Primitive Hickory Self Bow, how to build a wood long bow or recurve bow 

Just received one of your books today and am already half way through with it. The information from the book plus your videos is giving me a much better understanding of how bow building works. You’re a great teacher.

Thank you so much for every one of your videos. Inspiring to the core.

Really enjoying this series already. Thanks for this, a great help to new starters and novices like me. Mick

Just getting into traditional bows and archery I'm really eager to make my own thank to your knowledge and skills. Cheers mate. Got get me some patron.

Great job Clay congratulations and thank you very much.

Fantastic video! Very informative for a beginner like me. I feel like I have enough knowledge to tr, iton my own.

SO much very valuable information to absorb. It is always fun to find new things to use tools for :) The Junkyard Dog got laid-up with cheap automotive fiberglass last night and was set enough this morning to take it out of the form. I had hoped to make it a recurve but even with a borrowed het gun, the oak just would not bend far enough. SO, What I will wind up with is a 60 inch deflex long bow..kinda...sorta. I've made bentwood stuff the oak before so I know if I made a set up to steam the wood I coulda made it work. But the stuff was dead dry after years in the shop rafters. The point of the exercise was to make a boy out of junk that I found laying around the place. 1/4 inch thickness of oak slats was probable too thick for dry bending and three layers of it was way too much. It came out of the mold feeling like an old Dodge leaf spring. Something slipped during the night so the lower limb has more curve to it than the upper so tillering should be interesting! I have no idea if I can make it shoot but I will learn a lot in the process and that all goes into the NEXT bow :) Thanks for getting me a head start with all you do!

Been waiting for this, glad you got it out!!!

Love this guy. Good teacher

Woohoo. Nice stuff and extremely helpful. We have Osage but EVEN more hickory where I live.

Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing.

Great video I'm really interested in anymore about bow building

Hey Clay I mes you the other day and I meant to tell you how awesome it was that you made it thru the Alone challenge! It could not have happened to a more deserving person and family than you and yours! I’m going to order one of your books and can’t wait to get it! I wish you the best bud and thanks for all the videos and hard work!

Since I am a police officer I really sarted apreciating and finding beauty in simplicity and functionality. It may be boring for some people but nothing beats reliability. Which btw often comes along with simplocity :)

Nice primer, along with reading through your new book lately, as we have the WI BowJam in 10 days. I'm taking several Ash staves I have seasoned.

Great video. Im still learning but working on one right now. Thank you

If that's a compressor behind you that keeps starting and stopping, you've got a serious air leak;-) Good info... thanks for posting!

Great stuff, huge fan.!.....

Great videos Clay. Just a thought, make a shave horse for working your staves. I use mine all the time for the beginning stages

You're videos are so informative - thank you!!Have you made the video you talked about in here? About designing a bow with a high crown vs a flatter crown. Could you point me to it if you have?

I don't know if you have ever covered this. But how do you shoot or hold a bow in relation to eye dominance.

Just watched this video, was wondering why you put your handle in at 1 1/4 and 23/4 from center

Hello ! in your opinion, which wood is best for the bow, thank you!

When I make a Hickory bow I pull the bark of when she is green. Just kind of pry and pull. That way no way to cut into a growth ring.

i feel oak is pretty bad about going beneath the cambium, im an amateur bowyer noobie, ive started backing oak with glass ever since i broke a bow and my wrist hurt for 3 weeks

WHat are the trade-offs between limb thickness and limb width?

What should my draw be on a 48in bow?

I just cut a very nice stave of sugar maple and immediately took the bark off. I nicked into a couple spots with my draw knife. One of them is about 1 inch by 3/8 wide. It definitely broke through the outer ring. This is a really nice, straight, sugar maple stave. Is this ruined or can I back it with rawhide and save it? I would hate to lose it. Thank you.

Clay, Thank you for the video. They are always very well done, the best I see anywhere. I recently made a bow from a hickory board. It was only 1 1/2 in. wide, 66 in. long and was 41 lbs to begin with. I did not back it, and it took on a lot of set, and ended up around 35 lbs. From what I understand from the bowyers bible, that would indicate it is too narrow for the draw weight. In this video, you were making this bow about 1 1/2 inches wide, and I know you like to make bows around 50 lbs. draw weight. I haven't seen any follow up videos to see how this one turned out, so I am curious if it worked out for you, or if you made it a lighter weight etc. Also, any suggestions on how to get my bow up to a little over 40 lbs?

Would it be cool to card scrap the cambium off so as to not risk gouging with drawknife, when bard is almost all gone.

Is it best to leave the bark on during drying, or could you remove while green

64" hickory, that will be a snappy fast bow. too bad i can't really use it in wa, but i like the wood. plus side, the shavings make a good smoked anything meat. Clay can i do the hot water thing for the cambium on hackberry?

Clay, do you have any tip on how to remove a set from a bow ? ( limbs taking a curve after some time ) Can this be done ?

What are whitewoods? We don't use the same way of classifying trees as you do and don't have all the trees you have. And when I search for whitewood it just comes back with tulip/tulip poplar.

Just a question while i'm watching: What is a small tree when it comes to crown? I have an ash stave i intend to turn into a bow. It was split from a log that was about 10 inches in diameter, maybe 12. What lenght or width would you recomend? Just remembered another thing; my ash stave has a slight natural reflex to it. Is this a good or bad thing? Best regards, a long time fan :)

I just cut two hickory trees 7 inches in diameter. I split each 4 ways today and was wondering how long should I let them dry before I start anything? I see from another question you say I "could" remove the bark now but what do you do. I normally let them dry with the bark on for at least 2 months or longer. Anything less seems to have string follow in the finished bow. Maybe longer drying time is warranted.

Clay, question: why did you choose to use a seasoned piece of wood? Catch that piece of wood in spring or early summer the bark will fairly peak off clean as a whistle and you dont have to shave it off and if you work it down to almost bow thickness and leave it long I should think there would be very little cracking or checking. I'm sure you have a reason. Explain. Also, seems to me if you hung the thing out of the sun but with good air circulation, you could hang a weight from the handle section and force some backset into the stave as it drys.

Can I replace the scraper tool you are using with a machete?

What is meant by white woods? I know that you gave some examples but none of those are found in my area (Saudi Arabia). So I wanted to know what too look for so I can identify local species in my area that can be treated in the same way you would treat white woods. Thanks

Is it better to use the draw knife vs just ripping the bark off with bandsaw? Working on 3 red oak bows and 2 cedar😬

A year later, but my question is what draw knife do you use? I am having a hard time finding a quality one that also looks comfortable to use. Of course, all online so I can't feel them.

Here in central Texas we have a lot of pecan. Can you make a bow from pecan wood?

Just curious, but wouldn't the take the stave in the shower thing kind of defeat the seasoning process?

Can you please do a mulberry bow because I just cut a stave and I I can’t find any designs and little things to know about mulberry ps good vid

hickory is not bad, but nothing to compare with the good old german hazel :-). is this a time-mashine in the background?

Is it a big problem of I took all the cambium off of my stave?

Hey clay Most flat bow designs recommend a 66” bow. I’m 6’5” and I draw 30” Do I need to go slightly longer? And if I make a 66” and want/need to shorten it by an inch or so, should it still draw 30”?

When making a selfbow with white wood. Is it necessary to chase a ring on the back to remove early wood. Ie if the stave was cut in spring. If so, does it then need to be backed?

As always great video , specialy for beginers. If I my ask how do I get to see a video about making takedown self bow ? I'm not from US (I'm from Bosnia and Herzegovina) so it's a little difficult for me to sing up for patreon, because the overall state that country is in. Maybee it's just me and I don't know how to sing up. Best regards

How do you feel about bows made from PVC pipes?

How about a beam bow? I have a left over 8x14-24ft left over from a project. It's half-heart Doug fir. Might have to back it with some 14 gauge spring steel.... Might be fun to carve a 24 ft long bow out of it and shoot small trees at stuff. Could use the winch on the truck to draw..... Ever spine arrows for a 600lb long bow? FINALLY! the three ridge stick-bow is born! Never be "out of range" again! Was just looking at the Crazy Paper (MOntana hunting regs) Doesn't say anything at all about the SIZE of your bow just a minimum draw weight... Up next..."Spring BEar with My Trebouchet" Brings a whole new meaning to "Crushed that shot!"

You can use broken glass for that.

Can you use maple?

For some time now, all the language differences have been giving me some trouble. English, Polish and Latin on top. Is that layer really Cambium or is it Phloem? And do English speakers mean Phloem when they talk about "inner bark"? Also I vaguely remember from biology lessons that cambium is microscopic in thickness (I might be wrong on that one). It's fascinating to learn new stuff but sometimes I feel like we should all switch to Latin. :P Especially when it comes to tree species. For example, I've noticed Hackberry is not the same tree for Americans and Europeans. For me it's Prunus Padus but for someone else it might be Celtis. Funny enough, seems that both species make good bows.

How about manzanita bows?

Clay a great tutorial as usual, but you're upstaged by that furnace and spinning wheel thingy. What the hell is that? You making moonshine back there? :-)

I just went to ur patreon page, is it REALLY 858 dollars a month?

Hello Clay, it's me, yet again, sorry for asking so many questions. If someone were able to do so, could they leave the cambium layer on the bow to use it as a form of backing?

I know Stodoys has the best woodworking plans.

The video is vague. Because,....people can't see what your doing. Drawing the bow on paper shows people the process. People can see paper. But at least someones trying to show others what and how to do it.

Stodoys plans has a lot of plans to choose from.

Ideally when the string is aligned with the arrow the full power of the bow is transferred into the arrow. Usually,.. he says the wrong thing and puts his foot in his mouth so far hes right on the money. But making every bow from natural materials is a challenge. You only shape your bow limb's you only draw the handle,............. after you cut the knocks and the bow is tillered,..... that's when you carefully plan your handle,... but remember after you make it you've got to live with it,.... that's when you File your handle out bulbous handle,... not straight only 4 inch's. That's the primitive style but some prefer a shelf. In this video he was exact.....I prefer about 66'' and 2'' For the viewers he should draw the bow on paper so new guy's know how to draw the handle on the bow,... because we can't see what your drawing on the wood,... but we can see a diagram on paper.. great partial video,

you talk too much .... get on with work