Been a while!

Going on partial 2-week break from school. Meanwhile, I'm setting up my shop for blacksmithing. A really nice knifemaker gave me a piece of railroad track for an anvil. He also gave me some ceramic high-temperature Kaowool to line my gas forge, and a few pieces of high-carbon steel.

Anvil, piece of cable for "Cable Damascus" a.k.a pattern welding, and car leaf spring

Ceramic Kaowool

Partially filed surface for flatness

Zachary

Split and Out to Dry

So I decided to embark on splitting a log of sweetgum I had sitting in the garage for a few months to make a bow. It was going to be hard, but I didn't expect this much work. Took me about 3 hours. Right now, I sit exhausted in my computer chair typing. I'm taking advantage of the (hopefully) last week of high 90s to dry the de-barked log. It's going to be a flat bow--possibly Mollegabet design.

Notice, in this picture, that the thin limbs that bend but the last 4-5 inches at the tips do not. This design (modeled after a bow design found in a village called "Mollegabet") is a very fast design (shoots fast). Wider and thinner limbs (around 2 inches wide); and narrower and thicker tips (about 1/4" wide and 1/4" thick I'm pretty sure).

Well anyway, here are some pictures of splitting and de-barking with the really useful draw knife.

In case you were wondering, I used the butter knife to de-bark the wood.

Drying the elevated half because that's the one I'm planning on using. Next week I'll probably take the 14" bandsaw to it and split it in half down the its length.

Zachary

Sheath

Almost completed sheath. Just needs a belt loop and I'm thinking about adding a wrap-around snap to secure the knife.

Used a tutorial (with google translate). Basically a front, spacer, and then back sewed together with dacron B50. Cuir-bouilli hardened leather. I soaked the sewn sheath in hot water (which I couldn't keep my hand in for more than a second or less) for about 10 min. Then I oiled my knife (I recomend waxing, because it still started rusting even with the oil on) and placed the knife into the sheath. I put the whole thing in my dehydrator set to 140F for about 1 hour. I think I pulled the knife out after 30 min. or so.

I dyed it black with a absolutely putrid smelling black vinegar dye I made. Man that stuff it nasty! I had to put the sheath outside for a few hours to get most of the smell out of it.

That's it for now!
Zachary

Knife Handle Progress

Some progress on the rasp knife I've been working on.

Toasted Osage Orange (Bodark) handle with blackened steel rivets. I blackened the steel by heating it up over the fire and then dunking them into some olive oil. Seemed to do the trick.

I recently drilled a small lanyard hole on the end that looks rather nifty.

 Oh, and I'd like to hear your opinion on this variation? To me it seems to complete the handle, but what are your thoughts?

Next time, it'll be heat treating at the blacksmith's. I'll make sure to take some pictures of the process.

Zachary

How to Chop Wood Effectively (Short Video)

Not me chopping but the video was sent to me, so I thought I'd share with you.

An Amazing Young Archer

Wouldn't it be cool to be able to shoot like this guy? He's 14 years old. Wow...

It's Done!

Well, I did not know for sure whether I would actually get to this point. I finished my 50 hour project. 48" nock to nock. About 50 pounds @ 25". I'm thanking my Creator for allowing me to create this from start to finish. Also, don't forget the kind man who let me have a fresh green limb of his bodark tree.

My draw was a little high here, trying to rush to get it before the camera's self timer went off.

Hey don't feel like you gotta unsubscribe either, I have some other plans for projects I'll be posting here.

~ Zachary

Tilling Progress

After quite a long wait for some time, I've gotten started tillering the bow--that is--making the bow bend in an equal arc. It basically all boils down to this: take off wood where it isn't bending, and don't take off any where it already is. It's a lot harder than it looks. Right now I'm at 20" and it's very good weight-wise, but I want to get 24-28" draw which means I'll have to pull farther. That means the draw-weight will go up. Since it's pretty much already tillered, I need to take wood off slowly and evenly to slowly bring it down. Another couple days of good work and I should be done tillering. After that, I'll do the final touches and wrap the handle with leather. Next, I'll make some hand-forged steel broadhead arrows, most likely with an integral socket versus a tang.

A small, yet critical lifting of the back of the bow. This is pretty bad on most woods, but since Osage is so tough, superglue will prevent it from lifting any more and breaking the entire bow. No guarantees though! If I had sinew, I would use it.

Integral Socket is a socket that fits on the arrow and is glued in place.

This arrow has a tang on the end that is fit into a split arrow shaft and wrapped with sinew.

Progress on the Knife

Hook Pick - WIP

While I'm finishing up my knife, I've also started (and almost finished) a hoof pick for my sister. If you're not sure what that is... well, it's just a pick to clean out a horse's hoof. Unlike my knife, I forged this out of a short triangular piece of cut-off from my rasp knife. All I have to do now is normalize it a couple times (heat it up to critical temperature 800F and let it cool). Then I have to heat it to critical and quench it in light oil, polish it, temper it with the blow torch and finish it up.

First Rasp Knife - WIP

Here's my first Knife made out of a Safe Sharp rasp. I cut almost the whole knife out with a hacksaw. It doesn't have an edge on it yet. I hope to sharpen it and put a handle on it soon. Most of the file marks will also come out. It's approx. 8.5 inches long.

Bow Form is Done

My bow form is pretty much completed. Since I have a whole week off of pretty much all school, I'll be working on my bow quite a bit, so be ready for more posts very soon.

My bow form--properly called a "Caul" allows me to bend the bow in the opposite direction than it would normally bend, giving it even more speed and poundage when drawn.

Blacksmithing - Using my Homemade Forge (Videos)

My Homemade Forge!

Recently, I've gotten interested in blacksmithing--partly because I really want to make some arrows for my osage bow (not yet completed) and partly because I like doing things with fire so it seemed really interesting and useful to me.

So here are some videos of the process of finding out if a piece of metal is hardenable and therefore able to keep an edge whether it be a knife or an arrowhead, etc.

Zachary

A good Osage Bow was Worth a Horse and a Blanket

In Arkansas, in the early 19th century, a good Osage bow was worth a horse and a blanket. - Wikipedia

Weapons that Made Britian: The Longbow

Awesome videos that my cousin, Micah, told me about. Enjoy!

Linen-backed Red Oak Bow

I recently made a red oak board bow backed with linen. It's approx. 40-50# @ 28". I still need to get myself some decent arrows. It's really just a "Pre-bow" so I don't mess up tillering on my nice one that I'm making from osage. Since this one is made from a board, it didn't take me long, helped me get some practice tillering, and if I messed up wouldn't be that much of a deal considering I only spent about 4 or 5 hours on it. :)

Burning Osage Orange

A little video comparing burning osage wood versus a bit of white ash wood (I think). I love the orange flames, the smell of the smoke, and the crackling sounds... it just is soo relaxing.

Tapering the Bow (I'm at the 40 hour mark!)

Today I spent about 3-4 hours on the bow working on tapering it bringing my total working time on the bow so far to 40 hours. Below are some videos...

Short-Bow Update

Half-way done chasing the ring on the bow.

Finally, I'm done chasing the ring on the back of the bow. It's taken me about 10 hours here and there. Those hours ticked by pretty quick though... I was really enjoying it. The color of the wood is amazing! As Osage Orange gets older, the wood deepens in color from yellow to a dark orange.

What's next for me to do? Well now I have to shape the bow. More than one person on some primitive forums said that mollegabet (the design I was going to use) was the last design they would use for a small bow (Mine's 50") I'm going to go with tapered sides. Probably 1.25" at the handle and .5" at the tips.

Awesome

I've been talking to my cousin lately, and he's thinking about building a wood cross-bow. It's a really neat experience for both me and him since I get to help him along the way. Visit his new blog here!

Progress

In a bit of a dilemma...

Sorry about the camera moving around so much, I'll try to keep it more steady next time.

I'll continue to keep you posted with more videos!

Zachary

The Perils of Using Kiln-Dried Wood

Quite a while ago, I discovered my interest in bow making. I took out several books out of the library, most of them being survival books. Making a survival bow is quite different than making a bow on the workbench--as a life-or-death situation requires speed not necessarily quality.

I had read from multiple sources that wood was better for bow-making when dried to 7-10% moisture level. Although kiln-dried wood dries to around 7%, it's done rapidly, making the wood brittle and unfit for making bows with. My idea was that 7% moisture content, kiln-dried or not, was ideal. Well, I eventually broke that bow trying to make an arrow rest in it. Later that same day, my dad and I went to the library. I pulled out the only book on the subject and started reading. There it was, plain as day...

. . . if someone tries to convince you to use kiln dried wood for a bow, you should wave your arms and make  horrible faces. If that doesn't scare him off, be prepared to run for your life. Kiln dried wood is brittle and will NOT make a bow . . . Bows & Arrows of the Native Americans by Jim Hamm

I sure learned that lesson. The bow I made did bend nicely and I was able to string it and shoot a quite a few arrows with it. But once I cut that arrow rest, it cracked and broke. Thankfully, it broke on the tiller stick, not in my hands (ouch).

Also, I've gotten a resource page up now where you can find videos, articles, and books I've read. I'm going to be updating it periodically as I go, so check it out!

Splitting the Wood to Make Staves

My Dad and I got to working on splitting the log. It took longer than I had expected; nevertheless we got it split with some metal chisel/wedge spikes we found in the garage. The split wasn't very clean, in fact we cut through my sharpie-line marking the where the bow was going to be. Fortunately, I found a good spot to shape the bow on both halves. This way, if I mess up on one half, I'll have the other half to go back to.

One of the things I planned wrong, was splitting the log on a knot/cut-off branch. Knots are not very good when making bows, and by splitting through, we basically made both halves have the same problem...ugh.

I need a draw knife now to get the half down to the rough size and shape, so I've posted some 'wanted' ads on freecycle (they're expensive). I'm going to let the staves dry for a couple of weeks or more. Some people let theirs dry for a few years. To get around this some people use kiln-dried wood which can be bought at the hardware store. This stuff if brittle and will NOT make a bow. (I'll get into why not and my experience with it in another post)

I'm going to let mine dry for a couple weeks (or until I get my draw knife if that will be longer than a couple weeks) and then rough out the bow. After, if gets rather warm, I'll stick it up in the attic to dry quicker. (a month or so should do) If it doesn't get warm soon, I'll probably work it while it's still green. That way, if I want to add some re-curve to it, it'll be easier to bend with steam and heat. I haven't made up my mind exactly how the process will go, but I'll know later down the line.

Each stave is about 50" long, a little short, but that's okay for my first bow.  :)

Putting wood glue on the ends of the staves slows the drying process to prevent checking or splitting.

Kaya thinks we split it for her...

Day 1 - Collecting the Wood for the Bow

Wednesday, February 23, 2011:

I went to go pick out a good size straight log of bodark--also known as Bois d'arc, Osage Orange, and Horse Apple--for my bow. There were plenty of pieces of bodark lying around, but they weren't suitable for bow making. Anything with many cracks or twisted bark I can't use for a bow. We actually found a perfect size and grain log, but ripping the bark apart, we found that it was ant-infested. Ah well.

The man who owned the property was kind enough to cut a green piece off of one of his trees. Even better since a green limb will be easier to work with. I coated the ends of the log with wood glue to prevent the wood from drying to quickly and cracking as a result. To give you an idea of just how big this thing is, I uploaded a few pictures.

I hope to split it into staves very soon. Maybe tomorrow? I'll make sure to give you guys updates on how it goes.

Zachary