Making a bow (continuation)

I left this blog post longer than I thought, so I hope I can remember what all went into the work I did.

After starting to shape the "flettenti" I went back and filed my "rough draft" making it closer and closer to what I wanted. It was many hours of "a little bit here, a little bit there" filing and filing...

Eventually, it was close enough that I could make little notches in the wood to hold the string. We marked these out with a little piece of cardboard that gets the angle right, and then we cut them using a little saw. We made two cuts: one on and one the line, and one at a bit of an angle to meet the first. This allows the string to move safely when you are using the bow. We finished off the ends (for that moment anyway) by using a piece of sandpaper to get in the crack and to smooth it out.

Then we strung the bow and put it on a funny instrument that keeps it at full draw (or at least the fullest draw you can get). While it was at full draw we looked at the bow to make sure that it had a nice shape and started using a two handed blade to shave off parts where the bow was too stiff. There was more "a little bit here, a little bit there" work (several hours of it).

Next, we tested how strong it was. 63 pounds. I may be strong, but 63 pounds is well over my limit so we knew that we would have to bring it down. At this point I shot the first arrow. I could only draw back 13 inches (half of my normal draw). I hit my arm with the string, and it turned somewhat red. At this point I had already spent close on twelve hours on my bow)

My somewhat red arm

The next thing to do was clearly weaken the bow enough that I could shoot it. This was very similar to what I had done to make sure that the bow had a nice curve. Using the two handed blade, I had to shave off little pieces wherever I could. I say wherever I could because the wood had plenty of knots and dips in it which made it challenging to work with. Once we got closer to a strength that was manageable, we started using a coarse sandpaper.

At one point, we took a break in weakening the bow in order to properly shape the tip of the bow. We did this by tracing a rough leaf-like shape and then sanding off the edges and smoothing everything out with sandpaper. After we had shaped the end, we used a round file to connect the two grooves. That part isn't necessary, but it looks nice.

The tips of the bow

Once we had the bow down to an okay strength (41 pounds, which is still a bit stronger than my usual bow), we used sandpaper to soften any edges and to remove the signs of filing. Then, we used steel wool to remove any signs of sanding. 

Clearly what was left was adding an arrow rest, oiling the bow and putting leather on the grip. 

To make the arrow rest, Enzo used a piece of wood (which has a great double coloring). He used one of those electric saws that looks like a sewing machine to cut it into a drop shape. Then we tested which side of the bow shot better. As it happens both sides shoot equally well, so I chose to make the bow have the same orientation that the tree had when it was growing. Then we filed the appropriate area so that it was flat, and glued the arrow rest onto the bow. We then sanded it down so that it didn't stick out or have any edges that would hurt when I used the bow. 

The arrow rest

On to oiling! I imagine that you can figure out what this step consisted of. We used what I think is linseed oil (Enzo told me what it was, but I promptly forgot). The bow became the most BEAUTIFUL color and the arrow rest looked AMAZING. I expected the bow to polish up to be a somewhat yellow color that is fairly common, but it was lighter than that.

MY BOW!!!

The front 

The amazing arrow rest

All that is left now is the leather on the grip. I'll be working on that tomorrow. I've chosen a leather that I think should go pretty well, in that it is quite light and hopefully won't overpower its natural tones. 

Ciao,

Florence