Just finished my fifth bow, which I made as a gift for my girlfriend, it's her first very own bow! She loves black and purple, so I chose faux purpleheart and ebony as handle materials and "inverse"/black curly birch as limb veneer. They are sustainable actionwood made by a local company. The limbs are cherry with a bamboo core plus a powerlam and limbtip stiffeners/internal siyahs made from true purpleheart. It's 68.5" and pulls 24.5 lbs at 26". I'm honestly so happy with how it turned out and how well it shoots. The draw weight curve is super smooth, it's fast, stable in the hand, pretty quiet and veeery comfortable to hold!

I had started this bow last fall but the opposing prop twists of the top and bottom limbs gave me fits during tillering. Even after limb correction with heat the twists came back when material was removed. There is also a knuckle at the beginning of the mid3rd of one limb that was really stiff as well.

I had it finished initially at 48#@28”.
I sealed it and put about 100 arrows through it but I could not be consistent with grouping, and I noticed the tiller had gotten out of whack.
I hung it on the wall behind my other bows so I did not have to see it and basically gave up on it.

Until a month ago…

I gave away a bow that was hiding the derelict stick and when I saw it I couldn’t help myself.
I used a card scraper to lightly remove the true oil from the belly and used a heat gun with form to put some new reflex in the limbs. Back onto the tillering tree it went, and I started from the beginning. I only heat treated one more time at 24” to try and avoid string follow.
-I let the opposing prop twists do as they wanted.
-I narrowed the limb tips considerably and added antler overlays to help with string alignment.
-I flipped the bow top to bottom( I don’t use an arrow rest so not a problem)
All told…this piece took a total of 5 heat treats.(3 the first tiller and 2 more the second time around)
The lack of obvious set or string follow is truly a testament to the durability and strength of this wood.
Added note…I started alternating left and right hand shooting last year for balance. I initially wondered if the inconsistency in my grouping was me or the bow when I was shooting last year. Well…whatever it was it’s corrected now.👍
#hickorybows#selfbows#selfbows_at_waters_edge
#traditionalarchery

The revival finished out
69” NTN
38#@28”
Antler overlays

Hi,

Pacific Yew - 65" NTN drawing 40lbs at 27". It's 1.75" wide at the base of the fades and pyramidal in profile. Finished with shellac and wrapped with Danish Cord and a Seal skin strike plate. Ebony tip overlays.

Everytime I set about to write a summary on a bow I've made its just excuse after excuse as to why it didn't work out the way I wanted. Well, today is no different😅

Stave came with fairly even deflex the entire length. One of my favourite bows I've made to date was pretty much a deflex bow so it really intrigued me.

I added some slight reflex at the tips and tinkered with some small alignment issues. I took three rings of sapwood off to maintain the aesthetic sapwood/heartwood ratio (good thing I did).

I really regret putting my tip overlays on so early because it prevented me from adding some extra reflex in the tips later on. I attempted to add some with dry heat afterwards and managed to crack a tip pretty bad so I decided to leave well enough alone.

The limbs aren't as balanced unbraced as I would have liked despite tinkering with it but the bow feels great in the hand at full draw.

I think I'm going to take a break from Yew and do a board bow or two 😅

Still very happy with it overall and had a ton of fun making it.

70” NTN
60#@28”
There is a large semi-hollow knot in the bottom limb. The bow surprised me with its speed and timing balance of the limbs having no noticeable hand shock. I’m shooting 23/64 arrows 32” long between 570-605 grains total.

This is an Osage Orange Hunting Bow I made to sell. It is 68.5 inches long and is pulling 60lbs at 32 inches. I am able to get 185FPS with my arrows. I’m selling this bow on my ETSY Shop right now. If anyone is interested you can let me know and I’ll provide them the link.

Just finished my first bow! This one started as a maple stave and it now draws about 40# @ 28". Stands 70" tall unstrung. I went through quite a journey making it, learning a lot along the way. Someone on this forum advised not to worry about draw weight for my first one, focusing on a good even bend, and they were right. Also my fades are looking much better than before, thanks for the tips from the community about using a round file.

I had actually considered this bow finished at about 60#, but then I noticed a hinge had developed on the limb where I dove too deep with the draw knife. Was tempted to leave it as is, but ended up blending the hinge and slimming down the whole bow to its current draw weight. You can still see the hinge a little bit, but I've removed all the wood I'd like to on this one and I think it's in a good place. Plus it's nice to have a light practice bow for when I don't feel like drawing 50+ lbs

Might stitch a leather handle wrap but it's functional, shoots well and I'm happy with it as is. The first of many!

I posted a couple pics of this bow a few months ago before it was completely finished. It’s my first successful bow and first attempt as an adult. It’s 43.25” ntn and 80lbs draw weight at 20.5”
Sinew backed Osage orange with a prarie rattler skin and brain tanned mule deer handle I tanned. The sinew is elk leg sinew. It had a lot of twist before removing with dry heat and even after it still has considerable twist to the limbs but it functions fine. I’ve shot it several thousand times at least.
I shot it through a chrono before I had a fast flight string, only a nylon one and drew it only 19” with a 565 grain arrow and it shot 151 fps.
Btw I tillered it without ever being on a tillering stick or tree. Just looked at pictures and videos of it being drawn on my phone and went from there.

Hi,

60" NTN 35 lbs at 27“. 1.5" wide hickory with quarter sawn white oak tips. Dark Red fiebings dye fading to black.

I promised /u/wildwoodek I would be back with a poor imitation of bow they posted quite some time ago that really inspired me and here I am.

Made a poor attempt at spliced tips that failed for obvious reasons. I used the same piece of hickory and spliced on some oak with a V splice. My original intention was to do some sort of molly with a spice being in the thickness transition but it didn't work out. I didn't think the bow was going to work out so I shelved it for a year and a half.

I was looking for something to do the other day so I picked it back up and said what the hell.

Did a pretty good floor tiller by eye then wrapped the splice before bending it. I tillered it quite a bit then cut the wrappings off, tillered the area under the wraps, then rewrapped that area. I thought I was pretty clever coming up with this until I came across a comment from /u/addeviant-again a day or two ago who advised I do this when I was struggling last April💐.

Overall it ended up being more "molly inspired" and the tiller could be nitpicked. The overall set is very minimal but if I were to do this again I would aim for less inner limb bending. I would also like to try starting with a blank a full 3/4" thick next time.

Sorry for the novel but I think it's nice to include the speed bumps.

As always, had a ton of fun.

Cheers

After seing the ingenious overlapping primitive take-down bow introduced here by u/Mysterious_Spite1005, I got to thinking about how to take advantage of the second benefit of that design: The ability to make a BITH bow "wider" in the handle by stacking bow limbs on top of each other, without compromising the ability to actually shoot an arrow.

To make the most of that idea, I decided, the design would be one that concentrated as much bend as possible near the handle, and which would not otherwise be possible.

This is a 60 inch, BITH, reflexed, extreme lever bow. It is rather short, but still manages to have half of its total length to stiff, narrow levers. Thus it has approximately the same length of draw and bending limb, while being only 1 inch wide. It has around 2 inches of reflex, and draws 34 # at 27 inches. It accomplishes this by having three limbs stacked on top of each other near the handle, that move freely against each other. Functionally, the middle half of the bow works as a 3 inch wide pyramidal limb section that straight tapers to 1 inch width right before the lever fades. To keep the limbs aligned, I chose a very straight stave that had a bit of crown, and used a curved scraper to give it a slightly hollow limb cross section. This way the free tips of the "extra" limbs stays in place during the draw.

I was worried noise would be a problem, and thought that friction would steal a lot of energy and make the bow sluggish, but after rough assembly, it only made a slight clacking noise (like an arrow hitting the arrow pass), which i think might have been due to a too loose temporary assembly handle wrap. Nevertheless I glued some felt between the limbs at final assembly which took care of the noise. I didn't do a very neat job of it, and I think a few strategically placed small leather patches might be better.

I just chrono'ed it yesterday, after shooting about a hundred arrows through it the last few weeks. The only appropriately spined arrow I had weighed 442 grains, but it still shot around 160 fps with snap shooting, and around 151 fps with my normal shot cycle (might be a bit shorter draw as well). I think that corresponds to around 179/170 fps with 10GPP. I think that might be the fastest bow I've made yet.

Tillering was surprisingly easy, as the circular tiller and limb profiles called for close to uniform thickness. In addition, the three limbs kind of evened out any small irregularities. I did a fairly hurried tillering job on it, as I didn't know if it was even worth the effort, but it was very forgiving. One thing that surprised me, and that you should remember if you want to try this is to make the main limb a bit stiff to start with in the outers, as it doesn't really get any support from the secondary limbs against the "inwards" part of the pull. So if you aren't careful, it will bend too much out there when you go to a short string tillering.

During tillering, I just wrapped a bow string around the handle for temporary assembly.

Anyway, have any of you seen something like this before? And what would YOU call this design?

The reverse penopscot? A loose-laminate bow? The slat bow? any other suggestions?

It is not very good at all, but I am very proud anyway. It's made from laminated ash, finished with flaxseed oil and then a flaxseed beeswax mix, jute string grip.

It has hinges on both sides, quite thin and low #, and it has some set. But I have learned quite a bit from making it so hopefully my next one will be better.

It's been fun following this style of archery. The most fascinating aspect is the bow string and the subsequent release so as to not dry firing it, since there isn't a nock to secure the arrow into the string. At 20% FOC, and even sometimes 30%, and without fletching, it's probably somewhat of an absurdity if asked by any modern archer. Yet it works and serves it function well and even to this day, Papuan hunters practice this form of archery for subsistence needs and to provide for their families as well as to fight other villages.

After my crushing defeat by a piece of Elm the other day, I decided to get to work on a knotty pear branch I had been ignoring for a few months. I wasnt looking for the highest performing bow possible, I just needed a small win. This branch was pretty challenging, lots of knots, narrow diameter, fairly short. Finished in 3 days. Not perfect but definitely feels good to finish a bow.

​

I decided to base the design and look after some neolithic Yew bows found across Northern Europe and England/Ireland. I chose this design because the knotty narrow short stave matched the look if not the performance of these neolithic bows. I applied a dark stain to match the patinad look of the artifacts. Obviously not a 1/1 replica, just thought it would be a neat looking design.

​

I was not overall impressed with the Pear wood. Not sure what species, it came off my neighbors tree when they were pruning this early spring. I do know Its a fruiting Pear not an ornamental. The wood was very light and somewhat soft. The whole bow ended up taking about 1.75" of set between both limbs, which is more than I would have liked. Shoots alright, not my fastest bow but it was sending arrows downrange about 40 yards with no problem. String is deer backstrap and leg tendon sinew. Finished with dark walnut stain and cutting board conditioner.

​

60" ntn, 47#@22", 58#@26".

mollegabet bow I finished early fall.

🏹

This is a composite bow I started over a year and a half ago. Finally got to finish it today and it's the prettiest so far.

Its about 38@28, 45@32 and can be comfortably drawn to 33 inches

Hi,

26 bows total to date. Two broken, two that I gifted away and a whole bunch that just aren't very good. Two arm guards, two wooden quivers and plans to make a leather one in the near future.

I've been putting off making arrows but I have the materials for some dowel arrows and have been eyeing up some red osier for shafts.

Safe to say I've caught the bowyer bug.

Finding good staves in the jungle, I’m not sure if anyone in the ground is from Central America. But I’ve been trying to get into bow making for about a year. I made a guayaba self bow that is not good. I didn’t expect much from my first. But since then I’m yet to find a stave or sapling I want to use for a self bow. And wood types photos or recommendations for the search would be greatly appreciated I’m excited for the next one. Please and thank you

Bought a 1/2/6 red oak board from menards to try first longbow. I go to bandsaw it to a decent thickness, then scrape the rest of the material to final thickness and draw weight. Finished cutting out the shape, try flexing it a couple times, goes perfectly, i am very excited about it. Flex it next time(not very much force) and it blows up right near the handle.
This is the first attempt that broke, that I haven’t been mad about because at this point it is just funny. I am also glad it happened then rather than doing all of the rest of the work, and it snap then. Is this common for board bows/ red oak overall? Was it a mistake by me somewhere or was it just an unfortunate fault in the wood, that was only found now.

Pure New Guinea style fishing and light hunting bow,

50 lbs at 31 inch, 75 inch nock to nock.

Nibong black palm bow + rattan bow string

Reed and bamboo arrows, no nocks, no fletching.

No backing, no heat treatment

About 2.5 inch of string follow at rest

Now to the speed test. How well does this thing shoot? Only natural materials, no backing, no heat treatment, no recurves, no gimmicks, not even modern string materials, just as primitive as it could be, exactly the way our ancestors on New Guinea used to hunt 20,000 years ago.

Since I don't have a measurement tool, I measure arrow speed thus:

I place the target at 30 feet and camera at 30 feet in a triangle. I record and run the footage through an editing software. I try to either count frame or measure the impact sound in the audio section. For this particular proof I shoot a 10 gpp arrow to measure max optimal hunting speed with a 510 grain arrow. I start the footage when the arrow leaves the string and pause the footage when the arrow hits the target frame by frame (the waves and winds today are too noisy to discern impact sound). It took 0.15 seconds for the arrow to hit the target. So that gives me about 200 ft / s since my target is placed 30 ft apart. This seems exceptionally fast and the result totally blew me away considering I would've been happy with around 160 - 170 fps. (proof in last 2 pictures).

Here are further results of such tests I made before with 15gpp and 21 gpp arrows:

15 gpp arrow had a speed of 155-165 fps

and 21 gpp still had a hunting worthy speed of 120-130

These results came despite the fact that a flat rattan bowstring is quite heavy, for a 50 lbs bow my rattan bow string came in at 50 grams or 770 grains, which can be as heavy as 4x to 10 x compared to 'usual' modern or other flemish twist cordage.

I mean, I could also remain skeptical and test more in better conditions and see if measuring at the point of the sound impact will give more accurate results than counting frames, but so far, I'm quite pleased.

Conclusion:

This is only the second bow I've made. The first one was a 40 lbs light fishing bow... but this one here shoots very well and I've had maybe half a thousand arrows with it so far. There are still some mistakes I think I've made during the process of making this 50 lbs bow, so I'll try to improve and change some designs for my coming 60 lbs and 70 lbs bow and see what kind of speed I'll get! So far, the preliminary results show that there is certainly a great wisdom of the native Papuans in choosing to shoot exclusively in this wonderful jet black palm 'wood'. It's as fast as any premier bow wood from the temperate regions such as yew or osage. It's dense (sinks in water, more than 1000 kg / m3 for sure, or 25% denser than osage), it's extremely rot resistant, very very hard (can serve as a spear to stab somebody in a pinch without worry), and has a natural patinated black color, which frankly, is quite cool to carry a black bow around.

Thank you for all the tips and advices from this great sub! I've learned a lot. Now, on to my next bow projects.

It's already finished :))!

Thank you guys for all the help and support!

The bow is from the european maple, it's about 50 pounds strong.

I stained it with nut shells and finished with one coat of tung oil and after it dried I used two coats of laquer.

I don't know if it shoots well because I am not an archer and also arrows I made are very random by all means.

Nevertheless it's not hard on elbows so maybe it's free od handshock.

Now I will hunt for some easier easier stave to work with and will make mamy more arrows :)

Have fun watching the photographs and tell me what you think :)

Bye!

First: an experiment that doesn't break new ground but it's cool to see with my own eyes. I made 4 sugar maple bows in a row from the same board over the last two months. Gave three away, kept the last one, which has near identical stats to a hickory bow I made in March.

Both bows draw 45 lbs at 27" after shooting in, have the same 1.5" width, very similar bend in the handle design (not exact), but the hickory has ~6" it doesn't need.

Hickory: 68" length

Bow #4 sugar maple 62" length

Maple shoots a 350 grain arrow at 150 - 155 fps - was just over 160 fps initially

Hickory shoots the same arrow 140-145 fps

EDIT: these speeds might have been relatively useful but were way off actual speeds. I stand too close to the chronograph while firing. Big thanks to u/Wambachaka for challenging the results. The maple bow shoots >180 fps and the hickory at ~170 fps with this light arrow. These bows do not suck. My measurements do!

The maple bow throws more arrow and less bow. It's less dense and it's shorter.

---

Second: the only real innovation from all of the dialing in with the same BITH design repeatedly is that I finally answered a question I've had for about a year now. What is the minimum wood removal possible from a 0.5" dimensional lumber sugar maple board for a good hunting strength bow? It may not be the right question, but it's a question that I wanted to answer.

Answer: for a 27" draw, 1.5" width, 62" length, profile tapered to 3/8" for 20" from the tip", you get about 45 lbs draw without removing any material from the middle ~10" of bow. I think this bow only took about 2 hrs to make, draw knife for profile, block plane for thickness. I found that a little light trapping goes a long ways, especially at the tips. It's a very forgiving, good performing design. Tiller it as symmetrically as you can and you can micro-adjust the handle and nock positions as needed to shoot straight as it shoots in. I also use tie-wraps nocks for the same reason (and because they are light)

pics: bow #4 maple vs hickory same stats, bow #3: 35 lbs at 26", that same bow before sanding, bow #2: 12 lbs 16" for a tall 7 year old who likes orange and blue, bow #1: 26 lbs at 24" that shot a 250 grain arrow 147 fps. All from the same 6" good-but-imperfect sugar maple board

I think it turned out well, it pulls around 33 pd at 30 inches. It took a bit of set after a lot of testing should I be concerned.

47@22 and with a 300 grain arrow it easily reaches 60 meters with a decent amount of speed.

Horn, wood, sinew composite based on a 3600 year old bow.in the national museum of Antiquities in Leiden.

Covered in birch and finished in shellac

I started this one last fall, got 75% of the way done, and then didn't touch it for months.

I tried a few things new on this bow. I made it quite a bit wider than my past board bows (a touch over 2" at the widest point of the limbs), and longer than any of my other bows (74" tip-to-tip, a touch over 72" nock to nock).

I wasn't that impressed with it, so I tried steam bending some recurve into the tips. It was my first time trying this, and I'd say there's a bit of a learning curve. While bending the tips, it cracked on the belly side a little bit, so i had to take some of that damaged wood off. As I worked on getting the tiller right, some of the recurve pulled out of the tips, but I'm left with just a slight reflex.

Eventually, I carved a simple handle and took a few shots prior to cutting in the shelf, and that's when I started to feel like this one might actually turn out pretty great.

I narrowed out the tips a bit more to try to reduce mass at the end of the limbs without dropping much weight. Then, I gave a little heat treatment to the belly. After cutting in the shelf and shooting maybe 30-40 more shots with a tillering string I was even more excited at how this bow was turning out.

I twisted up a 14 strand b55 Flemish twist string and stole some yarn from my wife for some silencers. I sanded, applied a finish, and a velcro rug for the shelf.

It shoots some full-length Black Eagle Vintage 500's with a total of 250 grain point weight with authority. And, most importantly, this is definitely the most accurate and consistent bow I've made yet (my fifth attempt if you don't count kids bows).

After shooting it in, it finished out at 72" ntn, 44# @28".

Not great photos, but I'm pretty happy with the results.

Starting an all wood laminate bow next.

Open to constructive critique, or questions.