Building the Vine Maple Bow - Finished

[Gordon]

Using a micro-plane and/or rasp I feather the groves into the handle and fades thus creating a side to side swell.









Then I use a micro-plane and/or rasp to create the palm swell.

[Gordon]

I radius the back and front of the handle with a rasp to begin the rounding process. I finish by rounding off the edges to create a nice round handle.











Next up - tillering

[bow101]

Looking good.  Can't wait 2 see the finale.

[Gordon]

Looking good.  Can't wait 2 see the finale.

Working on pulling the photos together and creating captions now. You don't realize just how many steps there are to making even a basic bow until you try to document them all. This is a lot of work...

[Gordon]

Today I am going to tiller the bow to the desired draw length which for this bow is 27 inches.  Here is what the bow presently looks like at rest and at brace.





On the tiller tree I start by pulling the bow to 15"  and make note of the poundage registering on the scale. I then draw the bow to 16" and then back off to 15". If the poundage at 15" remains the same as before it is safe to pull it further to 17". If, however, the poundage at 15" drops, that means the limbs are beginning to take set and I lighten up the poundage a bit by scraping the belly. I then recalibrate the weight at 15" and repeat the process. I continue this process until the bow is pulled to 20".



At 20" the outer limb on the left seems a bit stiff so I scrap a bit of wood off to bring it around more. While removing wood I am careful to make sure that I maintain an even thickness across the width of the limb. In this case you can see that I am removing more wood from the edge of the limb that I have marked with a pencil.

[Gordon]

I make 20" my new reference point and repeat the process of pulling the bow back in increments of one inch while monitoring the poundage at my reference point and removing wood when the poundage at my reference point begins to drop.

Visually the bow does not look like it is bending evenly. But you have to take into account character and unevenness in the limbs. The vine maple I harvest around my parts almost always has character, uneven reflex and whoop-de-dos and so you will rarely have a visually circular bend if you tiller such a bow correctly. The best way to accomplish proper tiller is to let the limb thickness guide you rather than what your eyes see. With the exception of knots and dog legs which need to be left a little thicker than the surrounding area, you want to strive for an even thickness taper down the length of the limbs.



Until now I have left the fades and the last six inches of the tips a little stiff. A common mistake that novice bowyers make is to take too much off the fades - this is a sure fire way to end up with an unrecoverable hinge or a lighter draw bow than you planned. But now I am going to remove excess wood from the fades. Do this slowly and monitor the thickness of the limbs through the transition into the fades carefully. Getting a perfect transition through the fades  takes practice and you are better off keeping the fades a little on the stiff side until you get the hang of it.



I feather the handle into fades and begin rounding the edges of the limbs.





And here is the bow pulled to 24" - only three more inches to go!

[Gordon]

The string alignment has remained true to this point, so now it is safe to narrow the outer limbs and tips to their final dimensions. I like self-nocks to be about 1/2 inch in width. Until now I have left the tips a little stiff. I also work the tips down to their final thickness so they will bend a bit.







Narrowing the tips has just about obliterated the old string groves so I have to make new ones. I start by rounding the tips and then repeating the steps for making string groves that I described earlier in this build-a-long.



I sand the newly cut string groves with 150 grit sand paper and then burnish the shoulders with a burnishing tool. This helps prevent the nocks from being cut by the string.

[Gordon]

Since I've narrowed the outer limbs I slightly bevel the edges along the back to prevent splinters from pulling up.



Now I am going to finish shaping the nocks. I start by rough tapering the sides of using a rasp.





I taper the belly side of the nock using a rasp and then bevel all the edges in preparation for rounding.





I do the final shaping of the nocks with a small carving file.

[Gordon]

I adjust the brace to shooting height and tiller the bow to the desired draw length. The bow ends up pulling 45# @ 27". This bow will make a fine weapon for hunting deer.





Next up - making an arrow rest.

[Blayne]

So awesome. Thanks for putting the work into sharing this!

[DC]

Thanks Gordon, I learned a few things. It's a lot of work to do one of these.

[GB]

This is excellent!  Enjoying following along and learning.

[Knoll]

Masterful job in documenting your process.  Thanks much!

[IdahoMatt]

Very very cool to see another build along Gordon.  Thanks for more inspiration 

[Oakenshield]

Ive learned quite a bit from you Gordon, I appreciate it. It means allot to a novice bowyer to have such resources.