Looks good, hickory and humidity don’t go together well. If moisture goes up in the wood you may get excessive string follow. Good luck and have fun with it!

 

Yeah it’s lost a little reflex already. I keep it in a cool dry atmosphere but I know what you are saying. I’m going to fire harden the next one. Thanks!

 

Hell yeah!!

 

Thanks man. It was always on my bucket list to make one. I went this spring and made me 5 more staves so if I get time hopefully I make another one a little better knowing what I know now. Thanks again.

 

That's a good looking bow. I've only ever seen one self bow used. A casual friend brought it to the range to shoot for the first time. After about a dozen arrows it broke. He was unfazed. I think I was more upset than him. He claims to have made others. He said this one represented about 50 hours of work. I started shooting late, at 75 years old, but when I was younger I did like making my own equipment. After seeing that bow break I lost interest in self bows and just enjoy what I buy. Good luck.

 

Yeah, it's definitely part of the process I guess. Painful part. Frustrating part.

 

Nice job!

 

Thank you very much.

 

Looks good to me, how long did it end up being?

 

60”

 

Years ago, I was sent some pignut Hickory. I turned it into a 68" flat limb, about 60#. I was surprised how sweet it shot. Then I re-worked it and turned into a 65# 64". I killed a deer a number of rabbits and a pheasant. It was either magic or simply a really easy to be accurate hunting bow. It has gone with out use for the last years, I went to lighter draws. I just re-worked it again, it is now a 52# 64" hunting bow. It shoots dead quiet, steady in the hand, plenty fast enough and more accurate than ever. It is going hunting.

 

That’s awesome looks great. It took me a while and a lot of work but I loved every minute of it. I don’t have a shop so I made me a draw knife bench and would take it outside the garage and work on it in the evening sometimes in the night under my flood light.

 

I cheat when I make bows. example, I ordered a very custom half breed blank from Craig, the finest dark yew lams I have ever seen. I was attempting to make a 68" 26" sweet spot longbow. 57.5 at 26" and 60 @ 27". The best shooting longbow i have ever owned, my grandson has it now. It came very large, Craig did not want to over floor tiller it. I used power tools like i did with the yew blank and the laminated bows that i built years ago. I used saws, power grinder, and power sanders to turn that free chunk of super dry pignut into a bow. Not recommending this to others. I have built 48 houses, two classical guitars, and buildings that you could not fly a 737 through, i understand power tools, not so much those two handled draw knives are a mystery to me, but I bet they work better.
The pignut is still 64" long. I shot it again last night. I killed my foam deer at about 18 yards ten out of ten with one of these with that bow, it seems to really like them. 45 spine 27" Wapiti tapered bop Schulz original Hunter's Head.

 

Way better than my first attempt lol. Did you follow any specific resources?

 

Right on that's awesome! Im attempting to get a shootable selfbow right now have some elm ive been working and almost at floor tillering

 

Great job