Need a little help.

[akila]

Hey guys i wach your forum and i must tell you that its grate.I learnd verry much from you.Sorry for my english its realy bad.I have this 2 peaces of hornbeam that are allmost56" and 62" in length,and i wood like to ask you what dimension shoul i use for this 2 peaces of wood.I usuly make long bows so this is my first time when i have so small wood in length and i dont know what to do.FRom whatt i have read here i understand that its better to use a bending handle gesign whenn the wood its not to long but i dont realy know whatt thicknes shoul  be the handle so that he can bend and also whatt wide.I hope that you guys understand whatt i try to explain here...sorry again for my english....i understand veryy well your language but whenn i have to wright it..... .Im from Romania btw...and  here wi are a fiew entusiastic guys who like to build bows but wi are not so experience like you  and i like your forum ....its realy grate.Thks...and take care.


I forgot to ask you iff it can be done something with that propelor.This wass a hornbeam log 10" in diameter and i just got 3 pieces oute of him..this 2 small and one longer for a long bow...thats all...he split like crazy...the log wass twisted. .Well thats it....i hope that it can be done something with themm.BYe bye.

[a finnish native]

those staves are not too short at all.  60" is 150 cm. If the wood is not dry I would start by cutting it to 5x5 cm pieces (2x2 inches) and let it season for a while until it's dry. when drying the propeller can also be forced out. strap it so a board and leave it there to dry.
If the wood is already dry, I would start with the 60" piece. They seem quite wide BTW. how wide are they? if over 6 cm then you can get 2 bows out of one stave!
My dimensions would be 1,5 cm wide tips and then a handle of 3 cm for example. then the thickness: if the handle is 3 cm wide then the handle would be good to be 3-3.5 cm thick at first. the thickness should also taper some towards the tips.
you can also make the bow wider, for example 3,5 cm. if so then the handle should be at least as thick as wide if you want it to bend through.
then just start to bend it nice and slow. I would aim for 55# at that lenght. so if you go for 55# never pull more. and then just start to take off some wood so that it comes around nicely.

If the wood is dry the propeller can be forced out some by a heat gun and clamps. (NEVER HEAT THE BACK OF THE BOW). only the belly. or then it can be steamed. One easy option is putting it in water for a week or so, and then press it ti form. thus there is no such rush as in these other procedures. then of course it takes more time to dry again.. hope this helped.

[Justin Snyder]

That is a heck of a lot of propeller twist.  I would narrow it a little, then try to take the twist out.  With that much propeller twist, I would not try to get two bows out of one piece.  If you try to split a piece with that much twist you could ruin it all.  I think I would use steam to take the twist out, just because there is so much and the wood has to be bent a long way. Other guys around here have more experience with hornbeam so they can tell you better if dry heat or steam would be better. Justin

[akila]

Hy guys and thks. for your quicq response.The stave is 3cm thickness right in the middle but the stave its with the bark on it,so i think that i will lose aboute 3 mm or so;and its 5 cm wide, so i cant do 2 pieces of one stave.With this thickness in the handle area i dotn think that i can do a bending handle bow no more,and i wood probably have to glue a little piece of wood  to compensate the missing wood there.I dont have to much experience with bending wood so i dont know how much do i have to steam the hornbeam wood to straighten it.The stave is fresh cut...i beleve 4 days so its green.Thks again for your respons...byee.

[Justin Snyder]

If the stave is 4 days old, I would clamp it flat to something and leave it for a couple of months to dry. If you get lucky it will dry that way and have very little twist when you remove the clamps.  Justin

[a finnish native]

how strong do you want the bow to come to be? I have two shorties  in the works now. they are 44" long and have a hanle that is 3 cm thik. (have not tillered them yet, tey are still drying). I just made a bow from Rowan. it's 52" long and has a handle about 2,5 cm thik I guess. it has 40 something pounds in her. you should be fine with that thikness. 

[akila]

how strong do you want the bow to come to be? I have two shorties  in the works now. they are 44" long and have a hanle that is 3 cm thik. (have not tillered them yet, tey are still drying). I just made a bow from Rowan. it's 52" long and has a handle about 2,5 cm thik I guess. it has 40 something pounds in her. you should be fine with that thikness. 

I have 2 stave one is 55" and second is 61"...i wood like it to be arounde 45 iff its posibile...the problem is that my draw length its 29" im a tall guy 192cm ..so i dont know iff its posibile to bend so much a bow  so small....i have made  only long bows untill now so a 55" bow it seams small to me.Offcourse this is only my opinion.  .I have noticed something today...on the bigger stave i tink that the guy who cut the tree has damaged the ring on the back right in the middle of the stave.I just see this today its a cut in the bark  of the wood and it seams that  its pretty deep.I will show you a picture.

whatt can i do with this plz.?Is it posibile to go to the next ring with hornbeam becose it seams verry dificult becose of the shape of this wood.Thks again for your replays.Take care.Byee.

[Justin Snyder]

It sounds like you have made bows before.  You can probably make a bow with a reflex deflex profile. Honestly, if the wood is green and I didn't have much work into it,  I would find some better wood with less twist to put my time into.  Clamp that as flat as you can, and come back after it is dry and decide if it is worth the effort.  Justin

[akila]

It sounds like you have made bows before.  You can probably make a bow with a reflex deflex profile. Honestly, if the wood is green and I didn't have much work into it,  I would find some better wood with less twist to put my time into.  Clamp that as flat as you can, and come back after it is dry and decide if it is worth the effort.  Justin

Yess you right ..i wood like that veryy much iff i wood have better wood.But here in romania wi dont have those places where you can go and find wood wich is already split specialy to make bows from themm.Here wi have only conifers becose this is the wood that its been use for constructions, and wi have woof for  people who still use wood to make fire in the house to heat the houses.Wi have guys that go in the woods cut the trees and go from house ot house and seel the wood to people.So this is where i have this wood.I chose the straight log that i could but whenn i split it it went crazy....so the thing is that i have to deal with whatt i have... .Maybe i will have more luck next time when i chose a log again .Thks for your help guys.BYeee.

[a finnish native]

for a bow that is 55" long, I would use 24" draw and anchor with My wrist or thumb in between my upper lip and nose. I am 184-185 cm and I shoot bows that have a draw lenght of 20-26. I don't see this as a problem although my draw lenght to the cheek is 28,5". I hunt a lot with my gear so these short bows are very good to me. the short draw is also quicker and being so, better to hunt with. (for me at least). I would never even try to get a 29" draw out of a wood that is 55 long.. unless if it were a horn bow

[Justin Snyder]

Not being able to get wood does create a problem.  I think if you are carefull, you can make a reflex deflex bow with a 27 inch draw.  Try to make a bow out of the shorter piece first. Practicing on it will improve your odds on the longer piece.  Maybe shorten the draw by several inches on the shorter bow.  Justin

[akila]

Thks. guys i will do that i will try to make the shorter piece first...i wonder...can you tell me something aboute that ugly cut on the back of the longer piece...its right in the midlle on the back off the stave.I have try yesterday  to remove one ring at a time on a smaller piece (10" long) and i think that i  did this with the  first layer but whenn i try to go to  the next ring thinks got complicated....the rings seams to be so small and its realy hard to chase a ring on hornbeam...they are others guys who did this thing on a hornbeam piece of wood..? or i can just leave it like that and make a bow with stiff handle from this longer piece of wood.IM thinking that iff i make a bending handle from this piece off wood, it will brake from the middle becose of that cut..Any advise on that problem plz?? thk. you verry much for all your help ...it realy makes  a diference.Thks all..bye bye.

[Marc St Louis]

Extremely hard to follow a ring on that type of wood. The first thing you should do is clamp it down and try to take some twist out of it. The cut on the back you can deal with later and if it's in the middle and you make a bow that is stiff handled then you won't have to worry about it