The Red Oak Bow Pt. 2

Alright, on to part 2 of the red oak bow. When we left our little bows they were rough cut, and had the risers glued on. Now we get down to the hand work. I use three files for this part of the construction. A small 4 way rasp, A mill file, and a huge hoggin' rasp. I work off of my homemade shaving horse which is a great tool to shape the limbs. I used to use a carpentry

vise, but the shaving horse is much better, not only is it quicker to move and clamp the bow, but its kind of nice to be able to sit down while I work. I start with the big rasp. If youll remember when I jigsawed off the angle off the limb I left a little extra wood up to my layout line. Nows the time to clean those lines up. I take the rasp, and slowly work along the limb, removing wood down to the line. Keep the rasp perpendicular to the limb, and work slowly. The 4 way rasp comes into play to remove small areas. When I have the limb rasped down to my line, I take a 60 grit sandpaper wrap it around a scrap block of wood, and straighten all the lines. I dont get too aggressive here as I dont want to remove too much wood beyond my layout line. Think of this step like feathering body work on a car. I smooth the angles on all 4 sides of the bow. Next its time to round over the belly of the bow. I work my way up the edges of the belly with the mill file. My goal here to just break the sharp edge with a slight bevel. When I get done with that I use the least aggressive side of the 4 way to round the edge over slightly. I do it this way because of the oaks tendency to splinter. using the least aggressive of the files moving towards the most removing a little material at a time. Next comes 60 grit sandpaper, followed by 150. I go up to end of the riser, but Im careful not to file into the riser. You can see how nicelythe limb is starting to take shape. At this point I only do the belly of the bow. In the next post youll see why. when the belly is rounded over and smoothed along both sides Im done with this round of work. Next time it'll be time to back these bows. I know this was a short post, and so likely youll think this is a short step. It is not, put aside an afternoon to do this. Its important to keep everything equal, and symmetrical. I want equal force and just about equal tension on each limb. This is achieved by taking my time , and making sure whatever I do to one limb I do to the other.

A find at the farmers market

     I do alot of these projects so money is always a factor. Anything that I can salvage, scrounge, or pick up as a freebie in any way is always welcome. The other day my wife, and I checked out a local farmers market. I noticed a set of train tracks right near where everything was set up. After exhausting my curiousity I left her to wander the stalls while I snuck away to walk the tracks for treasures. Train tracks are a great source of scrap metal. Theres always little (and sometimes big) bits of useable steel. My quick walk was rewarded with the quick discovery of 4 railroad spikes, and a large bolt that looks like it held a wheel on or something.  The value of spikes as knifemaking material is highly debated. The one blade Ive ever forged was from a spike, and although I dont have the experience to judge it seems to me to work pretty well.  One application Im keen to try them with is tomahawk blades. Throwing tomahawks has become like therapy to me. I can do it for hours, and totally lose track of time. Being able to forge my own hawks would be a great addition to my little cache of skills.  With a weeks vacation coming up soon I think trying to forge a tomahawk will probably be the topic of a near future post. My forge is in the middle of a redesign at the moment as I came into a cast iron semi brake drum that will be a Massive  upgrade. Between that and the bows I think Ill have plenty to talk about for awhile.  Keep an eye out for the next bow post soon  at this point Im a step ahead having already carved the limbs, and backed the bows with fiberglass.

The Red Oak Longbow PT. 1

I decided as my first project post Id do my red oak longbow. This is one of my most successful projects, and alot of fun. Basically Im making deadly weapons from some home improvement store lumber and glue. Before I begin I need to do a shout out. poor folks bows is a how to site about building bows at home. The site is spectacular, and well done. It is where I got my start making longbows, and I use alot of his methods. If you want to build a bow go to his site. Go ahead Ill wait right here for you.....................................Ok, back? Now Ill show you how I made my bow, its a long process so Im doing it in a few posts.

First I choose my wood. I go to a well known home store with alot of orange in its logo. Red oak 1x2 is my wood of choice, and I choose carefully. I will go through every board to find good ones. I do not compromise. If the 100 boards they have in stock dont cut it I go somewhere else. Compromising quality here is ending up with a face full of broken bow later. Im looking for 7 feet of board. I will use 1x4's if I have to. Theres just the extra step of ripping them in half. Im looking for a heavy board with wide rings in the cross section. It has to have a straight grain, and be straight as well. Noticed the table saw? I like to work by hand, but in this case precision is important. I could do this

without a table saw, but why? If the mountain men had table saws they would have used them. Besides there will be plenty of hand tool work in this project trust me. The saw is just a fast way to remove material youd otherwise have to rasp off. Now I have a good board I lop off a foot so I have a 6 foot section for my bow, the rest will be the riser. In the case of the photo I was forced to buy 6 foot boards, and have the guy at the store cut me a 2 foot section extra to make two risers from. The next step is ripping. I know that in the bows I make the thickest part will half an inch. The stock comes at 3/4. I rip the boards down to 1/2. Like I said you could carve these down after the fact to size if you had
to. I just prefer the ease of not spending 8 or 10 hours
rasping away at dusty wood. When the boards are ripped down I layout the limb dimensions. I use pretty much the same layouts as the fella in the website linked above. A 1/2 inch nock at the top, tapering 15 inches down the limb back to full width.

Limb layout is subjective, this has worked for me in the past so thats what I use. When the limb is laid out I use a jigsaw to remove some of the material. do not cut all the way to the line. I leave some slack so that I can go back with the rasp later and carve everything to a nice straight pleasing angle. While laying out the limb I also mark the exact center of the bow (36 inches if your math isnt good). I check my measurement from both ends to insure its even. Now remember that 1 foot section I took off before I ripped down? I cut it down again to 10 inches. This will be the final size of the riser. Then I mitre it 45 degrees on each end without taking off any length so that it is a trapezoid shape. Like so-----
                                                           |
<--------------------------------------

I measure to the exact center of the riser. I do this after I mitre just in case I knock off a 1/16, or so accidentally making the cut. The mitre as before is just a time saving measure, getting the riser closer to a finished shape. At this point Im ready to glue the riser. As a rule I use the ripped side of the bow as the belly, or the side facing you when you shoot. The reason I do this is I dont want flaws from the sawing to show in the back, and possibly raise a splinter. I take some sandpaper and I make the surface as smooth as possible to make sure I have a good joint with the riser.I spread glue on both surfaces and I clamp. I make sure to line up the marks I made on both pieces so that everything is glued dead center. Now its time to give the glue time to dry. 24 hours is fine, and after that it will be time to break out the rasps. In the next post Ill start the carving.
                                                                                     

A Few Words To Get Started

Self reliance, and "prepping" are big trends right now. People take them very, very seriously. This is not a serious blog. My journey into simple living, and self reliance is a hobby I do for fun, not a necessity. It is a lifestyle, but not an obsession.  Iam not an expert at survival, and I cant teach you how to prepare for WTSHTF, or TEOTWAWKI, or any of the other goofy acronyms folks use for when society finally takes a dump on itself. The fact of the matter is that when the world goes up in smoke I'll probably be just as screwed as 90 percent of the population out there. I can, and will however show you the skills I cultivate, and the experiments I do in self reliance. Even though they are done for fun they are useful, and they are my version of "prepping". I hate the term "prepping". It always makes me think of those goofballs on cable T.V. with a garage full of rice, and ammo. The guys who run swat drills with their kids on the weekends in half million dollar houses on a cul-de-sac. My contention is the best thing you can do to prep for any situation is to have skills. Think about it. Skills require no storage, are easy to transport, and with regular practice never spoil. With the right skills you can make, or forage just about anything you need. All you require is raw materials, and face it when the government goes rogue, and starts carpet bombing your neighborhood there will probably be alot of raw materials laying around. When Mr. TV Prepper is busy trying to fight off an Abrams tank, and a horde of hungry neighbors who saw his stash on the tube from the bedroom window of his split level coffin I'm going to be beating hell for the nearest wild area full of resources, thats my prep.

This will not be a "how-to" blog either. Like I said Im not an expert, and the best I can do is show you what I do, and what works for me. Whether it is the right way, or not I'm sure will be an area of debate. Before you criticize my methods however, consider this: Self reliance is just that, self reliance. That means when you dont know how to do something you have to figure it out. It may not always be the proper, or accepted method, but getting the job done is what youre going for. Pretty, and proper can come second. Keep in mind also I do this for fun. I do it because I like, tinkering, and building crap. I like the old methods of doing things. I like being able to improvise, and conquer any situation. Whenever I need, or want anything the first thing I think is "how could I build that?" Usually I come up with something. This manner of thinking led to my interests in self reliance. Years of tinkering, and being in the outdoors has made me pretty skilled in alot of different things. Ive lost track of all the projects, experiments, and adventures Ive had building these skills. Writing this blog is a way to keep track of that good, and if others get a kick out of it all the better. Well, I suppose Id better wrap up the lengthy explanation, and start writing something useful. Ill end with this disclaimer. This blog is for entertainment  purposes only! I dont want to hear some whiny crap about youre going to sue me because you lost an eye making a homemade slingshot, or some other thing you saw here. If youre going to be self reliant, the best way to get started is to not copy me right? However feel free to use my posts as inspiration for your own plans, just stay safe. Enjoy the show.