May 17, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
629 
Forest and Stream is the official organ of the National Archery Association. 
Notes on Bow Making 
By J. M. CHALLISS 
A rchery as a pastime, either at the targets, 
or in pursuit of game, is sufficient unto it¬ 
self, and yet it has an added pleasure for 
its devotees if they will manufacture their own 
gear. Professional bowyers have brought the art 
to a high degree of perfection, but the beauty, 
symmetry and perfection of a Barnes product 
need not discourage one who has a fair degree of 
proficiency in using wood-working tools. It is 
for the purpose of possibly aiding those who 
have the courage to try that the following ob¬ 
servations of an amateur, based on actual ex¬ 
perience, are given. 
The selection of the material from which 
to make the bow is, of course, the first step. In 
works upon the subject it is generally stated 
that bows are made of ‘‘yew, washaba or lance.” 
That statement generally is sufficient to put an 
end to further inquiry or progress. The Cen¬ 
tury Dictionary does not even define “washaba.” 
If you are able to secure these expensive im¬ 
ported woods, well and good, but as a rule, they 
are not to be procured outside of the large 
cities. This is not to be regretted, however, as 
there are at hand many American woods from 
which excellent bows may be made. Chief 
among these, and, in fact, as good as can be 
procured anywhere, is the Oregon yew. It is 
with this native wood that Barnes has attained 
an international reputation as a bowyer. But 
yew is not on the market, and unless you live 
where you may gather it yourself—that is, in 
California, Oregon or Washington—it is not 
available for our purpose. 
When we consider the nature of a bow, 
and the duty it has to perform, it is apparent 
that any wood which is sound and free from 
defects will make a bow. Its quality and dur¬ 
ability will depend upon what wood has been 
selected. The wood most commonly used for boys’ 
bows is hickory, and many a graybeard will ex¬ 
tol! at length the virtues of such a bow, when, 
as a matter of fact, it is about as unsuitable for 
use in making a self bow as any wood that 
may be selected. After use, hickory seems to 
lose its cast, due to the fibre of the wood be¬ 
coming crushed in the belly of the bow. In 
use there is a severe crushing or pressing strain 
put on the belly of the bow, while the tendency 
is to pull or stretch the fibers of the back. 
Hickory will stand this pulling and stretching, 
but fails when it comes to the crushing test. 
Bow-makers take advantage of this character¬ 
istic of hickory in using it for the backs of 
backed bows, and none, outside of yew, makes 
a better back. 
If you have access to growing timber, you 
may select your bow wood from a large num¬ 
ber of native trees at hand. If, unfortunately, 
you live in the city, you may be forced to search 
through the lumber yard or wagon shop and 
be content with old and brash wood, which in 
all probability will be kiln dried, and conse¬ 
quently ruined. Select a sapling or young tree 
of from three to five inches in diameter, the 
trunk of which is straight and free from knots 
and limbs. In making your selection you can 
take either mulberry, black locust, sassafras, 
black walnut, osage orange, rock elm, ash, hem¬ 
lock, dogwood, redbud, southern cedar, and if 
nothing better is found, hickory. This list is 
not exhaustive. Experiment and you may find 
a better wood than any of them. Good bows 
have been made from all named. When you 
have selected your tree, cut a piece from the 
trunk at least six feet and three inches long, 
and remove the bark from same. Saw the trunk 
lengthwise through the middle, and if you have 
selected a tree large enough you can saw each 
half through to make a bow. You will find that 
there is a marked difference between the sap 
and heart of the wood, both in looks and qual¬ 
ity, and we take advantage of this fact later on. 
Before proceeding further, it will be neces¬ 
sary to season the wood. Aldred, the English 
bowyer, seasons his wo.od five years, but we will 
take a shorter cut and get some results, though 
not so good. The sticks should be immersed 
in the bed of a running stream, and weighted 
to keep them under the water and left there 
from two to six weeks, depending upon the 
nature of the wood and its size. A wood with 
close, compact grain will require more time 
than one more open and porous. The theory 
of this method of seasoning-—and it is proven 
in practice—is that the sap of the wood is sup¬ 
planted by the water, and when the water is 
subsequently driven out, the grain of the wood 
is left tough and elastic rather than dry and 
brittle, as would be the case if the wood was 
allowed to season in the air. This is shown by 
the fact that kiln-dried timber is almost in¬ 
variably brash and liable to fracture upon the 
slightest strain. If it is impossible to secure 
a stream to immerse your sticks in they may be 
soaked in a cistern or tank; the running water 
simply accelerates the elimination of the sap. 
After the sticks have soaked a sufficient length 
of time they should be taken from the water, 
wiped dry and placed in the shade for a week 
and then hung up over the kitchen range for 
another week for final seasoning. They are 
still far from being thoroughly seasoned, but 
they will do to experiment with. 
The strength, and consequently the casting 
power of a bow is determined by the number 
of pounds it is necessary to pull upon the 
string in order to pull it back the full length of 
the arrow, and is referred to as the weight of 
the bow. This statement, as far as the casting 
power of a bow is concerned, is only partially 
true, as some bow woods are much quicker than 
others, and with two bows of equal weight, but 
made of different woods, one is liable to have a 
further cast than the other. It is this quickness 
of cast that makes yew so valuable; not this 
alone, however, as snakewood has a quicker 
cast, but is rejected by veteran archers on ac¬ 
count of its being heavy in the hand, liability 
to jar and fragility. The weight of the bow is 
determined by its length, the amount of ma¬ 
terial left in it and the quality of the wood. The 
hard, dense woods, such as ash, hickory and 
osage orange, will require less bulk than the 
softer woods, such as sassafras and cedar. A 
lance or osage orange bow one inch in 
diameter at its largest part will weigh sixty-five 
pounds, while a sassafras bow of the same size 
will weigh about twenty-five pounds. The 
shorter a bow of given size the more it will 
weigh. We cannot determine in advance just 
how large the finished bow will be, but will 
have to determine that by experiment and re¬ 
peated trials, so a safe rule is to make your bow 
larger than you have reason to believe will be 
acceptable and then reduce it to the required 
weight. 
For your first trial select your poorest 
stick to practice upon. If you are successful in 
the first instance you have in reserve a better 
stick, more thoroughly seasoned, and can make 
a better bow. After determining the length 
yon want your bow, which for a man should be 
six feet, measure your stick and cut it to the 
e.xact length if it is your intention to use horn 
tips on the ends of the bow. If you are not go¬ 
ing to use horn tips, but intend to cut notches 
in the bow itself to carry the string, the stick 
should be cut three inches longer than you want 
the finished bow. The sap of the wood is 
tough and elastic, so we must use it for the 
back, while the older and more dense heart 
wood is used for the belly or inside of the bow. 
Square up your stick along the edges with a 
drawing knife, so that it may be firmly held in 
the vise with the sap uppermost. In doing so 
you can shave it down, removing an equal 
amount from either side until it is 1%. inches 
wide, but do all of this work on the edges, not 
on the heart or sap of the stick. Right here we 
might as well say that the indespensable tools 
in bow making are a bench, vise and drawing 
knife. Desirable tools are a small plane, spoke 
shave, wood rasp, rat-tail file, scraper and sand 
paper; but the first three you must have, at 
least we require them. After squaring up your 
stick on the edges and planing the edges parallel 
and straight with the jack plane, place the stick 
in the vise, sap uppermost. Study the grain 
of the wood. The life and virtue of your bow 
will depend upon attention to these details. 
Does the grain run true, flat and even or does 
