BUILDING RECURVE BOWS

[jackmaster]

Just out of curiosity do any of you guys know what the best local wood a guy could build a recurve out of. I am the furthest thing from a bow expert but I love building stuff out of wood, any ideas of wood types would be great, I am thinking vine maple, any thoughts...

[ouchfoss]

As far as local wood, Yew and vine maple are probably the best but I think yew is better used in thick bows like your english style longbows rather than recurves. From what I remember reading, vine maple is very good for the thinner and wider flat type bows. I dont think yew would make a crappy flat bow though. Its hard to resist the beauty of Yew for making any kind of bow in my opinion. I think the main issue with yew is that it would take set much easier than vine maple.

[jackmaster]

As far as local wood, Yew and vine maple are probably the best but I think yew is better used in thick bows like your english style longbows rather than recurves. From what I remember reading, vine maple is very good for the thinner and wider flat type bows. I dont think yew would make a crappy flat bow though. Its hard to resist the beauty of Yew for making any kind of bow in my opinion. I think the main issue with yew is that it would take set much easier than vine maple.

might be a dumb question here but where does one find yew wood? i have no clue what it even looks like and i am pretty good with western washington wood

[ouchfoss]

Needles look really close to a cross between hemlock and white fir but the bark is really thin and kinda pealing in places to a red underbark almost madrona-like at times. Its usually an understory short tree that never grows more than 30-40 feet tall at the tallest. Seems to like growing in really crappy places like rock cliffs or swamps or shaded understorys of tall timber. Ive seen it grow in several places going up stevens pass as well. Thing is, finding one that is usable for bow making is tough because that requires a tree that is fairly limb free in the trunk section with minimal twist. Yew grows several places in the flat swampy lands of the coastal areas but finding one that is not a limby bush is like a miracle unto itself.   

[Noiro]

I have built two longbow with Jay. They could be used for hunting but I have them as wall hangers. Beautiful pieces of yew, pecan, hickory and Osage wood for the bows. One longbow is take-down. Made some nice bow strings too. Jay is an awesome guy.

http://www.selfbow.com/

[jackmaster]

those are some are some sweet bows man, beutiful for sure, when you guys are shaping them do you do it 100% with a draw knife or do you run it through a band saw and scroll saw until its close?

[ouchfoss]

I was gonna mention that I am no expert at building bows (the few bows I have made were all selfbow longbows) and have yet to try laminations for bow making. Most of what I know I have read from "the traditional bowyer's bible" set and Jay and Glenn have several articles in it.

[ouchfoss]

those are some are some sweet bows man, beutiful for sure, when you guys are shaping them do you do it 100% with a draw knife or do you run it through a band saw and scroll saw until its close?

If you've got a little bandsaw that will for sure save you time in the roughing out process but you will spend quite a bit of time rasping it down to your drawn out dimensions and then more time fine tuning the tiller of it once you can put a string on it. NEVER rely too much on the band saw though. There will be that one time you decide to trim really close with your bandsaw and it will take too much and ruin it. I know because I have done it a couple times and turned a potential 50 lb bow into a 30 lb one. 

[jackmaster]

those are some are some sweet bows man, beutiful for sure, when you guys are shaping them do you do it 100% with a draw knife or do you run it through a band saw and scroll saw until its close?

If you've got a little bandsaw that will for sure save you time in the roughing out process but you will spend quite a bit of time rasping it down to your drawn out dimensions and then more time fine tuning the tiller of it once you can put a string on it. NEVER rely too much on the band saw though. There will be that one time you decide to trim really close with your bandsaw and it will take too much and ruin it. I know because I have done it a couple times and turned a potential 50 lb bow into a 30 lb one. 

great points, I am gonna get some wood together and start making some this fall, its nice tohave wood projects for the winter months, one big problem though is iI dont shoot a bow, I was atone time a great shot with a recurve, all iinstinctive to, if it was within 40 yards it was dead, now I cant pull one back because it feels like i have a needle stuck in the joint in my shoulder, guess I will have to find some daring sucker to shoot my homemade bows

[mountainman]

Look into Bingham, 3 Rivers, and for lamination, I used to buy from the Woodshed out of Idaho. Had a great supply of parallels and tapers as well as thin lamps for overlays

[Special T]

Home made bows are likely going to be long bows.  The Third wood for making self bows is Ocean Spray. Looks more like a bush than a tree. best time to hunt the wood is when the sap is NOT running... possibly find it this summer and cut it this winter. I hear it aids in dying.

[metlhead]

Don't count out black locust. Tons of it here in the south sound and is very easy to get staves of quality diameter. Seasons well also.

[jackmaster]

Don't count out black locust. Tons of it here in the south sound and is very easy to get staves of quality diameter. Seasons well also.

i am just fining out about all kinds of woods, i doubt i could recognize black locust, any tips

[quadrafire]

These books would be a good start to your Journey

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFcQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.3riversarchery.com%2Ftraditional%2Bbowyer%27s%2Bbible%2Bcomplete%2Bset_i5366-3_baseitem.html&ei=98E-U6LbLcqQyAG32oCAAg&usg=AFQjCNENzHmiW84cvqmOMxQHq_s4QC1G7w&sig2=u-s_cALa-ZZH_5oB6auj2g&bvm=bv.64125504,d.aWc

[Noiro]

A easy sourse for  bow wood is hickory pick handles. Take the large end and bandsaw cut-splice slots to fit into. I think I saw a pic of it on Jay's webpage. Look over the handles in the bin and select clear straight grain.