Where to get bow staves and wood for bow building self bows and primitive bows.
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- čas přidán 30. 04. 2019
- Where can I buy an Osage bow stave? Do you sell bow staves? Can I make a selfbow from hickory, ash, maple, etc?
These are some of the most common bow and arrow building questions I get so here’s a video describing the pros and cons of acquiring bow staves for building self bows and other primitive bows to help you decide what how best to get started.
Harvesting your own bow wood is a great way to get a lot of staves for cheap or free. The downside is that it's a ton of work and you’ll need to dry the staves before starting to build your longbow or recurve. Even though you'll need to wait, if you have the opportunity to harvest your own osage, hickory, maple, locust, etc. go ahead and do it. They'll be dry soon enough and you'll be happy you did.
Buying staves is a good way to get wood that’ll be ready to go. But it’s expensive. And if you need to ship the staves, the cost will go up by around 50%!
The third option is to start with board bows. This is a great option for beginners because you ca get hardwood boards easily and cheap. When you first start building primitive bows, you need to be able to affordable to make mistakes. Board bows are a great way to start.
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I appreciate the realistic mentality about making your 1st bow, I'm a perfectionist and would probably be very discouraged if I messed up my 1st self bow
Brother thats just the process u break some and learn alot with each one till u make a work of art
That’s right practice makes perfect every mistake is one more step towards that perfection that you are determined to achieve tenacity is the foundation of victory
My first bow became an axe handle. Onwards
Me too man. Mine exploded 😂
Tried to make my first bow out of oak. Heard a crack during the early tillering process. Haven't touched that thing ever since.
Here in western CO, Siberian elm is about the only readily available wood around fit for bows, and most folks regard it as a weed. Last week I was biking the river trail, and saw an elm. It was felled by beaver, and snagged, across a creek. The trunk was straight for 12 feet, 10" diameter. I contacted Parks and Rec, and explained my interest. They cut it out of the snag, then said I could go get it. Now its home, cut to length, split, and debarked. We'll see what it turns into.
I've also had good results using elm for hammer, axe handles, etc.
Thanks for taking the time to talk with us about bow making.
My journey in life, learning new things has had me weed out many ‘teachers’ . Well done young man. Subscribed.
Thanks Ray
I like your style and it's been exactly how I've approached my journey as a bowyer. cheers from Vancouver island, Canada.
Clays bow is a wicked setup. I love how it's all twisted up
instaBlaster
Started tillering on my first board bow yester day. This is all incredibly interesting and exciting. I am grateful for you taking the time to share this information. I am 45# @ 16" so I have a long way to go to get to 29". This one is just a flatbow with no extra handle material on the back. I think you called that a "D" bow maybe? I am following your four part maple board bow series. I am 35 years old, I fish more than I should be allowed to but I have never been hunting. So I hope I can muster the nerve after an off season or two of practice. I have 4 kids and I feel like it is my duty to them to learn this so that I can teach them. Thanks again and God bless you and yours.
Terrific video. Been building bows since 1975...still learning too!
Working with juniper here in southern Utah. Gonna make a Comanche style green bow to start and see what happens. Maybe fire dry the next bow stave. Learning Flint knapping and yucca twine string making as well. Thanks for the information and inspiration Clay.
🙏✌️♥️🌍🇺🇲
Good video as always Clay! I’m fortunate enough to live in Oklahoma where Osage is plentiful. I did make my first few bows from hickory boards while I was waiting on my Osage to season out though.
You deserve more recognition of sorts. You are a wealth of information and I don't know how to thank you.
I appreciate that!
Really enjoy your videos and content. Thank you for making them!
Man, thank you for your generosity in educating everyone on this stuff. I'm a half decent woodworker, and I'm going to start seriously thinking about making bows.
Stop thinking and get started!
@@clayhayeshunter Your book is ordered!
Outstanding! Thank you for the gracious info.
Clay, Absolute best presentation of selected wood species and cover their prespective qualities. I truly enjoy your demeanor in you presentation.
Jim Rodgers
Very welcome
Mr. Hayes I'm not a bow maker but I am a bowhunter. I also have a little land in Southeast Oklahoma that is covered up in Osage trees we call'em Bois D'Arc. If ya ever need wood, me and you could definitely work something out!
Im in Washington State where there is no osage anywhere at all, and no hickory, and yew is very scarce. I wish i lived in a place where i had endless osage
Love the channel mate! You can see your passion for it shine through. I'm going to try make a Yew recurve bow next month. It's a pretty terrible bit of wood, but then I wont feel so bad when I make mistakes!
Have fun!
Yay I love both of these channels so much!!!! I'm gonna try and make a bow about of gamble/scrub oak that's found out here in the south western US!
Great video Clay!
Cody
Love your presentation. You are a great speaker and you give a sense that you really know what you are talking about. I have 45 acres of timber in SE Ohio and over half my forest is shagbark and pignut hickory. No osage, some elm.
That pignut will work fine.
Awesome video !
Thanks for the great information.
Very informative. I really want to make myself one this year.
I just discovered your site and I’m really enjoying your content. I’ve been watching hunt primitive for about a year now and really feel that between the two of you y’all really cover everything someone new into traditional or primitive archery would need to be off to a great start. I also agree completely with what you said for new bow builders, it took my forth bow myself before I built one I felt confident would kill a deer. Keep up the great work and God Bless!
Thanks John
Love it great help
About the only real bows I have made were all red oak board bows, its one of the few woods I have ready access too here. I am sure I can track down more wood suppliers, but the bows I made work perfectly well imo. I've experimented with local woods, with mixed results, I need to experiment more however, there is a LOT of different trees around me. Good video.
Crepe Myrtle is an awesome specie,
it’s also very stable and doesn’t split and crack much at all after cutting green. We let several saplings dry in our hot garage for 3 years: Zero degrade, zero warping.
Cool
Yeah I got my butt spanked when I was 11 for cutting Crepe Myrtle beside my grandmother's house. She was more than angry!
Great stuff Clay! Thanks
Made a self bow out of an ash I harvested. First bow ever and worked okay. Total success... I never seasoned the wood so as I was floor tilliering it maintained a curve. Not horribe but im sure it zaps some of the power.
Thanks for your work
For me the best bow wood is a black locust... btw great video bro... greetings from Slovakia
Best explaination so far, thanks sir
You’re welcome
Great video!
Clay - I have to hit notice your book. I look at good wood - but it gets run into firewood. (HEREO}I tried to help me - making staves, but I never realized how bad the checking and how ruining a stave - by controlling evaporate on your work. I wish you the BEST all of the American Market and let you rock books. Cheers to you! & yours-- many cheersQ
I just started my first bow today making it out of american hornbeam thanks for the guidance!
Have fun
I was fortunate to come across a really nice Osage dealer from Oklahoma. Just bought x2 70" premium staves for about $70
Hey man, I live in kamiah. I have built a couple bows and am not a weirdo. I would love to meet with you and learn a thing or two. Got a lot of respect for you and the things that you and I share as a driving force in your life and mine. Juliette a is not far.
great work and congrats on alone s8 looking forward to checkin out your books
Much appreciated!
Thank you . Enjoy the video. One day I would love to make a bow.
Just do it pussy
Thanks very much from England.
Just saw you on alone. Told my wife it'd be between you and Biko on the first episode. You killed it man
Thanks much
A lot of these descriptions of wood can be found in Clay’s book. Helps a ton!
fuck off shill
love this
I live in Oklahoma and am harvesting Osage this spring not for me for my grandsons
Hackberry is one of my favorite bow woods it grows everywhere here in southern Indiana.
I'm in Southeast idaho and there are 3 main exelent woods here. My favorite is chokecherry, it's very sensitive to checking but it has the best speed. The others are vine maple and juniper. Mabie mountain mahogany if you can find something straight and without those goddamned beetles. I wish I could come into other ranges to get all the others I can't here.
Very good advice as usual, Clay. I have heard and read that it is possible to speed the bow making process with white woods, such as hickory or elm, by stripping the bark and roughing out the bow to almost finished dimensions them allowing the bow to dry. According to what I've been told the thinner wood drys more quickly, say a couple or three weeks. Then the bow can be tillered and finished. I've heard it also works for osage. What are your thoughts or findings about that approach?
Some woods can handle this but many will develop cracks as the wood drys to rapidly.
I’ve done two board bows so far , one broke and the second got completed but it’s only 23# was shooting for 45#lol, grandkids now have a bow
Hi ,,, really love to make my own bow , really confused about the length of the riser and bottom and top , can you make a video about detail measurement of that.. it would really helpful...❤️
I want that bow in the thumbnail pic it looks sweet.
Hey I have been watching your videos lately trying to figure out how to get better at bow making. I have made my first bow and it has a massive hinge in it and I was wondering if you had any advice on how to work out that hinge as it is very frustrating and everything I have tried does not seem to work.
Well hello and watching your videos have a couple questions I've made three hickory bows and a Osage bow I harvested 2 years ago some black walnut off my property and then wanting to make a bow and shoot a deer with it on my property but I've never heard of anybody make them bow out of black walnut so I'm wondering do I have to back the bowl or do you recommend backing the bowl I'd rather not if I don't have to My plans are to work the wood just like Osage is that the right way or the wrong way with black Walmart thanks I'll keep watching the videos I like them a lot get information Love the hunts
Started out with hickory and made bows I was happy with, had about two dozen good staves dried, when I made my first bow from Osage it was obvious I’d never use anything else again it was so much better. I gave all my hickory to a guy on CZcams GoGeronimo that was making bows, he drove all the way down to my house to pick it up.
Hickory is a great wood to start with!
For most people I think Hickory is probably the best board bow wood to start with, as long as the wood grain is not absolutely crazy and the wood hasn't been dried too much as lumber, it's pretty much impossible to screw up a hickory board bow that can pull up to 60 or 70 lbs; 45 lbs is a pretty good draw weight to aim for for a first selfbow. You can buy decent hickory lumber for a bow for $20 plus shipping (avoid 3 rivers) ; I've made 8 english long bows from a thick piece of hickory plank I bought at a wood working store for $32.
SeadartVSG did you have to back it because it was from a board instead of a tree?
@@shanek6582 No not usually necessary to back hickory board bows used for english longbows up to about 65 lbs. If there is something funky about the grain I will back it. I also back heavier hickory board bows 65 lbs + with bamboo. I have several different videos with backed and unbacked hickory board bows, including a hickory viking bow that is about 65 pounds and unbacked, both backed and unbacked 45 lb ELBs, and two bamboo backed 65-75 lb ELBS. I know some folks who are making 120 lb hickory self bows from choice pieces of custom cut lumber - I don't suggest doing this with the crap sold in US home center stores. That being said I just exploded an unusal shape 65 lb unbacked hickory bow on the tiller, sometimes the wood is unpredictable, but not usually.
The secret to success with unbacked board bows is to carefully pick the piece of wood you use to have straight grain and not a lot of run offs of the back. It takes a little practice to choose the wood, so buying from someone who knows how to cut wood and select for bows is not a bad idea in the beginning. You can also practice on red oak, that is really cheap, but hard to find good pieces at home center stores.
Lots of maple bow building
Building bows is like breaking horses and mules. The day you quit think you know it all is the day you quit learning.
I learn something new Everytime I touch a piece of wood, or start a new horse!
Greetings Clay, This is great information, thank you. Being from New England we have a number of white woods available to experiment with. On occasion we harvest white ash in order to get basket weaving material. We use a method which by pounding an ash log, we separate the growth rings allowing us to peel up the ash splints for weaving materials. With ash being pretty clear of knots, and having such pronounced growth rings. Have you or anyone you might know ever used ash for a bow? Thank you for your time and for always sharing such great information.
I’ve never tried it but I know others have made good bows from ash.
@@clayhayeshunter Nice to know, thanks Clay.
With such a short draw length yielding no consistent anchor point, is it not difficult to avoid overdrawing and snapping the bow? Such a flat belly could result in failure rather than a bit more string-follow too guess? Very interesting video, thank you.
My first bow was hackberry I think, but it was pretty forgiving my second and third was honeysuckle the fourth I broke and a few more I broke. Ash of some kind worked very well. Black locust is everywhere I think that's next for me. I also made a small Osage bow rawhide backed and laminated red oak to it.
Also I'm making a fiberglass horse bow just because it's fun to make bows.
my first was using kiln-dried hickory because it's all I could use at the time
pretty bad mistake, I remember it being very, very hard to carve lol
@@escapetherace1943 i also made two fiberglass bows. I ordered the pieces from eBay. Horse bows they worked very well. I'm going to make a bow form or mold and try to make a laminated bow but i can't decide if i want to make one like Kramer has or something like it or something like Meadbows latest "super efficient no tiller" bow. Which is like a horse bow.
What would you make first?
@@joeytheetge9268 I had to laminate a backing on mine because the wood wanted to split, and I thought I payed attention to the grain. My wood wasn't proper to begin with.
I say make your own bow in traditional fashion, it's fun and connecting.
I plan to go cut a small ash tree down and make a few staves and dry them out. Ash is a good beginner wood
Once I make a few decent longbows I want to go for a recurve by getting it wet/hot and forming it, I think. I haven't read how in ages
I harvested a dogwood stave
You have any experience with this wood and what I might expect with a build out of this.
Is it possible to make a recurve bow like you use from Ash instead of Osage orange?
Actually nevermind i have to do it all on my own but i do admire what you do. So take care
Cool, U do make primitive 👍👍✌
Does Arkansas have a group like the Oklahoma Selfbow Society and/or gatherings like the mentioned jamboree?
I really enjoy your videos, can you steam bend the tips of a hickory board bow.
Yes.
Clay I read in the comments that you sell osage staves, but don’t have any seasoned. Do you have any suggestions on reputable dealers to buy a stave from?
Thank you sir
I bought Tasmanian oak but the horizontal rings isn't quarter cut.. so.. a bit hard
Can I use strong paracord for the tillering process also what is good string for Flemish twist if I use fast flight string would I have to reinforce bow tips on hickory bow
I use a paracord tillered string. Check out the tip overlay vid.
Hey Clay, I started to look your Vids some weeks ago and I like it very much! Now I want to start to make my own Bow but, I have a problem. What kind of wood I should use in Germany, you talk very much about the wood in USA, I guess shipping is very expensive. xD Is beech or german oak an good option?
LG Marc
There’s tons of eastern red cedar in Kentucky. My question now that you’ve approved the usage of it is, is it better to use harvest the fallen ones that have had time to dry or cure? Or to use live trees and self cure it
Either way. But sometimes the dead trees can be cracked up.
Hi Clay, I really enjoy your posts here. Question for you: I bought a hickory board to make a bow and was making (so I thought) great progress, just for fun I put a string on it and pulled it back several times...the third time I drew it back it cracked about 1 foot from the upper limb. I was guessing it was around 45-50 lbs. It looks like a laminated bow where it broke, I'm thinking it was too dry. What do you think?
It's really hard to say without seeing it. If it were a board I'm guessing it was probably grain run off or perhaps a tiller issue.
I am in Australia and at 58 I would like to make my first bow, however the hardware store only sells pine, jarrah, mercantile and Tasmanian Oak and from the search I have done there to brittle or to weak can you suggest something . Regards Andy .Perth Australia.
What is the tree with the thorns? Does it make a good bow?
Hey Clay, what kind of wood do you recommend looking for in board bows, what size and where to get them?
hard maple and hickory 1x2 boards work well.
Can you laminate, say Hickory for the back and Osage for the belly? Use Maple for the handle/riser?
Absolutely
I have hornbeam all over my property. Do they make decent bows? They kind of look like hickory
Yep
Awesome channel. Do you know anything about how madrone from the PNW would perform?
I don’t. Vine maple is common in thr PNW. It works well.
Thankyou
Clay, I m looking in my nat geo trees of North Am and I found a small entry on Osage. I ve spent a lot of time in the woods but I m sure if I ve ever seen an Osage Orange , then I remember the “hedge apples” we used to throw when we were kids. Is that an Osage Orange tree? I know where hundreds are if they are.
Yes. Same thing.
Is acacia wood can be transformed into a bow?
Hey Clay. I have some eastern cedar and was wondering if it can be reflex ?
Yes, slightly. But I think it’s best to do it while the tree is green.
So for the hickory species that you’ve worked with that are able to be worked on quickly; is shagbark among them? I live in Pennsylvania and am a logger, so I have ready access to shagbark hickory. Thanks.
I’ve only ever used the tight barked varieties like pignut.
I been using white and black ash wood staves. Makes a good bow but I'm curious anyone else have any experience with ash for bows?
Can indian woods are aligible for bows
Just saw 3 staves go on ebay for around 200 each. Never thought they could go that high and they didn’t even looks super great.
wow! That's a lot for osage.
I found some Osage in my area. Mix of live and dead standing. Can the dead standing be used for staves?
if the woods not rotten or over dry then have a go, ive made a recurve self bow out of a dead plum tree, just check for worm holes in the wood
Can be possible to make a bow out of mesquite wood?.
That's my main problem. Some woods are so flexible that you even can bend the stave. But there are some woods, no matter how thin you tiller them they don't want to bend and you fear of breaking them.
That is why you adjust the width of the bow. Fatter for less dense woods. If the bow is good in compression then you can make the belly less wide so that it balances with the back or the inverse for woods that are bad in compression, make the belly wider.
Osage makes for a narrow bow. Pine results in something so wide that you really don't even want to use that wood. Density of wood is what matters most in bow design.
@@DouglasEKnappMSAOM I agree. Narrow bows for hardwood. Wide bows for softwood. I have a Brazilian Pepper bow that is a work in progress and kind of has the density of hard Maple but like hard Maple its still a softwood so that is how I am treating it. Wide.
How do you quick dry bow wood hickory
@@DouglasEKnappMSAOM Thanks for that, that's a very useful rule of thumb
@@rbm6184 Brazilian pepper it's good for bow? I've cut a stave but didn't dried yet, I live in Brazil, aroeira is how we call here.
I would buy that book if you make it. You know about bow woods
Hi, wich species would you use in order To make an hollow limb design ?
I’ve seen that design used for many species.
Anyone in France... any farm store will have 1000's of split 6 foot black locust staves. They use them as posts in the vineyards. Often already seasoned a couple of years, any they always let you sort through them
Good tip
Maybe this is a dumb question but couldn't you laminate a wood good in compression on the belly and use a wood better at tension on the back of the bow?
Yes you could. This isn’t technically a selfbow though. It would be a natural materials composite.
Have a lot of bass wood up here. Highly fiberous wood. Would it make a good bow though?
I doubt it. I think it’s pretty soft.
whats a wood I can use in Idaho? I know I will have to back it. what wood should I look for in Idaho?
Serviceberries, yew, juniper, hawthorn
Who is a good arrow maker
I have a bow I made from dogwood also known a syringa. The Nez Perce used this wood for bows. They were mostly short bows with a long draw. I used sinew on the back.
Cool, I’m familiar with the species.
I've been making my own archery gear for 64 years now. I live down in S/W corner of Ia. what used to be Mo. before the Honey war. We that live here call it the Bee Tree War. In all those years I never run across a Kentucky Coffee Tree, till now. Just wondering if you know anything about the wood. Looks & feels like it will make a good bow. Thanks
I’ve heard that it will make a good bow but I have no experience with it.
Mr Clay if i want to buy the bow you made, how much?
Clay, huge fan of your stuff as a new bow builder. I got a permit to pick up down wood in a national forest. Should be cedar and Osage there. Have you ever heard of anyone having any luck getting bow wood with that approach?
Down Osage can still make a bow. It’s very rot resistant.
I'm trying out a Black birch and dogwood. Two different bows. wish me luck
Have fun
Was that an Eastern Red Cedar you were scraping at the end?
probably
Wood walnut good or not good
Have you ever tried making a bow out of Walnut, specifically English Walnut and Black Walnut? I also have several locust trees (also called 'Cat-Trees' due to the thorns in the bark) available in my yard. As well as pines, oaks, maples, and general trees in the central east coast.
Hard maple will make a decent bow. As well as oaks, hickory, elm, hornbeam, etc.
@@clayhayeshunter Thank you!
I’m a novice, but I made a couple nice bows of Black locust. Nice and strong.
Only trees i know of in Arizona is pine and juniper.