best resource (books) for learning how to make bows

[ed]

so should I get the bowyers bibles or is there something better out there?

[Glenn]

Ed the Bowyers Bibles are good resource books for making primitive bows without fibreglass, Paul Comstocks book the Bent stick has just about all of the info you need to get started in selfbows, it's a very easy book to understand. The Bowyers Bibles is good for more advanced primitive bow building.
As far as making fibreglass bow books there isin't much out there that is worth spending your money on. Best to get onto Binghams in the USA, they have a very good video on making bows and they have all of the supplies you need to make a bow. I can post a link to Binghams if you want it...Glenn...

[ed]

thx Glen,
I was thinking along the lines of a stickbow. Not looking to make anything fancy, just a workable basic bow and then look to make heavier poundages and maybe laminates later.

found the Bingham site. Not looking for plans or laminate material as yet. Was looking to make a longer style longbow - about 76 inches as I gather that is a decent length for a 31.5 inch draw

[Glenn]

Ed to make a good basic longbow all you need for a form is a straight piece of timber a 75x50 or 100x50 and that's the back of the bow and you can use clamps with a clamping strip to glue up the bow stave. Fibreglass laminates come 72 inches long but that would be plenty for your draw. Straight layed longbow will normally take a slight bit of string follow when shot in, that is not a disadvantage, Howard Hill preferred a bow that followed the string, he said they were more accurate to shoot. I believe you can now buy smooth-on epoxy in Australia now, I think the company is in South Australia...Glenn...

[ed]

that is tempting. I looked at the Ausbow site but they don't have that kind of lamination length. They do have stock for up to 80# and so I figure with some fudging I could make a 90#'er. Yeh I know you hate the idea but I have to try it. A 90# stickbow could be tricky I suppose.

[Glenn]

The fibreglass laminations should be full lenght at 72 inches and normally the timber laminations are all cut at 36 inches so they can be tapered and matched for grain and they are normally spliced and glued together to make a full lenght prior to glueing up. You can just butt joint them if you want to put a leather wrap around the handle, they will never be seen then....Glenn....

[ed]

the wood laminations being half length has got to be a weakness. Also with this kind of lamination are the limbs the same thickness all the way along? Tapering the width only?

I get a fair bit of finger pinch of a 68 inch longbow and so was looking to make one quite a bit longer. No problem with height as I am 6'5 anyway, so I was looking at 76 inches - looking like a custom job isn't it.

[Glenn]

Ed the only reason you would be getting finger pinch with a 68" inch bow would be because the bow is whipended,that is the ends are bending a lot more than the rest of the bow limb. This is very common in a lot of modern longbows today, it also results in hand shock and loss of performance. If you keep the limb tips stiffer and make the limb work down near the riser fadeouts more you will get much less finger pinch and better peformance.
You can join laminations on the nonworking part of the riser without weakining the bow, you can make full lenght parallel timber laminations but it is very hard to taper full length laminations and do it accurately.
I think you will find the 72" bow a lot better as far as finger pinch goes, but I do think that the mass weight of the limbs start to work against you as faras perormance goes.
You could easily get a 76" longbow by building a take down longbow as the limbs can be safetly spread apart on the riser to get the length. You will probably find a takedown easier to tiller that a one piece bow stave...Glenn...

[ed]

thx Glen,
when I read your answers I generally end up with more questions which really annoys me :) I get what you are talking about concerning the finger pinch though and the extended length riser makes good sense as it would not affect limb performance.
I would have thought heavier tips would affect limb performance also, but figure with D shaping it should be possible to make stiffer tips without increasing the weight much.
How a take-down is easier to tiller I don't know but then I have not made either so I will take your word for it.

Also looking at sometime in the future a recurve design as notice they are not so bad on finger pinch, but will try and get one for my draw length as they do seem to stack a lot.

Having to dig up the cash for a lamination kit will take a while so in the mean time I am going to try a simple two peice lamination longbow. Nothing special just a trial run of the basic skills before I go to the larger expense.

[Glenn]

Good idea Ed, just start off with something simple. You could even make a simple selfbow with a weight of around 50# at your draw weight and then you could add fibreglass laminationd to the back and belly, that will bring the poundage up to somewhere you want it.
With a take-down bow both limbs are made on the one form so they are exactly the same.
With the recurves stacking badly at your draw length I would say that it is because this is happening when the recurve tips towards the end of the draw are being drawn past the point where they are no longer standing straight up and down which is when the bow is at it's maxium length, once it is drawn past this point the tips come down and the bow is being compressed and becoming shorter, decreasing the string angle which inturn induces stack....Glenn....

[ed]

thanks for the encouragement. I started one my first bow - not overly worried about performance or anything with it just trying out a couple of things in making it.

Firstly I had little choice of woods as I was limited by what hardware stores I can get to in opening hours due to my work too. Ended up with some Tas Oak and Aussie Oak. All the other woods there were knotted and warped. Were a few almost decent peices of soft woods but I figured to go with a hard wood.

glued two peices of Tas Oak together and planes one down to about 3mm, started shaping the belly side today and have loads more to do obviously. Stiff as hell, so figure I will have to get it down to 15mm or less for the majority of the limb length.

on a side note, a mate bought two 90# glass laminate bows from Ausbow today as they had been sitting in his shop for years! I will pick mine up on Tuesday, and probably spend the next two months in the gym to work up to it! Mad? yes, but sounds like fun all the same.