Top pic is my homemade fletching jig.  This is my first try at a selfbow.......about 66" lg made from elm......made the arrows from popple dowls from Mendards......yuh gotta start someplace.....found the feathers at the hardware store...cut the nocs with file and hacksaw and wrapped artificial sinew to keep shaft from splitting when shot......40# range +/- w/24" arrows......gunna try agin this winter to make another. 

  nathan started out with the dowl rods too. he found a site that showed how to make a spine tester with a 3/4 in. box wrench. that is you main concern...

  check out 3 river archery,s website . theye have everything you need or want for stickbows.

  if you want a real treat check out compton trad. archery..  they have a BIG  get togeather every year at our club. i think its june 18,19 and 20 this year.. about 7000 trad shooters and a fun time ....

  vendors everywhere . on sat. night they have a trading blanket sale .  bow makers from all over the u.s. come here.

  blackpowdernut  has made at least 1 that i know of . but now he is playing with wires and tubes..  its ham radio time ... 

mr mom wrote:   nathan started out with the dowl rods too. he found a site that showed how to make a spine tester with a 3/4 in. box wrench. that is you main concern...   check out 3 river archery,s website . theye have everything you need or want for stickbows.   if you want a real treat check out compton trad. archery..  they have a BIG  get togeather every year at our club. i think its june 18,19 and 20 this year.. about 7000 trad shooters and a fun time ....   vendors everywhere . on sat. night they have a trading blanket sale .  bow makers from all over the u.s. come here.   blackpowdernut  has made at least 1 that i know of . but now he is playing with wires and tubes..  its ham radio time ...

got the 3rivers catalog and a few others.  I am strictly amatuer in this game, surely not ready for any US wide archery event.  Later in the spring I should be able to show my 2nd self bow.......as for the arrows I needed to start someplace.....these would not be hunting arrows but do suffice for competition at the Rendesvous I attend.....I don't even have metal points/tips, I just sharpen these in a pencil sharpener (grade school crank type) and harden a them bit by burnishing them some. 

Thats really cool. Are you thinking about hunting with it?

Wing master

Looks great.  I always found the dowels to heavy to shoot properly,  I made ceder shaft, bought the stuff from the old Herters.

I use to do that stuff, but never made a bow.  When I started archery in 1959, money was the motivator to DIY.  but it was fun.

Then I got a Ben Pearson wood/glass backed, and never went back.  Maybe some day!

Bear said "I always found the dowels to heavy to shoot properly,  I made ceder shaft, "

Since this was a beginners project, me the beginner, I went on the cheap for the learning time it offered.  These are only used for the rendezvous games at foam targets at close range.  They work well for that BUT I actually never gave it much thought of the wt of popple vs cedar, all the while knowing cedar has been the wood of choice for arrows for upteen years.  When I get the next bow finished this winter/spring I will try some cedar for arrows.  Cost was another factor too, I am inexpensive (cheap to you country boys) & the dowls only cost about 36cents each.

IBD, I hear you.  I'm a thrifty german type myself.

Cedar at an archer shop, clear, spined and graded is probaly over $1 a piece.  I think I bought those Herters for about $3 per 24 and shipping then was probably about 44 cents.

I also tried making some out of local scraps, they warped the first time I used them.

The local indians seemed to like Osage Orange.

bear said....."The local indians seemed to like Osage Orange."

for sure for they used that wood fer bows, first I heard for arrows

I most likely won't hunt with my first selfbow, I ani't much of a bow hunter since I had the damn rotator cuff type injury.....and I ain't even a ball player!

A toothless wolf now!

If I catch one, I can't seem to remember what to do with them?  Well, maybe it is like riding a bike, you never forget.

BEAR wrote: A toothless wolf now! If I catch one, I can't seem to remember what to do with them?  Well, maybe it is like riding a bike, you never forget.

If your feet can still reach the pedals.....

Well, here we go again for bows #2 & #3 coming your way soon...the wood this time is Ash & I am aiming for a bit shorter bow this time @ 60" knock-knock with a straight taper design ie taper starts at 2" from the handle (both ends) and tapers to a 1/2" wide tip.  This puts more of the "power" down closer to the handle and less working at the tips.  When done I am shooting for a draw length of 24" & draw wt 35-40 range.  A lot of that depends on how well the final tillering goes.......but that's much later.  For now I began with a Ash stave that was about 75"lg and cut two bows out of the one stave.  We draw a pattern on the "face" side after debarking, then rough cut it on the bandsaw to save time (and my labor).  Now in this pic I am getting the width down and will rough form the handle area too.

Stay tuned for part 2 next week.  I know you kin hardly wait... 

"The Beginning"