Ozbow

Welcome to Ozbow mate!

Can you post a photo of the board you have so we can assess what you're working with?

Colin

Just my 2 sense on the bamboo flooring debate. I'm all for beginners getting into making bows without breaking the bank of expensive staves from overseas and using somewhat forgiving materials to make them that are readily available. However, I don't approve of beginners making SELF (key word) bows ...

Hi Jake,

I make English warbows in those weights fairly frequently. (currently working on a 130lb bow).

I think you'll be hard pressed to get something in those kind of weights for $300 tho.

What style of shooting will you be doing with the bow?

Colin

Try Tradbits for 5" shield cuts...

None that I know of up your way mate, most is in NSW that I'm aware of anyway. I have bought a stave from a bloke on Ebay and its exactly what was pictured and a pretty decent stave, though I agree the dollar is garbage at the moment. My stave ran me $220 to get it over here but arrived in 2 weeks, ...

I will have to see whats happening work wise at that time but I should be floating around I'd say

G'day mate and welcome! Plenty of us bowmakers here in SE QLD. Myself, Perry, Bigbob and Greybeard (profile names) to name a few. Is there a particular style of longbow that you most like? I would suggest you swing Perry a pm and have a chat with him. He is a top guy with a world of experience and p...

Always used red and white or black personally... tends to be easier to find if I should miss

Thanks Perry, There are others I've done that aren't up on here :wink: had a few orders from around the place that are keeping me busy. I let Warwick finish the bow and told him to be as thorough as he liked... He got most of them but I wouldn't have stopped quite so soon. He's more focused on funct...

Something else to add to your list...

I've always found that the best hunters know when NOT to take a shot and well as when they should.

Thanks Daryl! Yes it was very easy to tiller. Had it shooting in 20 mins after I started though I did get it even before I put the backing on but that would have been another 10mins tops. Being such a small amount of bending limb they tiller very quickly. I set it out to be 66ntn originally but ende...

Morning all, Just wanted to show off a bow I made this week. Mate of mine is very taken with the Danish Holemgaard bow and asked if it would be possible to make him a heavy-ish one for hunting. "No worries" was my reply :biggrin: Bow is a hickory back, massaranduba belly with lemonwood and...

Thanks Hamish!

Yes it throws an arrow quite well for a 30lb bow I think. Beautiful and smooth in the hand as well.

Just some nocks cut in the side should do fine for tillering, just don't make the loops in the strings too big and they wont slip. You could even just add the overlays and leave them rough for the time being.

Similar properties Daryl but wont go as heavy as Yew looking at the crushing strength and MoR, However, I think it would make a bow of medium weight just fine. The only way to see just what it would do in bows would be make a big one and see. So, I'll head in to that Cypress dealer in Caboolture (wi...

Thanks guys.

Daryl I will have to look them up and see what they have for another bow in a heavier weight.

Afternoon all, Just wanted to share a quick one I made as an experiment. Couple weeks back Neil (Nezwin) dropped by for a chat while he was up this way and brought me a few boards of Cypress to have a play around with. Knowing that I make a fair few ELB's and he hadn't made any he suggested I might ...

That will go 70-80lbs, maybe more, at those thicknesses, but you have plenty of timber to work will when you are tillering. My 65lb recurve that's all timber with a bamboo back went from 13-11mm in the working limb if I remember correctly. Make your fades very long and shallow to start with so they ...

Yea Indie, you can get away with wavy grain if you are boo or hickory backing it. I've backed some atrocious pieces and had them work just fine. Straight is always better but a little bit of character doesn't matter if its backed.

Thanks mate, I managed to actually shoot it today and Sh#t its got some go!! Fret didn't get worse either so I'll just add it to the collection and maybe set some Aus records with it yet :biggrin: This was taken from a video I got of it in action. full draw, 31.5 inch arrow.jpg Definitely a freak of...

Think I had put around 10 hours work into it so far...

I probably could cut them off and re use them but I think i'll just shoot it to death when I can shoot them again... the fret is tiny and wont do anything to the bow I don't think.

Buy yourself a $40 Ozito belt sander from bunnings and stick it in a vice upside down... that's how I do mine, or get a drawknife, they work a treat as well.

Your next step will be to trace the bows template onto the flat side of the bamboo as they will be glued. Once you have the template marked out cut it out of the bamboo and continue to thin the now thick edge down to about 1/16th of an inch all the way around. This will in effect taper out the bambo...

B#%st@#d fretted on me on the last weight check on the tiller after finishing!!! Tiny knot in the lower limb that was behaving just fine previously decided that it wanted to go on me today after I put finish coats on the bow. Fret is only tiny and has no effect on the shot at all but still unsalable...

Thickness of the limb depends on the design of the bow, ie. flatbow, English longbow etc and the weight you are after with it. Looking at the numbers you gave I'm guessing its a flatbow? Yes the backing is glued on prior to tillering because the addition of an uneven thickness will change the stiffn...

Bit of a snake in it there but as long as the tips and handle are in a straight line she should be right

Glad I spurred you on with the boo backings mate! Looking forward to seeing your first crack at a boo backed ELB with that template we spoke about

Colin

Which limb is bottom? Looking at it I would suggest using left as bottom and it should time nicely with a shelf cut half inch to 1 inch above centre. Might need a few scrapes at most where the guys have already suggested. Nice to see you banging them out tho mate! I'll have to up my game soon :biggr...

I've used (and still do) fast flight strings on red oak bows with a nice hardwood tip overlay. An off cut of spotty, merbau, ironbark etc will all work just fine with fast flight/Dynaflight/D97. Trick is to pack your loops with a few extra strands (I usually use 4) to thicken them up a little bit. D...

Dave will be able to give you a better idea on a good thickness to start the limbs at but for a 19mm thick board you will reduce the thickness from the handle side of the fades to a thickness on the tip side, maybe 10-12mm or so for 40lbs, again Dave will hopefully give you a good figure here. This ...

I think if you are making unbacked bows from boards, particularly shorter ones 68"ntn and less you should expect some set. For that reason and to better improve performance i always back the lemonwood i use that comes from boards. I think self bows should always come from split staves for best ...