Longbow Building - A Cherry Selfbow 

It was an exciting project and wonderful piece of wood. Thanks for kind words sir!

You can make good Bows from hazel, not the best wood for it surely but you can get a lot out of it. Go for a flat profile, hazel does not like to be compressed and if it does it can break over the back rather violently. With hazel you can also rough out your stave when green and season it afterwards, dries out even quicker then. I had the best results with saplings up to 10cm in diameter, above that hazel often gets a bit brittle and the knots are often already rotting. A very nice wood that is easy to get and good for deeper profiles is cornus/dogwood. Bit Harder to work with and harder to find long, straight pieces but an excellent wood if you wanna try something like a D profile

Great to hear that sir! That means a lot for me. All the best!

Thank you man very much! Did my best! Actually I like sweet cherry so far, but gotta admit it's pretty challenging

Thanks for the feedback 👊

Thank you very much!

Thank you brother!

@@DreamcraftBows U R Welcome! 👍🏹🧙‍♂️🏹👍!

Glad you like it 👊

You're welcome!

Thank you sir! Yes, especially after applying some oil finish

Thanks a lot, loved this one as well!

Thank you very much sir! To be honest I'm not very good in sharpening my scrapers and often struggle with it. So I wouldn't be a great teacher as I need a bit more experience myself

@@DreamcraftBows ... Thanks for the response ... LOL ... I was hoping you had some tips I could steal. I use the same scraper shapes as you (a Lee Valley set). The square cornered one is not too bad ... draw file with a mill bastard cut and then turn the edges with a burnisher. It's the gooseneck and the concave/convex I find challenging to sharpen. Presently I use a small Dremel sanding drum for the curves. Presently I'm working on some collected wood canes and walking sticks ...yew, cherry, teak, Western Juniper and various oak species. I admire your bowyer's skills, but haven't built one myself in over 30 years.

👊👊👊

My pleasure! Yes, patience is the key here!

Thank you very much!

Thank you. My pleasure!

Thank you very much! The specs of this bow are for the new owner wish. But yes, it could be drawn a bit further

Thanks 👊

Thank you a lot!

Lol Thank you!!

Great to hear that, thanks!

I always keep the one growth ring on the back on my bows. Thank you 👊

These knotholes in this particular case were empty anyway (their inside was very soft). Epoxy will reinforce them

Made with both sap and heartwood it does.

Thank you!

Thank you! I used cow horns for nocks, these was traditionally used in longbows made from yew wood. Horn nocks were tips reinforcement

there r a couple variables. like wood species, diameter/crown, color preference. in general bows that have a solid growth ring for the back of the bow r safer. so on some woods u can use the wood directly under the bark/cambium as it's a fully intact ring. when using black locust or Osage u want heart wood only so u chase a heartwood ring. with yew or this cherry u want the back sapwood and the belly heartwood. so u can thin the sapwood as wood doesn't always grow evenly. good place on Reddit R/bowyer

I remove rings from the back, but on the bow I keep single intact ring on the back. I just remove a few growth rings to dig down to heartwood

Thank you guys for responding

You can leave them hollow or fill with wood plug too

I don't think so, this one is Prunus avium

Hope to make in the future!

dry wood

Up to 200 yards I guess

It's just my poor shooting style and my drawlength

@@DreamcraftBows sorry to hear that. But that bow should be safe to draw further, given how long it is. I always shorten my bows and come to regret it later 😆