You truly touched some issues that are not obvious and avoided a lot of time loss in beginners of this craft. It is amazing how people believe are talking about the same method but, indeed they mean different things. Making the bowyers language more universal is the best way to expand this ancient graft!!!
Doesn’t grow around here, but i’m always happy to try out sub par woods. If you want to see some use of sub par wood, I used a fence post of douglass fir for the videos in the board bow series
thats an exactly description of bowing and carving. I learned carver in 2002 for 3 years but began bowing only in 2012 and would make bows in a completely other way if I didnt go for this education years ago.
Very true. learning some basic carving from other crafts goes a long way for bow making. Making axe handles is another one that has many parallel lessons
Really enjoyed the tip about tear out. If it can become a controlled split then it is fine otherwise back out and try another area. This is a bow saver! Thank you for helping to progress the art of bow making!
Nice video and informative. I like the calm audio. Remember to tell people they can make good scrapers from pieces of old saw blades. Learned that from John Gardener in boat building class at Mystic Seaport about fifty years ago.
Thanks for your reddit comments on my first post. You are an encouragement to an old dog trying to learn a new trick. Been an archer for 45 years but never a bowyer. Great video!
You should send a demo tape to Hollywood. You would be marvelous at audio book recording. I’ve been working a Yew stave last couple weeks with a rasp and card scraper, floor tillering nearly ready for rack. Thanks for the inspirational vids.👍
Hello there! I am attempting to make a bamboo reflex bow and i am afraid that i might mess it up somehow, so please help me Great video btw, this is the best one ive watched so far.
If you need a tiller check anytime head over to r/bowyer on reddit and post the front profile, side profile, and drawn picture. I can help you from there much better with pictures
@@DanSantanaBows Thank you very much for the early reply! the bow worked well at first but then i crack i ignored while making it grew larger and the bow is too light, im planning to make a pvc/board bow soon just gathering materials
Dear Dan Santana! I'm your big fan , you inspire me to make bows. Thanks so much! I ask you very much, include in your videos warnings about the dangers of wood dust for the respiratory tract and for the voice. For example, my voice often wheezes and even there is inflammation in the larynx if I do not use a respirator. ....and it's not only about grinding, but also about working with rasps.
Another awsome video dan! Funny when unwere talking about bulk removal rasps I guess it also depends on kinds you get.. because my cheap Shinto blows my(also cheap) ferriers outta the water imo. Def enjoyed this one! And love that bow. I'm hoping to make sum similar lighter weight ones soon! Tho I can only hope they'll turn out half as nice as yours lol.
I forgot to mention that the shinto rasp I use most of the time is actually the replacement blade for the shinto planer, which is much sturdier. I just epoxied into a big rasp handle and it’s like an upgraded shinto rasp. Much less flimsy at the neck, that way you can put some weight on it
Thank you for this , and all of , your amazing videos . Quick , clear and concise. I dabble in bowl and spoon carving, and have been into archery for a number of years .. I have a takedown recurve , and have been shooting everyday . I have always wanted to make a bow ( or 100 haha) and am on the hunt for some suitable wood . Your videos are excellent . Thanks again
I save all the end cuts for spoons, bow or tool handles, overlays and general carving. Shavings either become mulch for the garden or are used to start fires
@@DanSantanaBows that’s cool. I recently made an axe handle. Love your bows. I’m in to woodworking. Carving. Pipe making. Tool making. Getting in to bow making. Have some staves harvested. Learned a lot from you guys on Reddit. You, being a primary source for sure.
I have heard you can. There are many types of laurel, so it may depend what you have. In general you can make some kind of bow from any wood but you have to adjust the design to the wood. Here’s one I found www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php?topic=53708.0
A note on "grain". Regardless of how people misuse the term, it absolutely specifically means the individual wood fibers. Though, grain can also be "figured" due to burls, crotch sections, random growth patterns, etc. I think the biggest misconception is when a board is cut across growth rings and the pattern created by the various rings showing are referred to as "Pretty grain..." or something similar to that.
Excellent video. I do have a question. I'm making a 52" hickory flatbow with a natural back. I'm stuck at a draw of 23" and 50 lbs. (+-). I've taken off the belly until I'm down to 1/2" - 5/8" thickness. It tillers really well, good equal bend all through the limbs, but I would really like to get it down to about 40 lbs. Should I start reducing the width? It is about 2" at the widest and tapers to 5/8" or so. And what is the maximum draw I could expect from this?
Just keep removing wood from the belly to lower the weight, and only pull to the new desired weight of 40 as you tiller. Does it have a stiff or bending handle? Even with a bending handle you’ll probably max out a little over 26” of draw, maybe around 22” with a stiff handle.
@@DanSantanaBows It has a stiff handle. I intended it to be about 68-70", but a knot changed that. It will be of little use to me since my draw is 29-30". But I would still like it to be a usable bow. I passed the target weight quite by accident (my scale was set on kilograms rather than pounds). Thank you for your reply. I'll look for you on reddit. I enjoy your videos immensely. I don't know what "neck of the woods" you're from, but it's beautiful country. Take care, my friend
Why shouldn’t I crave the back of the bow when making one. There was a chip that cracked in a bigger split when it dried out and honestly was hoping to salvage it by evening it out but I can’t find a source on exactly why I shouldn’t crave the back of the bow
I designed it for the way I make bows. I haven’t seen one quite like it. Basically it’s a workbench minus the work surface. I already had a good work surface, but it wasn’t much of a bench
