To JohnGalt 007^^
Just find a home depot or lowes and sort through their pile of 1x2" red oak boards, make a few terrible bows with a nylon tillering string and worry about fancy stuff later. Wear safety glasses because sometimes bow limbs explode.
You can in theory make a bow in eight or ten hours (or less) if you know what you're doing but the trial-and-error portion will take a few months and a fair amount of wasted lumber. I knew a guy who was highly skilled at woodworking and even his first few bows were terrible, because tillering is a more dynamic process than cabinetmaking.
From an engineering perspective, any bow you take in the field for hunting should be overbuilt somewhat in order to deal with adverse conditions (extreme cold or damp, or lack of humidity). If you're making an american style longbow, consider making the working part of the limb 2 1/4" wide instead of 2" wide, for instance, to increase the factor of safety in case of extreme cold. Wider limbs are harder to tiller, so if this is a problem, bring a backup.
FYI, a lot of the ancient bows dug out from bogs or swamps or glaciers were fairly ugly pieces of shit that would have shot poorly (hand shock) or had weirdly light or improbably heavy draw weights. Most of the bows the native americans used were also terrible, but they didn't need great archery equipment. Modern man needs better archery equipment because we can't creep to within striking distance of a stag and kill it with a spear. Game nowadays spook easily and we're just not as good at hunting either.
I wouldn't bother with making arrows with a lathe. You could buy a dowel-cutting machine and it might be a great investment (assuming you can find straight grained board lumber and have a bandsaw to cut it into square shafts) but most of the good arrows I've found were made from shoots, usually found growing in a ditch somewhere.
I don't know what to say about your local archery club. That's one problem I would have with selling bows; liability. It's too easy for somebody to buy a handmade wooden bow, fuck it up while using it because he's an idiot (or his friends are idiots), and pull it far past the ear when it's only designed for a 28" draw length because they have to prove they're strong to their retarded friends. Then the bow explodes, showering everybody with splinters and causing injuries, and now you're the bad guy for selling them a "dangerous implement".
Keep that in mind if and when you're pricing your bows - make them look special and sell them at a luxury price so they think twice about even letting their friends touch their things. It's just not enough to tell somebody "this is a custom built weapon for you and nobody else".
You might want to check out LARP clubs instead of "archery" clubs. Incels and WoW nerds have a lot of money compared to regular dudes because they don't spend it on women.
Just find a home depot or lowes and sort through their pile of 1x2" red oak boards, make a few terrible bows with a nylon tillering string and worry about fancy stuff later. Wear safety glasses because sometimes bow limbs explode.
You can in theory make a bow in eight or ten hours (or less) if you know what you're doing but the trial-and-error portion will take a few months and a fair amount of wasted lumber. I knew a guy who was highly skilled at woodworking and even his first few bows were terrible, because tillering is a more dynamic process than cabinetmaking.
From an engineering perspective, any bow you take in the field for hunting should be overbuilt somewhat in order to deal with adverse conditions (extreme cold or damp, or lack of humidity). If you're making an american style longbow, consider making the working part of the limb 2 1/4" wide instead of 2" wide, for instance, to increase the factor of safety in case of extreme cold. Wider limbs are harder to tiller, so if this is a problem, bring a backup.
FYI, a lot of the ancient bows dug out from bogs or swamps or glaciers were fairly ugly pieces of shit that would have shot poorly (hand shock) or had weirdly light or improbably heavy draw weights. Most of the bows the native americans used were also terrible, but they didn't need great archery equipment. Modern man needs better archery equipment because we can't creep to within striking distance of a stag and kill it with a spear. Game nowadays spook easily and we're just not as good at hunting either.
Quote: (08-25-2017 10:54 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:
Also, shit is that there is almost no market for bows I would make here in Croatia. Even local archery clubs that do reenactment use fiberglass bows that they bought from internet. Ridiculous, don't you think? If I were to come to them they would probably ignore me as they know that they could easily buy from certified maker that uses machines and has his own workers instead of some unknown guy. I mean, I should try to show them my work but I am not really optimistic, especially what other things I saw with them, which I will not discuss here.
I don't make arrows just because I don't have access to feathers and good quality timber from which I could turn shafts.
I wouldn't bother with making arrows with a lathe. You could buy a dowel-cutting machine and it might be a great investment (assuming you can find straight grained board lumber and have a bandsaw to cut it into square shafts) but most of the good arrows I've found were made from shoots, usually found growing in a ditch somewhere.
I don't know what to say about your local archery club. That's one problem I would have with selling bows; liability. It's too easy for somebody to buy a handmade wooden bow, fuck it up while using it because he's an idiot (or his friends are idiots), and pull it far past the ear when it's only designed for a 28" draw length because they have to prove they're strong to their retarded friends. Then the bow explodes, showering everybody with splinters and causing injuries, and now you're the bad guy for selling them a "dangerous implement".
Keep that in mind if and when you're pricing your bows - make them look special and sell them at a luxury price so they think twice about even letting their friends touch their things. It's just not enough to tell somebody "this is a custom built weapon for you and nobody else".
You might want to check out LARP clubs instead of "archery" clubs. Incels and WoW nerds have a lot of money compared to regular dudes because they don't spend it on women.