My first two bows

First and second attempts at bow making with green wood !!!

After watching many videos on You tube, i watched several really informative videos by a guy called Malc (johnjayrambo11111) and really learned from them (cheers mate) :) and i knew that i had to try and make a bow using Hazel i used green wood to start just so i could get shaping the wood and finding out how the mechanics of bow making works. Choosing the stave was really easy as the woodland i use is surrounded by Hazel coppice's (a real bonus!!) but i have yet to learn what makes a good stave from a bad stave.

I started by looking for a bow stave about the right size for a long bow and started to carve the rough shape with my axe this wasn't as easy as i thought and after i finished both ends i realised that the bow was quite twisted bit not too much but this was ok i tested the bow with a simple hazel arrow fleched with wood pigeon feathers the arrow flew about 50 yards WOW i was really chuffed but after further inspection i had taken more wood off a small part of one of the limbs causing an uneven bend......(this first bow had a draw weight of 36 pounds at 24")

Second try......

I wanted to try and make a flat bow (not sure what the correct name for this type of bow is) with a much thicker stave again carved a rough shape of the bow and carved the finer parts with my knife and started to string up to see if there were any stiff or bendy part i had learnt from my first go and left this bow much thicker and it was too stiff to even pull but after much careful carving i had achieved a reasonable draw weight of 67 pounds at 24" (i checked when i got home) this bow shot the same arrow 60 to 70 yards....

I finished this bow at home with a rasp and sandpaper and a light coat of linseed oil.

i really enjoyed making these two bows and will continue to make more and more differing each one until i run out of ideas.

(in piccys the bow on the left is the second and first on the right)

cheers Malc for the videos !!!!

see you out there Paul.......