# My First Selfbow (BUILDaLONG)



## Varik (Jan 11, 2008)

You take a compound bow shooter, with mediocre recurve shooting ability, with a huge urge to make his own longbow. Only problem is, I have no woodworking skills or experience. This IS my first bow. I have seen my mom's fiance make his first bow, but it didn't turn out, and it was a board bow. So, here we go.

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So, I take a walk up the hill, to try and a suitable tree or limb. I figure it needs to be a small tree, because I am not using power tools, and it is much easier to bring down. So, I see a skinny little tree, about 9 feet tall, that I figure looks suitable for a bow. Keep in mind I have no skill at all, so I don't know what type of wood it is. I could tell it wasn't hickory, that's about it.










So, I take my handsaw, that my girlfriend so graciously bought me for valentines day, and cut it down, and roughly to length.


















Then I carried it back home, and started on the rest. I used a hammer and an old hatchet to split the wood in half. It sounds like an easy job, but you have to make sure that you are splitting it even and straight, and it takes a while, or at least it did for me. I occasionally used a crowbar to help split in places that the hammer couldn't reach the hatchet.










After the tedious task of splitting the wood, I am left with two crooked staves. I picked the wider and straigher of the two to continue on with. So, with a draw knife, I slowly peeled of the bark.










Once the bark was off, I have a crooked raggy-tag crappy looking stave.
I next put it behind my old woodstove in an attempt to rapidly season it. I will start with the tapering in a few weeks. Here is my stave.










I will continue when seasoning is done.


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

Hmm. Looks like a generic whitewood. The fact it doesn't want to split should hint that it will hold (be good in tension). Keep it up! 

Oh, and by "drawknife" do you mean the one pictured, or an actual two handled drawknife?


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## blainep (Oct 16, 2006)

Thats legit man, I'd love to do that someday, dunno if i'd have the patience though.


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

blainep said:


> Thats legit man, I'd love to do that someday, dunno if i'd have the patience though.


Try it with a board. It takes a couple hours at most. It's quite easy:wink:.


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## obert (Jun 20, 2007)

This is great. Would love to try this myself.


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

obert said:


> This is great. Would love to try this myself.


There are a few build alongs on the selfbow thread.


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## No.1 Hoyt (Mar 11, 2007)

kegan said:


> Try it with a board. It takes a couple hours at most. It's quite easy:wink:.


unless your like me who adds risers and the whole 9 yards and only works on it a litlle at a time


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## Varik (Jan 11, 2008)

Thanks for the comments guys.

Oh, and Kegan, I used both knives at different times on the bark, the two handled drawknife didn't work as well as i had hoped. It's old and rusty. ^_^


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## Varik (Jan 11, 2008)

I had to cancel this bow. The wood twisted during seasoning, and the grain was not suitable for a bow.

I tried to bend it, and it had vicious cracking noises. 

x.x


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

Varik said:


> I had to cancel this bow. The wood twisted during seasoning, and the grain was not suitable for a bow.
> 
> I tried to bend it, and it had vicious cracking noises.
> 
> x.x


Get a book on trees from your local library. Look up oak (the specific type doesn't matter- they all work superbly) and hickory (likewise- the entrire family works well). Both are pretty easy to identify and make excellents bows (no cracking:wink. Oak is especially easy to work and, once reduced to bow size it should dry in about two weeks to acceptible "bow-dryness". 

KNowing what wood you are using really helps the process.


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## Varik (Jan 11, 2008)

I'm starting a new one today.

I think it is oak. Pretty sure. It's as straight as a pencil. ^_^

I'm going to start splitting it now. Any tips?


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

Go slow, and reduce it to the the roughed out bow soon after splitting.


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## b18intega (Nov 25, 2007)

any updates on the bow


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## Varik (Jan 11, 2008)

I hurt my finger while splitting on that day, I have yet to finish splitting, I haven't had much time recently. Thanks for staying tuned in.


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## b18intega (Nov 25, 2007)

let your mom kiss it and get back to work


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## No.1 Hoyt (Mar 11, 2007)

i cut myself bad roughing out a bow for my cousin with a hachet. i nearly cut i big flap of skin off my thumb


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## b18intega (Nov 25, 2007)

i sliced a chunk of flesh off my nuckle with a box cutter


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

I've cut my hands, arms, fingers, and even feet more times than I can count. Neosporin and Band-Aid should pay me for endorsing by now. I usually just stop the bleeding and get back to work:wink:.


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## BigBuckStinger (Dec 9, 2007)

*bad cut*

i cut my figer by bad one day::wink:


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## armyboy (Jul 10, 2007)

i have messing my self up!!!!!! got cut in the hand had like 20 stiches, stabbed in the arm by rusty sheers,( very sharp, big sizzers), split my head to the scoll twice, had a pichforck go in and out of my foot............


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

armyboy said:


> i have messing my self up!!!!!! got cut in the hand had like 20 stiches, stabbed in the arm by rusty sheers,( very sharp, big sizzers), split my head to the scoll twice, had a pichforck go in and out of my foot............


That gets you one of two things... really good at first aid, or on a firswt name basis with the doctors.


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## No.1 Hoyt (Mar 11, 2007)

when ever i cut myself knapping an arrow head and had to get stitches when they asked me why i was in there when i said knapping no one knew what it was. lol


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## armyboy (Jul 10, 2007)

kegan said:


> That gets you one of two things... really good at first aid, or on a firswt name basis with the doctors.


good with first aid! i think i take after my brother.....he's a full time medic:wink::wink:


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

Fun Medicine man cure (one of many). The inner bark of oak trees, dried and crushed into a powder makes an excellent styptic (stops bleeding), anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal medicine because of the tanins. Several other trees have this property as well. I believe elm and willow. Maple works well on cuts. Elm, maple, and willow can all be eaten too. Though willow should be dried into a flour, as it can be bitter.


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## armyboy (Jul 10, 2007)

kegan said:


> Fun Medicine man cure (one of many). The inner bark of oak trees, dried and crushed into a powder makes an excellent styptic (stops bleeding), anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal medicine because of the tanins. Several other trees have this property as well. I believe elm and willow. Maple works well on cuts. Elm, maple, and willow can all be eaten too. Though willow should be dried into a flour, as it can be bitter.


thanks i'll try to remember that next time!


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

armyboy said:


> thanks i'll try to remember that next time!


I've used it many times. Especially when camping and don't have any modern anti-septics and band-aids.


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## b18intega (Nov 25, 2007)

so hows that bow goin???? hurry up and make it


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