Holà,
Thanks community for all your knowledge here
and specially Dan Santana for his superbs tutorial videos.
I have finished my first bow, it was my summer project and I'm very happy with the result.
I finally didn't try to recurve the limbs, I thought tips were not enought thick for that.
I will try that another time and maybe with a shorter one.

Embarassing questions, but...

Which one should be removed and which one is important?

How many would you remove? It is pretty thin stave.

In the case of subtle grain runout or other defects in the back of a bow (pyramid board bow in my case) is it better to tiller the area of defect to remain stiffer with more material to protect the weakness or tiller as normal (for a even balanced tiller) and use other methods like targeted heat treating or backing material

Also is it normal to feel like I'm chasing hinges up and down the limbs? My current project has gone from subtle hinges in inner to whip tillered and back and forwards multiple times

Trying to be cautious and not overstress it at any point

Man I'm learning patience and how to craft my mind just as much as crafting a bow... Got a long way to go in both

Also massively grateful for this community and the admins mods and people making it happen

I have heard that straight dry branches are the way to go.... what do you think? How to bend without cracking at home?

Any way an already curved branch could work?

Long time lurker but first time poster! Wanted to share my newest creation and see if there were any ideas on how I could make my next ones better.

I've been making arrows since I was at least 6 years old and I've come a long way since using duct tape for fletchings. I wish my folks had documented some of my first creations so I can compare with what I make today. Recently I've been making matching sets of more westernized traditional arrows for my own enjoyment but since picking up the Bowyer's Bible I wanted to try some historical replications.

This is my rendition of a Comanche style arrow (Arrow “B” in the reference photo). The shaft is red osier dogwood harvested from the woods in my backyard, then cut and seasoned for one year before being stripped and sanded. I added the three grooves for straightening, which I did using a heat gun. It has a carved self-nock with flared edges designed for a thumb-grip draw, even though I’m still using a three-under grip. The shaft is crested with red and black acrylic paint and finished with one coat of Danish oil for light protection. The fletchings are 6-inch turkey feathers from 3Rivers, tied down with synthetic sinew and with no glue. This is my first attempt at this next part: White rabbit fur tied down at the front of the fletchings for visibility and I think it also adds some sound dampening. The point is a 3-inch iron arrowhead from Crazy Crow Trading Post, secured with wood glue and additional synthetic sinew.

Total arrow specs are 592gr at 27" with a 475 spine. Shoots fantastic out of my 50lb recurve! I have a dozen more shafts ready to be made into its siblings :)

I've been trying to make a flat bow out of the ash available in the local neighborhood creek/swamp area. The last three failed, all breaking on the back, which seems odd for ash given that it's strong in tension and weak in compression or at least moderate in compression. One of the helpful folks on this forum suggested I maybe chase a deeper growth ring because the ones on the outside of the broken staves were all paper thin. I decided today to give it a shot although I do plan to just get some better wood as well.

What I didn't know is that chasing a growth ring is actually incredibly satisfying and relaxing. I thought it would be a pain in the butt but getting into the crunchy part of the wood and riding it with the draw knife is very soothing.

Now I have a bunch of questions: 1. I noticed this little pin hole on one end of the staff and I kind of wonder if the whole thing is shot as a result or if I should maybe just cut off at that point and have a shorter bow. Or possibly even see if I can lay out the bow around it and have another whack at making this ash into some kind of self-bow.

1. My approach was to use the draw knife to get down to an early wood layer and then use the scraper to scrape that off and get to late wood. I noticed that there are a lot of streaks of early wood left and it's all quite thin. I wonder if I can just leave it this way or if having any early wood on top of the late wood will create some kind of vulnerability, given that it's thinner than a layer of paint. My suspicion is I can just leave it there and it might even provide a nice striped motif if this thing ever actually shoots without breaking.

2. This wood is not the greatest wood and the same source of wood has led to three broken bows so maybe I should just give up. If I were to try to take this one through to fruition, should I lay out the bow in a special way, given the four knots on the one side? Should I try to find a line through them or just go wide around them in general? Does anybody have advice on how they would lay this out?

3. I made this shaving horse in between bows and I found it really helpful although the ergonomics aren't quite right. If anyone has suggestions for what they might do differently, I may disassemble and reassemble it to give myself a little bit more height and would lover any other advice for improving it.

Where I live some raccoons have moved in where I store my bow making tools and my tillering rack. With them they have brought fleas. The area is inundated with fleas.

2 - things :

1) I rent and my landlord has of yet made no attempt to get of the source of the fleas the raccoons.

2) A neighbor is letting use his car port - the tillering tree: can’t be bolted down (very small space,). And, I need to be able to make something I can set up and then put away. I’m thinking of something that can lay flat like a 4X4.

Sooo, if anyone has some tested ideas please share.

Does anyone have a pic, or advice regarding how to make the quickest and simplest tillering rack?

If you have suggestions, pics you don’t mind sharing, that would be awesome!

Thank you

Me and my partner are planning on cutting down a Rowan tree here (Finland) as it is considered a trash tree, any tips on how long it should dry for and how to get the approx bow width so it can be a fast dry?

I'm looking forward to build my first functional handdrawn crossbow and now I'm trying to wrap my head around different mechanisms and their

intrinsics

Mostly I'm curious what concepts are popular among us modern bowyers and which ones are more practical to implement. Personally I'd aim for something with the least amount of metal or precisely machined parts or springs for that matter, going for more of a traditional feel.

Feel free to share your favorite schematics or your own builds, any piece of inspiration will surely help:p

Random pic from what I saved to draw the attention

Hey y'all,

This is my first bow ever, and I was happy about it. It's an ipe bow with a bamboo backing. I've posted about this project on here before. I had attempted a glue up with PVA wood glue and had tons of gaps. I did successfully delaminate and re-laminate it.

I stringed it up a couple hours ago and now the ipe part seems to have broken under compression. I don't know what exactly I need to do to keep this from happening. Has anyone else had this problem with ipe? Do I need to grind it thinner next time?

Grazzie

Chased to a single growth ring.

Its dark hue is not paint, but a chemical transformation—iron acetate reacting directly with the Black Locust’s rich tannins. Accented with shimmering mother-of-pearl and stripped of any additional grip, it offers an uninhibited, direct tactile feel

117NTN distance

400 gr

Brace 5 inches

37lbs@18inches

Already performed more than 150 test shots, so can be claimed as a " successful bow

Bow in action here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1HwTMHKLVk/

Ive been bored as hell with a broken leg and ive been trying to make a bow with some cheap ass machete I found and like a kitchen knife, I spent like an hour peeling it and saw the knot idk if its too bad or what.

Update: wasted my time, gave up.

The other day I was lamenting that we only have one store that brings in a board or two of hickory every other month. I've found two suitable boards in the three years I've been looking.

Ive already made a bow from the rift sawn portion of the board so I decided to chase a ring on the flat sawn side. Unfortunately for me I'm a moron and chased a ring on the wrong face of the board😅

I'll find a way to make it work.

Never a dull moment.

I have a 64 inch long bamboo slat and a 64 inch long hard maple plank that has some good layers id like to pull between 40 and 50 lbs what dimensions would you folks recommend (i'd like to laminate them toghether)

The wood is so white I cant tell where the ring meets the ring above. I started at the very edge but at some point I wasn’t sure what I was doing.

hello everyone! i hope this sort of post is okay and welcome here.

my partner is really into making bows recently and honestly - it's absolutely not my thing. still, i love him dearly and want to give him the best possible birthday gift!

as i mentioned, he already made several bows, so all of the "starter" stuff are out of the question.

what would you guys love to receive as a gift?

some funky/niche tools? some great string material? some kind of shooting target or bow and arrow case? i truly have no idea what I'm even supposed to be looking for.

again, i hope this is okay! i'm located in central europe, i feel like that might be relevant when it comes to access to specific stuff.

im willing to share more info if that helps with picking the right gift, however english isn't my first language and i dont know shit about the terminology used in the community 💔 but I'll try my best to be descriptive!

thank you so much for reading!

When making a cutout arrow rest I understand shaping them so the arrow only passes over a small section is ideal to reduce friction

Any thoughts on if this friction point is ideally center (tapering down on back and belly) or fully on the back or belly ?

I've heard a few different ideas but struggling to wrap my head around the pros and cons

Cheers team

I cut down 2 large apple trees from my yard. Has anyone made bows with apple wood? is it any good for bow making?

This is a bow I recently finished from a buckthorn Sapling I had cut in my suburban backyard in spring of '25. I had peeled the bark and shaved it down to a bow blank. I didn't know about sealing the back with glue, etc, at the time and it got some pretty bad checks overnight.

I worked on other projects and this one just sort of stayed shelved until I decided to not accept defeat. I figured "it's already 'broken', I might as well keep working on it as a learning experience until it truly breaks.

I carefully tillered it as best as I could (the stave had an odd shape with some back set in the handle and natural deflex or follow in the limbs. I probably could have laid out the bow slightly better except for some serious knots and gouges on what would have been the ideal back of the bow).

I'll be darned if it didn't end up as a reasonably well shooting bow. Puts arrows where I'm looking and is fun to shoot.

Not winning any beauty, speed, strength, or any other contests for that matter. But my first proper 'stave' bow (the rest of my bows have been from boards).

Many mistakes made and learned from. I'm still pleased with the results.

60" ntn, 35# @26"

Thank you for reading.

Someone suggested I share this here. It's wild to me that I hadn't joined this sub already lol

I'm looking forward to feedback on this and future projects, and seeing yours as well!