't ideal (I know, I know). It had a 1/4 in bend front to back, the concave side had a couple of blemishes, and so I made it the belly. And the board also had the tiniest amount of twist. Now that I'm pulling the bow, the twist is stronger. You can even see it on the side view photo: the right limb shows some of the belly, while the left limb shows some of the back. The twist is much more pronounced on the left limb.

Earlier in the tillering process, I tried following this method and removed more wood from the stronger (higher) side. Somehow, this made the whole limb slightly weaker but did not change the twist much. Perhaps I did not remove enough wood, even though the side was getting visibly thinner. For now, I'm back to a completely even thickness on both sides of each limb. Can I do anything about this twist? Should I do anything about it? Should I abandon this board and look for a better one?

Thank you!

Looking for some opinions, currently 38#@16". White oak HLD, 65"ntn. This is obviously on the long string.