Short hickory board self bow Pt.1 - board selection and layout

Sometimes you just don’t have that perfect board or stave to make the optimal design for your bow. In these instances, we have to go to our playbook of design aspects that will throw the odds in our favor as we accept the challenge. This is just the very beginning of the build and I’m not sure where it will go as we move forward - there are just so many tricks up my sleeve and the intent is to not have to use too many!
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[@eliford2258]

I just built a bow out of the best hickory board I’ve ever seen i reflexed it and it’s kept 2 inches of reflex with burned belly.

[@bienyamientoefy1923]

greetings to you sir and everyone.thank you for our next lesson of bow building mr.pettit.looking forward to all lessons of your bow building master craftmanship sir :).i enjoy it thouroughly

[@charlesdavis9937]

I made an English longbow from hickory. It is 72" long, 44# @ 28" draw. Handle is 1" wide.

[@Hopeknives13]

Thank you for this 👍🏼

[@knolltop314]

Challenging yourself ... AGAIN!

[@tomwarrick4945]

Should be a “gooder goodun”

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

I just noticed in your playlist for this bow.. you have the episodes in reverse order. can you fix that for us?

[@meadowlarkadventuregear]

Eh… I’m way better at building bows, than operating on KZbin - and that’s not saying a lot lol! I’ll see what I can do to fix that.

[@bienyamientoefy1923]

yes please sir,show us how you to go about making a bow from those staves.although i made a few bows already of the wood i use in south africa,i know i am going to learn much more by you.thank you sir :) :)

[@StefanCoertzen]

Good day, If you don't mind me asking. What wood, trees, boards do you use in SA?

[@bienyamientoefy1923]

@@StefanCoertzen greetings sir.i apologise for only seeing your question now.there is a fantastic type of wood i made a few bows from.we name it black wattle.its very hard yet very flexible and beautifull.reminds me of eauropean ash.all other woods are also available in south africa cape town,like ipe,eauropean ash.hickory,balau and maple.

[@StefanCoertzen]

@@bienyamientoefy1923 I have tonnes of black wattle I can use. I will experiment with it a little bit thanks 👍🏼

[@bienyamientoefy1923]

i see some strong bow staffs on your working table sir.

[@meadowlarkadventuregear]

Yes… those are a couple of ash tree logs. Hopefully I can make a go out one of the staves.

[@nomadicneanderthal1377]

Do you think it would be possible to reintroduce a back set in a bow i built with a fiberglass tape backing that i built a few years ago? I got a bit overzealous in bending it during tillering and it took a set. Im just not sure if heat treating would help it or not

[@meadowlarkadventuregear]

What harm could it do to try..? If you're not happy with the way the bow is now - you'll never reconcile its shortcomings. If you attempt to rehab it through various repair methods (like heat treating) and fail, you've essentially lost nothing and gained closure on a bow that you would have never been happy with in the first place. Either way you gain the experience of attempting the repair for reference on future builds. No matter the outcome, you come out ahead. I've done some wild repairs on bows featured on this channel - the one you're proposing seems like a straight forward, high-percentage possibility. If it were me, I'd do it with no reservation and expect to be shooting the bow again before week's end. Good luck!

[@nomadicneanderthal1377]

@@meadowlarkadventuregear I appreciate the clear and concise reasoning. It was my first one but that makes complete sense. Thank you