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Old 10-17-2008, 09:43 PM   #1
gstoneberg
Gone Wild
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 251
Default Building a selfbow

I don't know if any of you are traditional bowhunters out there, but in the spirit of the great cart builds that are here I have some pictures of an osage self bow build that's in progress at my place. I like to help people build self bows and this is the second person I've helped this year. We had to do his build over a long weekend so I got the rare opportunity to take a bunch of pictures of the bow in progress. The young man I'm helping is named Kyle. He drove up from Austin and arrived about 2pm yesterday at my place in the Dallas burbs. So, we'll begin with the raw material, osage orange staves:



Kyle began by removing the bark:



From there we layed out the bow and cut it to shape on the band saw:



Then, Kyle began removing the sap wood and creating the back of the bow from a single growth ring on the bow:



At supper time we quit for the day, having finished about a third of the bow's back. Notice the knots, which slowed things considerably:



This morning, we got a break from the rain of the previous day so we could work outside, where the light is much better:



At 2:30 pm, Kyle finished the bow's back. It's looking good:



Next we began working on the belly of the bow, first with the draw knife:



then with the sanding drum:



Finally, when the limbs got thin enough we could start floor tillering:



Then Kyle cut string grooves:



Finally we got a string on the bow. Here's the first draw:



Notice the lower limb is too stiff. Tomorrow we hope to shoot it. I can post more pictures then.

George
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