Finishes for Wooden Bows

[@vance7274]

Have only built one, but very happy with it. Laminated hickory 70" longbow that I approximate to be 40 pounds at 28". No shelf (off the knuckle shooter). I finished it with a small piece of beeswax melted into boiled linseed oil x three "rub-ins" and a final coat buffed out with a soft cloth... Still looks great after three years. Stained with a tincture of crushed walnut husks harvested from my yard and Everclear 190 grain alcohol stored in a Mason jar for several months. Getting ready to build another longbow. Yes, it's addictive. You, Sir, are an inspiring instructor. Your knowledge and genteel approach is appreciated by all!

[@DanSantanaBows]

Thanks Vance. Great tips!

[@mpethybridge]

One nitpick: you said tung oil provides ok moisture resistance. Properly applied, tung oil completely waterproofs wood it is used on. Tung oil first saw widespread, nearly industrial use, circa 500 A.D. as the waterproofing ginish applied to Chinese warships. The problem is that properly using tung oil (or any drying oil) is a never ending process. In furniture making circles, the recommended finishing schedule is once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, and then once a year. And that's for furniture relaxing in your home office. For a hardworking bow (or wooden naval vessel), more frequent application would definitely be necessary. Because it is a never ending process, it really makes you question calling it a "finish." But it is my second favorite finish behind shellac, which is the king of all finishes. Love your videos. You got me into bows from furniture making. Cheers!

[@christophertracey7201]

Didn't even think of uses super glue for a finish. Another awesome vid

[@SwiftEMC]

Hi Dan. I recently completed an ash mollegabet and it’s my 1st bow that fires well over 100 times so far. Your videos have helped me massively with my love for this new hobby

[@DanSantanaBows]

Congrats Swift that is awesome! Any plans for the next one?

[@SwiftEMC]

@@DanSantanaBows I found a hardwood merchant recently who had a lovely slab of English Yew. Only 2” at its thickest but over 8ft so I’m thinking an English longbow. My molly was 25lbs and I’m thinking of trying to get 50-60 with the upcoming yew bow.

[@GrassyManifesto]

Grats mate 😄

[@stevew2347]

Beautiful looking bows Dan. I usually use the process Weylin describes in his video to knock down the gloss from tru oil. It's a little extra work but well worth it.

[@charlesowens4864]

I love your channel Dan! I could watch them all day. You have a great delivery

[@samfulks4896]

Thank you for every moment you share

[@hartmutkleinjung9399]

Good Overview. Thanks. For my first bows I used Tungoil combined with a little bit orangeoil vor a good smell. Then I switched to AURO hardoil. It contains some shellac and more ingredients. Smell ist ok. It can be wiped on as a thin layer and gives a glossy finish.

[@cloudyfanning328]

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I would love to take one of your classes if you are still teaching

[@PNWWoodcraft]

Love watching all the videos you put out even the really simple one like this. I hope to one day gain enough knowledge to be able to talk in my videos lol. 👍

[@Gauchooriental]

Really nice review!!!

[@hellsingvain7502]

If you got patience and some extra room. I highly recommend chinese raw lacquer. It's the raw lacquer harvested from Chinese lacquer tree. widely used in high end eastern bows. It gives an amazing finish. but you need a special room with correct temperature and humidity for it to cure. you may have some allergy （not lethal but really annoying）so don't forget to wear protection. the finish is reallly stunning, making all these trouble worthwhile.

[@DanSantanaBows]

Is this the same as urushi? I have been meaning to try it but i am vigorously allergic to poison ivy

[@hellsingvain7502]

@@DanSantanaBows basically they are the same stuff.the plant and posion ivy are both in Anacardiaceae family. you can buy a little raw lacquer and have a try(maybe make a spoon). mild itches(sometimes terrible itches)are pretty common. allergy is the step you must take if you want to learn the skill. only a few people is born with immunity for this , most build it up suffer itches. however, if the symptoms are really severe , you should stop.

[@Gregory-qu1ct]

Very informative video

[@Schechsi_handcraft]

Do you have any issues with wood stretch and compression causing glossy finishes to crack? What about using hard finishes like CA or Schellack on areas with compression fractures? Thank you very much for sharing your outstanding content!🤩

[@DanSantanaBows]

Hasn’t been an issue I’ve seen unless you do way too many coats. Finish won’t really help or hurt the compression fractures

[@HAZARDSQUADBOYS]

Hell yeah, another classic

[@waruikazi]

Bra, why you had to put the bow gods' evil on me!?

[@manuelwebe]

Great info. What about fire-hardened bows? Does the finish or type of finishing interfere with the moisture resistance, durability, wood hardening or other advantages of fire-hardened bows? Thanks for sharing.

[@DanSantanaBows]

I don’t think heat treating changes anything here, even a deep heat treat like fire hardening

[@manuelwebe]

@@DanSantanaBows thanks for your answer, but I was wondering the other way around: if applying any kind of finish (oil, wax, other) would hinder the properties gained on fire-hardened wood?

[@DanSantanaBows]

@@manuelwebe not at all as far as I can tell

[@brtg59]

👌👌

[@Jordan_Makes]

Would it be okay to stain, add oil, then add shellac?

[@DanSantanaBows]

@@Jordan_Makes As long as the oil doesn’t make the stain run. Test it out on a test piece. The shellac will still stick

[@Xizario2]

I really can't comprehend how price is the factor for the hi-end products. For example "Timmer wood oil" that contains tung oil, bee vax and synthetics and dyes cost 10 bucks per liter is enough for lifetime of bow making. It is way cheaper than olive oil or "food grade tung/lineseed" oils and way way cheaper than walnut oil.

[@Misael.8966]

Have you ever used tung oil as a finish to seal a selfbow? If so, how did it perform compared to other finishes?

[@DanSantanaBows]

It’s about like the other drying oils

[@12ernie]

I like the dark brown look,what stain or color would i use? Your bows look great!

[@DanSantanaBows]

@@12ernie Leather dye. see the board bow tutorial for an example

[@12ernie]

@ Thank you!

[@raoullf]

Could you tell me, how immersing a walking cane in mineral oil for 48 hours will affect a linseed oil final finish? Master Cane Designer Keith Melton said they do this for their canes before the finishing with several layers of "tongue" oil, but I'm sure there's a catch! How could I prevent it from going sticky (I would use "boiled" linseed oil rather than tung oil).

[@DanSantanaBows]

@@raoullf Tung oil is a drying oil. It forms a polymerized finish like linseed oil. Mineral oil will just stay oily. Personally my favorite pore sealer is thin shellac since it makes the bow sand much cleaner

[@BubuH-cq6km]

I 💘your 🍄 hanging on the peg board 😎 👍

[@lenacar3881]

Hey, I work at an outdoor gear company. Would you be interested in doing a video review of our archery targets? Sorry for any inconvenience.🥰

[@DanSantanaBows]

I’d be happy to talk about it. Send me an email with details at [e-mail]

[@lenacar3881]

@@DanSantanaBows Hi, I have already sent it. There is a chance it might have ended up in your spam folder. If you have time, please check it. Thx so much.

[@jill-ti7oe]

😄👍

[@yfelwulf]

Conservation of waterlogged Marine timbers. Using Acetone to replace water by submersion mixed with PEG poly ethelyne glycol safe used in foods and medical products or linseed oil sometimes Rosin. Potential permanent methods to dry and infuse wood. Scientific papers available.

[@DanSantanaBows]

I’ve read a couple of those. Seems promising, but i’m not sure if the advantages scale well to bow sized objects. Bow blanks quick dry easily so i’m not sure there is a need. Bigger pieces of wood that are not possible to quick dry warrant more expensive methods

[@yfelwulf]

@@DanSantanaBows I was thinking of a permanent deep infusion a wax or drying coating would still be needed its mainly long term stable inner wood that wipe ons can't achieve. Just my 2 cents

[@DanSantanaBows]

@@yfelwulf Could be. The added mass is the biggest limitation. These methods can give you a trade off, but they don’t just improve the wood across the board. Epoxy coatings are completely waterproof, but also very heavy