#selfbows

Latest episode is up. Blayne is a super guy and he makes nice trad arrows too. We had a good visit and talked a fair bit about the unusual place he lives and his archery business. . . #traditionalbowhunting #traditionalarchery #woodarrows #selfbows #yewbow #recurve #traditionalbowhunter #stumpstalkerarchery #traditionalbowhuntersofbritishcolumbia #bowhunting #bowhuntingcanada🇨🇦 #foodafieldpodcast #fletcher #arrowmaking (at Haida Gwaii) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP8qOjIrHzS/?utm_medium=tumblr

Here I'm heat treating the belly with a heat gun. The trick is to get it about 160 degrees. Too hot and you just toast the wood cells. Just right and you can increase the com poi ressive strength if the bow significantly. This adds a bit of draw weight but more importantly helps prevent "set" . Set is the tendency of a bow to permanently take on the curve of the bow when strung. #longbow #primitivearchery #traditionalarchery #archery #selfbows #woodworking

I decided to go ahead and steam straighten the tips of my bow just a bit. The idea is that the string should pass directly over the center of the handle. You can see where I marked the arc where the limb needs correcting. My steamer is just a hot plate and a towel that goes over a metal container where I boil water. It only needs about 5 minutes over the water or so for minor corrections and I just use my leg to bend it into place for 3 to 5 minutes after. Major corrections take much longer and require clamping to a form. Old time bowyers often used a fork in a tree trunk for a bending tool 😊 You can see in the last pic that my string alignment is now perfect! #bowyer #longbow #archery #selfbows #traditionalarchery #deadlystick #primitivearchery

These next 2 pics show the profile and the belly side of the bow at the handle. I'm going to have a bit of a bend in the handle to get as much of a working limb as possible since this will be a shortish bow and have as much draw weight as I can get out of the narrow profile sapling I started with. I left on some of the brownish inner bark. I find it helps with keeping track of where I've removed wood as well as making it easier to photograph. #bowyer #selfbows #archery #selfbows #traditionalarchery #deadlystick #primitivearchery #longbow

I'm back to working on my vine maple bow. Here I'm using a knife as a scraper to even out the belly and the decrowned back of the bow. Once the thickneses are even and smoothly following the wood grain, I'll be ready to start tillering using a long string and flexing the bow just enough to see the curves. Almost and straight edged steel tool will work as a acraper. I just had this old knife laying around 😊 #bowyer #archery #selfbows #traditionalarchery #deadlystick #primitivearchery

Ive got my vine maple stave roughed out to close to its final profile. It's a little over 1 1/4 inches at its widest dimension 5/8 ths at the nocks and 64 inches long. I want to end up with a #50 weight at a 27 inch draw length. This would be adequate for hunting large game. This will be pushing this wood to its limits but I'm hoping that my experiment of using a smaller diameter sapling will work because this high quality bow wood is easy to find in straight knot free lengths and would be ideal for teaching others how to make their own! #bowyer #longbow #archery #selfbows #traditionalarchery #deadlystick #primitivearchery

Here's a profile view of the handle section of my maple bow showing the fades. I've decrowned the back and taken off 90% of the belly wood so the limb thickness is about 3/4 of an inch. It's now ready to begin the tillering process. But since this wood was a tree 3 days ago I need to let it dry before bending it or it will take a huge "set". Removing as much wood as possible drastically speeds up the process and is possible with "white" woods such as maple, other woods might check (small splits) if not fully seasoned before working.Now I'm going to clamp it to rigid structure (to prevent twisting)it should be ready in about a week. When I clamp it I'm also going to bend it backwards (recurve) a bit. This will also help prevent a set in the limbs as I begin the bending and final shaping (tillering). #archery #selfbows #traditionalarchery #bowyer #longbow #deadlystick

A vine maple sapling I'm going to make into a bow. We get some great high density vine maple here in the NW but much of it is very small in diameter. #traditionalarchery #bowyer #selfbows