Need some advice for a bow....

[looper]

My wife volunteered me to make a bow for the Principal of one of the schools she works at. Apparently there is a "dress as a book character" day coming up at the end of next week. This lady is planning on being the Hunger Games girl and needs a bow.

It really only needs to be for show, and I doubt she'll even draw it, but if she does, I don't want it to break on her. I only have about a week to build it. I don't want to waste any of my staves on it, so I'm thinking about cutting a sapling and shaping a bow out of that.

Do you think roughing one out and letting it sit in a hot box for a couple of days would dry it out enough to get a low poundage bow? I'd like to make her something more than a wet noodle.

[Bryce]

Just use an already dry piece of lumber

[Pat B]

I agree with Bryce. Just use lumber.

[TrevorM]

Lumber would be good, but I think a green sapling would work too. It would probably be a terrible bow, but that's not an issue and it's less likely to break. I've never tried but I'd think it'd be easy to use a heat gun to make it a recurve too.

[Springbuck]

Lumber, like a board bow is a good choice,  but if you have made a few bows already, you could easily do a sapling bow like that.  Cut a 2-3" elm tree, hickory, mulberry branch, plum, ash sapling or similar, and cut out the bow to like 95% finished.  Handle as narrow and small as possible, limbs thinned to 5/8" thick or less, narrowed and tspered laterally, etc...clamp it down so it doesn't warp, and leave it in your house a couple or three days.  Then move it to a warm dry place or your hotbox, for a couple more.  Then, toast the belly, or at least heat it up a bit, to drive out the last bits, and tiller to brace height immediately.

I do this all the time for kids bows from about 40 lbs down, and generally small in dimension (56" long, 30 lb bow, etc...) if you are only, like 1.5" wide, and a little short, the finished thickness may be as little as 3/8", and that dries fast.  This isn't the best way to treat bow wood, but it's about what Baker did when they built that paleo elm bow in a week in the TBB.    I commonly dry a sapling stave in a couple weeks in the summer anyway, even for full sized, full strength bows, but I live in Utah, so humidity is rarely an issue.

[paulsemp]

I hate to say it but you know that not only will it get drawn but it will probably drawn by a whole lot of people who don't know what they're doing with zero supervision. Me personally if it's just for show and a prop I would make it out of a green sapling. No one's going to be critiquing the tiller or the cast but if someone draws it back and breaks in their face it will be judged. If you make it out of a green sapling the chances of it breaking are almost none. You could also just leave it strung for her in that way she doesn't have to deal with stringing it for her. If she wants a nicer Bow take your time give it to her later and teach her how to use it

[looper]

Paulsemp, you confirmed what I was thinking. IMO a board bow is just too risky of a proposition. I can imagine some 8th grader yanking it back past his ear.

[wizardgoat]

I made a quick halloween bow for a friend last year.
I used a pretty green piece of ocean spray, and tillered
it to 28", but only about 25 #.
Lots of people ended up yanking on it that night, and I wasn't worried at all.
Just tell her you want it back after, and if she wants a real one than you can make her a proper one.

[bradsmith2010]

yes sounds risky,, what about pcv pipe,, or a piece of very thin bamboo,,, or what about making it from some wire and paper mache,, so it is not functional at all,, just for looks,

[Bryce]

A 6' 30# maple bow...ain't risky at all. Would take about an hour to make. Start to finish.

[PatM]

 Sounds like a lawsuit and an arrest waiting to happen these days. They actually let kids bring a weapon to school?

[le0n]

i'd be afraid of a few people dry firing it throughout the day.

for this reason, i would heat-bend the bow to make it look like it is braced (or half-draw), then use some black bungee cord material for the string to run on the nocks.

this way the bow material would not be stressed; even when posing for photographs.

[bradsmith2010]

I didnt mean risky like the bow would blow,, but someone might actually shoot it in the wrong direction ,, inside the school ect etc etc,,, or pull it to try to break it,, etc etc etc ... or fabricate an arrow to shoot , if it was a funtional weapon,, just might not be a good idea,, but I am not an expert on school events etc,, I am an expert about bow building in my own mind