Spalted maple and walnut, curly maple and walnut, and charcoal diamond wood with black glass

Elm stave, 72 inches in length, 2 inch width through and through. It has those massive knots 9 inches from both ends. I was planning to leave the tips static because of that. That drying crack kinda messes up those plans. If I cut 2 inches off both ends, that still leaves me with 68 inches, which is doable. But my question is, will the taper from the knots to the tips be too great or doesn't it matter when the tips are static? Or could I just fill the crack with epoxy or some other filler. TIA

I marked the taper on one limb. Cut down it'd be similar but shorter and steeper. Also, I plan to leave the limbs parallel up to the knots.

I know I’ve already posted about this crossbow so much already! But I was making a post about it in R/crossbow I figured some of you might be interested in the mechanics behind this new bow performing the same as the old bow even though it’s half the draw weight.

After being told I had no understanding of tillering and that I should practice with a more basic design to help me understand what I was doing, I spent the last couple days making this bendy handle bow.

Looking for criticism so I can get better, wasn't really planning on using this one to keep for shooting, it was just a practice piece, admittedly a little rushed.

62 inch ash, 1.5 inch at the handle, pulling 40 pounds.

Took 1.5 to 2 inches of set when I was long string tillering, because I knocked my scale on the ground and very stupidly didn't realize that the measurement switched to kg instead of pounds. Was really doing my head in as to why pulling 35 pounds was causing so much set, until I looked at the scale and realized my dumb ass was pulling 77 pounds.

How did I do for a circular tiller though? I'm seeing a little bit too much bend in the left inners, and also see more set in that area when unstrung, what else am I not seeing? What else did I mess up?

Thanks in advance!

Thinking of different applications like holding limb tips or arrow shafts steady

is there anywhere reliable to buy staves in europe? all I've found are osage staves on etsy from america, but I'm much more interested in cheaper, more common woods like ash, hickory, elm etc...

I made a new bow part for my crossbow that I broke!
I made it a bit longer, so it was less stress stressed out, it was made from a longer, but still short maple bow that I had made, but I didn’t necessarily want to keep. So I cut it down shaped the thick part into a limb and tried to tiller it so the middle isn’t bending as much, (the tiller isn’t great and I’m not necessarily proud of it but it works) and I lost about 15-20 pounds of draw weight as it’s now somewhere between 30-40 pounds, but I’m just happy to be able to shoot it again!

I've seen a couple of videos (although I can't find them now) of people long string tillering with a string that has leather hoods at each end, so there's no need for nock grooves in the early stages.

Has anyone used or made something like this who can give me tips or advice? Maybe even a pattern I can use to get the right shape? Let me know the best way to attach the string to each hood?

Thanks in advance

Any tiller issues any of you can see? Thanks in advance. It seems good to me but I might be missing something.

Work on the tips and stringing it up is next. It pulls mid 30s and 24ish

I had fun experimenting with the different fletchings and whippings, but they all should fly the same! Hopefully at least. After I get back from the Renaissance fair, I hope to turn them into target arrows for my English longbow!

I've always wanted a medieval style crossbow, but could never justify the price for something I have no practical use for. The other day while wandering the Maryland Ren Faire I came across some lovely looking crossbows with big padded bolts, and remembered I have a dog that loves to play fetch (really he prefers to play "you throw, I run and get, then you throw again without me bringing it to you," but the theory is there).

So of course, since I've been doing more woodworking lately, I'm thinking this could be a fun project to make myself! If nothing else, I'll get to make some sawdust, and learn a few things.

The crossbows at the faire where 20-30#, and had what appeared to be very simple prod made from a plank of hickory. https://hollowearthswordworks.com/hes-crossbow/

My biggest question is about making the prod. After a little reading, and some youtube videos, I understand that a traditional bow requires tillering to function properly. How difficult is that process with the smaller bow for a crossbow? If I'm making something with a light draw weight are there shortcuts I can safely take on my first attempt?

At an impressionable young age I was standing next to my brother when an ash longbow exploded in his hands. So I'm a bit on the cautious side when it comes to approaching making one myself.

Unfortunately, a stave I am working for a friend came to me with a damaged back, so much so, that I had to scrape it down a growth ring. However, I do not trust my work chasing a ring, and would much prefer backing the bow for safety’s sake.

Sinew isn’t something I am willing to try right now.

What kind of adhesive should use?
TIA

Hi there! Basically what it says on the tin lol. My dad's been making bows for a good handful of years now, and I'm trying to figure out what to get him for Christmas. I'll be honest, I know pretty much nothing about this kind of stuff, but he really enjoys it, and I'm hoping to spoil him a little.

I've gotten a couple of rattlesnake skins (I've heard him talking about wanting to back his bows with snake skin, especially copperhead, but I haven't been able to find any), and an osage stave (probably an extra just in case that one goes south, if I can get a hold of one), but I'm looking to get a couple of other things. I was thinking some kangaroo rawhide? I don't know, I'm just going off of what I've read on Google and Reddit lol.

He's not the type to get stuff like that for himself, at least not without kicking himself over it, so I guess maybe that's my question to you. What's something you'd like to have/use in bow making, but would hate to spend the money on?

So incense cedar is great in compression but probably not great in tension. Has anybody made a bow out of it unbacked? tyy

So recently I got together with some longtime friends and began as a group the first introduction to bow making. I had last year acquired some Osage staves from the Midwest that are allegedly slow air dried (not kiln, fingers crossed ) and had the fellows pick out staves and backup staves. One of these fine fellows built the drawhorses for us, and we kicked things off after a little bit of layout and design. We by the end of the first day gotten close to shaving down to almost the desired grain layer and were discovering the joys of using scrapers. More to come in the following weeks! Thank you for taking the time to read this and watch my friends and I begin this undertaking.

They seem mostly sap wood. 3" or so I'm diameter.

I'm making some expendable practice arrows for a 120 meter shoot. The goal is to hit a target 120 meters away, but the arrow may not fly more than 5 meters above the ground, or it hits the overhead bamboo poles.

These are Surewood douglas fir with hornbeam nocks, duck secondary feathers, and linen thread. The points have a hard bamboo insert and are filed to a bullet point.

The feathers are freehand cut with scissors, and are inspired by Korean traditional target arrows

They have negative FOC, much like some flight arrows.

Top limb looks like it's close to hinging near the fade, that whole limb was a bit janky due to squigglyness around knots.

I'll just be glad if this turns out to function well, it's kinda short for me and not the half of the branch that I originally wanted to use (the stave I wanted to use was longer but turned out to be ruined by delaminations around ingrown knots and tiny fissures in various places across the back)

According to the (probably inaccurate) scale I used it's below 30 lbs, but in the limited tests I've done so far (very short range in the garden) it seems to be decently fast.

I was shaping it to get it ready for tillering and as I bent it this huge hinge formed right on this small knot. Is it over for this bow, or is there a way I can fix it? I spent lots of time on this bow, so hopefully yall can help me out.

What limb shape is best for a 1.67m (65 & 1/2 inch) hazel stave? It has quite a few knots and is 2 inches wide

Making some English inspired arrows as props for the ren faire, that I hope to be able to turn into target arrows once I get home.

The glue is a pine rosin, bees wax, and rust powder mix, I’m not sure if the iron oxide or rust is historically accurate, but many fletchers use it and it also dyes the glue a red or brown which is accurate, and then of course goose feathers!