Ozbow

In my heat box the thermostat is a $5 temp-triggered circuit breaker. Not a fancy device at all. I got it from Jaycar and the shop had a range of these from I think 30 degrees up to 70. My insulated heat box has a phase of 3-5 degrees between max and min temperatures. If you wired one of these into ...

I found a thermostat controller that may make the heat strip option more viable. I am going to order one with my set of 240V 50 mm heat strips and give it a go. The one issue I see here is that it has no power level control, it is probably only On or Off, so it will apply full power until the set t...

Hi folks, I recently got some new templates cut for use on my courses. I got some whole-limb templates for the weekend, longbow course, and some handle-only templates for the one-day pyramid bow course. Just for fun, I had a play around in CAD with a handle design that would bring the displacement o...

Adding an even layer of horn in the hopes it will evenly raise the draw force might lead you down a frustrating path, unless the limb is already a consistent thickness. If the horn is truly a consistent thickness, and is added to a tapered belly/stave, then it will be proportionately thicker out at ...

Hello again, This is not the same bow as that in the other recent thread about recovering from a lifted splinter. This's another one. White Oak on Ironbark. Glued with only 1" reflex, which ends up dead straight after shooting. 66" ntn, 68" ttt. 2" wide at the fades, 47 lb at 28&...

Good morning, Following is an account of how sometimes you can recover a bow from what may seem like a failed project. You just have to remember that if you keep your plans flexible, there're a lot of options available to the wood bowyer. A few weeks ago I glued up a lamination o White Oak (WO) on a...

Would you happen to be a cooper, or otherwise work in the viticulture industry? Even a 75 mm splice should be enough, gaining you a couple of extra inches of bow length. Your other option would be to make a takedown in which the two limbs butt up against each other in the handle sleeve, meaning you ...

Was the second splinter in the same place on the opposite limb?

That bow's really impressive, and unique to boot!

Despite the little set back with the twist, it seems to have worked really well. Do you have a chronograph?

Nice bow Nezwin. The 'movie bow' comment was intended as a compliment so I'm glad you took it as such. Pity about the splinter. Hopefully gluing it down does the trick. Like Colin, I'd say a little more bend in the outer half would be good. I had a bow with a splinter on the back. I glued it down bu...

Thank you everybody for your prompt responses.

I wish I could get arrows from all of you - I'm sure they'd all be fine examples.

I have made contact with a vendor that has agreed to help me out. Stay tuned, I'll post pictures of my new box of ammo when it arrives.

Cheers,

Dave

Hi all, I'm after a new big box of ammo. Specifically, wood shafts, target points, feather fletches (real or fake, just not solid vanes; for shooting off the hand). I have a box of components, but don't have the time on my hands to assemble them right now. These arrows are for use by students on my ...

In the '30s (might have been the '40s) Dr. Hickman, of Archery: The Technical Side proposed a theoretical bow in which the limbs were so heavily reflexed that at full draw they were unwound to a straight alignment. This looks much like the hypothesis proposed by Hickman. Great stuff! I'm very keen t...

When I make my wood bows (single stave backed with bamboo or timber) I use Smooth On EA-40. I can't fault it. It is easy to mix, has a long pot life, spreads well, isn't too runny, cures in a couple of hours with heat or in 24 without. It bonds exceptionally well, and it doesn't smell too heinous. I...

I think the beauty of Elm is that for its density, it has above average tension strength. This does not necessarily mean it would make a good backing for, say, ironbark, but compared to Elm's strength in compression, its tension strength is very high. What this means is that the bow can be made with...

I'm a little bit ashamed t say I've done almost nothing with almost anything. The Lemonwood sits as beams, the CTP slightly less so. However I did last week get a new bandsaw. The throat is big enough to fit the body of my old bandsaw through it without touching the blade, and the motor is three tim...

I am indeed.

I brought a few select board back from Tassie with me and gave one to Nezwin.

Here on the mainland CTP is a rare, exotic timber. Down in Huonville where it's milled, it's sold almost as cheap as pine as decking.

One of the great benefits to making bows from cypress is the wonderful smell when carving it. And compared to the likes of Ironbark and Spotted gum, it is almost buttery under a bladed tool.

Good work on the bow Nezwin.

Going to try some of that CTP sometime soon?

In a word: no. In a short paragraph: Australian Oak is a trade name applied to a whole bunch of different species that are fairly indiscriminately logged, milled and sold together. The result of this is the timber you buy is wildly inconsistent from board to board, even if at first they look the sam...

Perry,

Completely off topic, but have you tried the good old Dunlop volleys? They're pretty flat. The next step down/up from that would be to try vibrams. They barely even exist on your fit when you're wearing them and yet they are considered 'shoes'.

It's been doing the rounds in the news: Masters will soon be no more. Apparently the competition from Bunnings was too steep, and Woolworths Group has decided to pull the pin. For us makers of selfbows, the real-world effect of this is an extremely short half-life on the availability of Red Oak. So ...

Congratulations on getting the bow bending as far as that. Not long to go now. If I might lend a little advice: The outer 1/3 of the limbs are dramatically over stressed. I imagine you've tried to follow a shape of a little bend near the handle, progressing to more bend in the tips. To a degree this...

For such a shot bow, four inches shorter is an enormous proportion. This might give a six or more inch brace height. When I'm tillering, I progressively shorten the tiller string until I get the bow to brace height. Then I can use the tiller string as a template for the exact length I need to make t...

Your effort is not wasted: persevere and you'll get a shooter out of this one. Don't fret about the variable thickness of the bamboo. It will all work out in the wash. About 2 inches past the flare, you'll want your limb to be about 15 mm thick, and perhaps 12 at the tips. You've got quite a bit of ...

Happy ending: Perhaps happy progress is more apt. Anyway. We cut it in twain. Twice. So this big beast of a log is now in four, each one will have at least one bow in it, though the lengths of these four will vary quite a bit. 'twas a terrific adventure, each of the five of us considering how best t...

Fortunately, I do have a circular saw, so if you want to wait a few days, we can all gather round and watch while you do all the work!

How long are the branches after the fork?

I think no matter how you go about it, splitting near the fork is going to be.....er......an handful.

I would shorten the tillering string. Short enough that you need to stretch it a little to get it into the nocks. This will change the leverage and the bent shape will be closer to what you would expect with a final string.

If this is your first, or even your fifth bow, I strongly recommend against worrying about the mass of the bow. As a beginner, there are already a lot of variables to keep across: - Right draw force - Right draw length - Right tiller shape - Not breaking it If you then add in the variable of trying ...

It's the end of a short era.

My own practice mirrors Colin's.

There's no reason your tillering nocks have to be anything separate from your final nocks.