Will Fiberglass Cloth Add Draw Weight To My Bow

How to make a fast and accurate longbow with elementary tools and common dimensional lumber. Everything you need to know to make a bow similar this.

Wood Choice
Design and Layout
Handle and Fades
Tools
the Rough Out
Backing (Optional)
the Tiller
the String
Nocks
Longstring Tillering
Shortstring Tillering
Fix (and Oestrus Treating)
Concluding Shaping
Last Tiller
Troubleshooting
Shooting In
Finishing
Accents and Leatherwork
Intendance and Maintenance
Additional Resources

Music in this video comes from my talented cousin, the guitarist Marcos Topolanski Quintero. Y'all can listen to the entire album Primero on Spotify, or download it on iTunes.

What you need

Hardwood board ($10-fifteen)
Set up of rasps and files ($25)
Card scraper, knife, or homemade scraper ($0-10).
Optional: hatchet, drawknife, chainsaw file, spokeshave.
Workholding: vise or clamps (Optional but handy)
Sandpaper. 220, 320 dust ($5)
Choice of stop ($0-5) and optional stain
String textile. ($x) Bow string cloth such equally B50, B55, Fast flight, etc are recommended. There are alternatives such as linen (expect for bookbinding or shoemakers linen) non-stretch fishing line, and others. Y'all can purchase a string for a similar price to avoid the trouble, simply yous can make many strings if you buy a roll of material.
- Optional: serving jig and serving thread to increase string elapsing ($ten.)
- If you lot take null else, paracord volition shoot an arrow, only non also as a proper cord. It stretches too much, costing arrow speed and requiring constant adjustment, but it'due south ameliorate than nothing.
Handle, tip, and emphasis materials (Optional)
Optional backing. Mostly for scratch protection. Tougher backings add together a modest amount of tension safety. Air is the best backing, since it's the lightest. Yous don't need a backing if you have a proficient board.
- Linen, denim, rawhide, or most any scrap cloth will make a decent backing.
- Avoid drywall record, fiberglass fabric, duct tape, and dog chew rawhide. They can be made to piece of work but are more problematic than effective.

Affiliate i: Wood Selection

I'thou using sugar maple for this build (aka hard maple) but oak, hickory, ash, elm, and many other woods work but as well. Check out the Bow Forest Annual (Coming Soon) for a listing of reputable bow woods in your region.

Seek out a board with straight fibers that go all the way through the lath with minimal runoff to the sides. Most boards won't make the cutting, so expect to look through enough. A 1×ii board 8 feet long works perfectly for this build, and happens to be a common size at Domicile Depot and Lowes.

The bodily dimensions of a 1×2 are 1 1/two" by 3/four". I used a total of 80" of 1×two, 72" for the bow and eight" for the handle riser. I didn't observe a good 1×two so I got the nicest 1×3 I found and ripped downwardly the sides.

Utilize a 1×3 if you'd like a draw weight much college than 40 to 45 pounds. Simply increase the width of the bow'due south front end profile in proportion to the increase in describe weight.

An ideal board has a make clean strip of fibers all the way downward the back. Keep an centre out for runoff, which is when the fibers run at an angle to the board. Avert any signs that fibers take been cut prematurely, similar feathering growth rings, island or cathedral patterns, and runoff. These can sometimes be ok on the belly or sides of the bow, but you don't want them on the tension facing back. Also wait out for standard defects like knots, wiggles and warp. Click on the Wood Selection diagram for examples.

The way the engrain looks isn't as important equally the faces of the board. You can utilize flatsawn or quartersawn lumber or annihilation in betwixt. The growth ring bending pretty much doesn't matter, unless y'all programme to hunt a growth ring.

What actually matters is the fibers: y'all desire a board with straight and uninterrupted fibers all the mode through its length. This is specially important for the back, which is nether tension. You want the dorsum of the bow to have a make clean strip of fibers all the way through without any serious interruptions.

If yous take to make a necktie breaker between two boards so its worth looking at the endgrain. A good board will have a minimal amount of porous growth, resulting in more woods and less air. For the same reason, y'all should avert low density woods like pine and poplar, unless you lower the describe weight or make your bow extra wide. These wood take less forest in the wood, and then you need to compensate with a wider bow, or a lower less stressful describe weight.

Boards are simply staves that have been mistreated. With expert design, tiller, and woods selection, lath bows are no worse than natural stave bows. Yous tin roughly follow this buildalong with either, but natural staves will crave some prep work such equally removing the bawl and inner bark. For the vast majority of species you lot can use the underbark surface of the tree for the back of the bow.