Crafting bows

[dordur]

As some assassins need a bow for long range encounters, Glius was more then willing to create one and attempt to actually use one efficiently and Glius was using quite an effective recipe that he had found while doing some killing in the mountains.

Step 1:
Glius picked up a small wooden knife often used for chopping off small pieces of wood piece by piece and used it to make half a circle out of a old wooden red oak plank that Glius had only recently bought for his money. [30g]

Step 2:
After that, Glius had to aquire glue somehow and had to leave the current progress to go shopping for a single Old Glue. [15g]



[[Recipe i'm going after icly]]

"The easiest wood to begin with is red oak, as it's available at any lumberjack. I selected a 1"x3"x8' board with the straightest grain I could find, as well as the widest growth rings and greatest weight relative to other boards in the stack. You will have to dig through the pile, you might need to visit several lumberjacks, it's worth it, bad wood, bad bow, bad injuries."

179 words 959 characters, Post #1

[dordur]

Glius inspected the wood, however due to him only being a level one woodcrafter, did not notice anything worthwile. Glius then sliced an inch off the end while cutting a 70 inch portion off only leaving a 25 inch section.
Glius, barely resting anything at all took the 70 inch portion and attempted to locate the mark and center of each end with a success in the end.
After the success, Glius used a straight edge to make a line down the plank between these points (the center of each end)
Soon after doing that, Glius marked the center of the board and labeled the center extremely clearly
leaving the handle at 4 inches long, One inch wide and centered.
The wedges were 2 inches long and 2,5 inches wide with glius becoming lucky he managed to get exactly that.
As the limbs were supposed to be 30 inches long and go from the wdges to a width of 3/8ths inches
Glius was supposed to then read the rest of the recipe.

[[Recipe icly]

Begin by inspecting the wood, check for any splinters, cracks, knots, if you can work around them great, if not, go get another piece. Slice a inch off one end and then cut a 70 inch portion off, that will leave a 25 inch section.

Take the 70 inch portion and locate and mark the center of each end, snap a line, or use a straight edge to make a line down the plank between these points. Now mark the center of the board. Label the center very clearly. The bow is symmetrical so layout is easy.



The handle is 4 inches long, one inch wide and centered.

The "wedges" are 2 inches long and 2.5 inches wide.

The limbs are 30 inches long and go from the wedges to a width of 3/8ths inches.



Got that? Pretty simple.

317 words 1629 characters, Post #2


TOTAL OF 1215 WORDS....

[dordur]

Glius had read the rest of the recipe page and Started by cutting out the limbs, Using a saw he took 10 seconds to do so.
After that, Glius thinend the board down from stock size to to 7/16ths inch, Then using a hand plane to split the plank to thickness quite easily.


Cut out the limbs, i made a simple jig and used my table saw, took two seconds. Now thin the board down from the stock size to 7/16ths inch. I used a hand plane (yuck) or a table saw to split the plank to thickness.

Don't cut out the handle area yet.


As it was, Glius read that the bow would break so he had to make it thicker but also with a smooth transition to these limbs.
Glius started by cutting the saved 25 inch piece to 9 inches, and used his saw to carefully feed the piece back and forth across the saw he raised the blade in small increments


as is, is too thin, your bow will break there. So we are going to make it thicker, but we also need a smooth transition to the limbs.
Start by cutting the saved 25 inch piece to 9 inches. Now using your saw carefully feed the piece back an forth across the blade while raising the blade in small increments. the feather edge should be tangent with the highest point on the blade. you can make a simple sliding jig to ease the process, I didn't, but would recommend it. Also I used a 7 inch blade, a 10 inch would have made nicer fades.

Don't worry about getting a perfect paper thin edge, but get close, now you can glue the handle piece to the bow and let it dry at least 24 hours, and then cut out the handle.

Glius now proceeded to the next step:
As of this momment, Glius had a bow shaped object and thus started working it into a bow by erasing all the corners.
Then Glius cut a couple of thin wedges from scrap and then he lashed one inch from either end of the limbs as he purchased a heavy but long string  from some cord and started working on the bow [15g]

Right now you have a bow shaped object, and you have to start working it into a bow. Start by easing all the corners, this will help prevent "lifting a splinter" when you start flexing the bow. After that, cut a couple of thin wedges from scrap and lash then one inch from either end of the limbs.

Now make a heavy long string from some cord and we can start working the bow.

452 words 2253 characters, Post #3

[dordur]

After all this, Glius was starting to go bending the bow for a smooth curve, Glius took a stick that was around 3 foot piece and 2,5x4 and cut slots every inch as in the recipe.
Glius put the bow on the stick then the string into the slots he had cut open and pulled back getting a smooth and even curve.

Here's where it really get's scary, we are going to start bending the bow to get a smooth curve. We need a tillering stick, i just took a 3 foot piece of 2x4 and cut slots every inch, suboptimal, but workable.



So put the bow on the stick and start pulling it back, you want a smooth even curve, you can see my outer limbs are too stiff, so I'll scrape the belly (string) side to thin them. Keep working until you have a tiller you're happy with.

Using the tillering stick for something like this




As the final crafting momments of the bow approached, Glius spot glued the nocks an inch and a quarter from each end then lashing it with hemp twine Glius then soaked it with glue.

I liked the nock wedges over cut nocks on narrow limbs like these, so being chicken, I spot glued the nocks an inch and a quarter from each end, lashed with hemp twine and soaked with titebond glue. and they still moved when I first strung the bow!!! Fortunately just a 1/16 and symmetrically so I didn;t have to fix it, but that gives you an idea of the forces involved here.

267 words 1352 characters, Post #4