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May 27, 2022 · English Longbow Build-Along I – Sam Harpers’ first attempt at an English longbow; English Longbow Build-Along II – Second attempt at an English longbow; Bamboo-Backed Ipe Bow Build-Along – Also useful if the belly wood is Osage or bamboo; Making a Fiberglass Laminated Bow – An extensive Step-by-Step Guide
- Making a Flemish Bowstring
Making a Flemish Bowstring - BowAddicted. January 4, 2023...
- How-To Bow Backings
You can back a bow with almost anything, but some things are...
- Bamboo-Backed Ipe Bow Build-Along
Bamboo-Backed Ipe Bow Build-Along. December 31, 2022...
- Making a Flemish Bowstring
- Choosing Your Wood
- A Little Theory
- Roughing Out The Dimensions
- Warped Wood Woes
- Wood Removal
- Continuing with The Roughing Out
- Gluing on The Riser
- Roughing Out The Handle
- Applying A Backing
- Cutting The Nocks
The reason I used red oak in my first bows is because (1) it’s pretty cheap, (2) you can find it just about anywhere, and (3) it makes a decent bow. I went to Home Depot and found some red oak that was the perfect size. The little sticky lable on it says it’s a 1x2x6. In reality, it’s 3/4 inch thick, 1.5 inches wide, and 6 feet long. You may find y...
If you were to take a board with uniform dimension throughout its length and bend by putting pressure on both tips and in the middle, the board would bend the most in the middle and hardly at all toward the tips. Since most of the bend would be concentrated in a small area in the middle, it would be most likely to break in the middle. If you want t...
For this build along, I’m going to use a piece of red oak that is 72″ long, 1.5″ wide, and 3/4″ thick. The first thing you should do is find the exact dead center of the bow. That means you have to find the intersection of the center of the length and the center of the width. Since it’s 72″ long, you know the center is going to be at 36″. But just ...
What do you do, though, in a situation where your wood is reallywarped from side to side? Well, one thing you could do is steam and clamp it back into shape. But here’s another method. Just lay the string with the weights along the wood like before, and make sure the string runs through the dead center of the bow. Then make marks at the tips under ...
Now I get to introduce the first tool (besides a pencil and a yard stick which I smuggled in earlier without you noticing). This first tool is called a Stanley surform rasp, and you can get it at Lowes, Home Depot, or wherever. It’s got a removable blade, and they’re easy to change out. When I first started making bows, I used this tool for just ab...
Now that you’ve got the side’s roughed out, you’ve got to get the belly roughed out, too. This is a little tricky to explain, but here’s a diagram: The red part should be removed. Now let me explain that line I have drawn 1/4″ from the back along the side. You see, it’s easier to remove wood from corners and rounded surfaces than it is from wide fl...
The next thing is to glue on the riser. I used to do this before I did the roughing out, but the riser gets in the way a little when you’re trying to rough out the belly. The riser is optional. You could leave the riser off and make a bow that bends through the handle. Having a riser allows you to make the handle more narrow and comfortable. It als...
Then you can rough out the handle. Here are the dimensions I use. You see how that 1/4″ line along the bow sort of curves up toward the handle? That’s what I meant earlier when I was talking about gradually rounding the corners as I move away from the handle which I left square. You can remove that red part in one of two ways. You can either use a ...
I said earlier that in the unlikely event that you should find a board with perfectly straight grain (where the rings on the sides do not run off to the side but continue in a straight line for the whole length) that you don’t necessarily have to back your bow. But if you’re making a bow for the first time, I think you should back it anyway. It’s b...
Next thing ya gotta do is cut nocks for a string. Draw a line one inch from the tip. Since the overall length of the bow is 72″, and you cut your nocks an inch in on both ends, the bow will be 70″ nock to nock. You want to cut the nocks at about 45 degrees so when the bow is strung, the string doesn’t have to bend around any sharp corners. Using th...
If it's actually weaker in the middle,like if the handle is narrowed, the bow will break. Sam covers this really well on his website, but many first and second timers just read right over it. It matters. Oak, maple, hickory etc board bows NEED wide flat limbs for a reason. Go back to Sam's website and read the section about fadeouts and handles.
Dec 30, 2022 · DIY, english longbow tutorial DIY, self made bow. Special Thanks to Sam Harper for allowing us to republish his tutorials and build along instructions. His expertise and knowledge in bow-making have greatly.
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