Board Bow!
Did you know that you can build a great bow from a maple board that you can pick up at your local hardware store? Building a board bow is a great way to start building bows without sinking a lot of money into an osage stave. The number one question I get through my website is “where can I buy an osage stave?” If you’re just getting into bow building, you don’t need the stress of worrying about messing up an expensive stave. You need to enjoy the process, make mistakes, and learn form them. This video series will take you step by step how to build a board bow with easily accessible and affordable materials.
I make most of my bows from osage staves but I was very impressed with the durability and performance from this 70 inch maple board bow. After shooting it in it has no string follow at all after it’s allowed to sit unstrung for a while. To accomplish this, I tied to bow into a jig before applying the rawhide backing. These long bows are easy to make with minimal tools. All you need is a small block plane, and a rasp. A draw knife will speed the job up but it’s not necessary. Because you’re unable to follow a ring on a board, you’ll need to back it with something. I’ve seen these bows backed with fiberglass tape which will work great and is pretty cheap. I used rawhide which also works well and looks nice on the bow’s back. You can make your own rawhide or get it from my website here.
I really enjoy you videos. They are very informative and enjoyable to watch. I look forward to the next one.
Thanks and keep up the great work.
Watching from Northern Alberta Canada
Trevor
Clay, So glad you are doing this series. Can’t wait for the rest of them! I started a board bow out of red oak about a year a go, but have had very limited time to work on it. It is almost finished though. I have shot a few arrows through it and if it doesn’t break when I get it to full draw length, I will be happy! I chose to see how inexpensively I could build it so I backed it with fiberglass drywall tape. This is one of my “learning” bows, and I plan to build a few more. I have about eight Osage staves waiting for me in Indiana that are about as straight as you can get so I don’t want to ruin them. After I learn by building a few of the board bows, I will take on the Osage. Thank you for all the great vids and tips. Love watching your stuff.
Like the board bow videos,is making the bow 70 inches the key to getting close to 50 pound pull.thanks wade
No, you could make it shorter. We’ll talk about getting to your target weight in the next vid.
Thanks Douglas, these board bows are a great way to learn without the stress of messing up an expensive stave. ch
Clay –
I look forward to the book!
My local HD only has popular and red oak. Which would you suggest for a “kid bow” holiday father/son project?
Thanks,
Joel
Red oak will make a bow but it tends to take a little more set than maple in my experience. ch
How you going Clay
I live in a little country called New Zealand if u heard of it im keen to make myself a board bow hopefully I can find a maple board over here….anyway your vids have helped me alot with my journey into traditional archery I have started with a 50 pound hybrid longbow that I will use for hunting… but would like to make myself a 35 pound bow for better practice ….wondering if u can make a board bow to 35pounds….thanks for any advice
Kind regards Paul D
Absolutely, you can make the bow to whatever specs you want.
Hi there. So im curious ive done a few bows out of staves before. But I wanna try a board bow ( I’m a little impatient and dont wanna wait for staves to season and cant afford buying a stave from some one). Here where I live in Kentucky there is a saw mill that does local hard woods they have maple, cherry, oak, ash, walnut, black locust, butternut and eastern red cedar. I know black locust is great for making a bow. But my question is when made from a board rather then a stave does it effect anything? Make a diffrence? Should I go with the black locust or choose another one?
for your first bow I’d go with Hickory. Locust isn’t a good wood for the beginner. A hickory board is great to learn on but you won’t get the performance from it that you will a good osage bow.
Thanks. I’m thinking of a mollegabet design. How well would hickory work with that? I have done a couple bows just looking to try something different. I have mulberry seasoning just impatient. Any thoughts on mulberry? its all over the property. We have one osage that I found but its long dead and rotting and a few young ones too young to harvest. Sorry about all the questions. One last question ive heared of a few people using dog bone raw hide, how would that work to back? To me it just dosnt seem like it would work on a bow to thick
Love the vids! I live in Japan and want to make a board bow but pretty difficult finding rawhide here, is there anything else I can use? Leather? Or can I purchase the strips from you if you can ship to Japan? Happy to pay shipping of course!
Thanks! Ian
Hi Ian, you can use any durable material for backing. Even linin, silk, etc.
Clay
The board bow (for beginners ) you said the pull at 28 inches was 50 pound.
I am a 77 year man and I would need something in the 30-35 pound range.
Could I still make this bow in a lower pound pull and how it be done?
Thanks for your help
Bill
Hi Clay, I am 12 years old and live in Tasmania, Australia. I don’t have access to Maple or oak boards for a bow where I live. I have been experimenting with a lot of timbers and I finally made a bow that worked with a handle riser and arrow shelf cut in. I made it out of Macrocarpa (Monterey Cypress), which is native to the central coast of California. It pulls 32 lb at 26 inch draw and is 62 inch’s long with a raw hide backing I made from a wallaby hide (small Kangaroo). The bow shoots well but has developed severe compression fractures. I have been trying to find a wood that I can use for self bows as well. I have made a few out of Sheoak, which is a native species and responds better to compression only because you can’t get a single growth ring. I’ve experimented with a few other native species too but I’m struggling to find any timbers in Tasmania that are suitable for bows like Osage is. I bought your book and I am subscribed to your channel and want to become a patreon. Your guidance for me is just what you wanted as a kid (a comment in the back of your book). Great work keep it up. Thanks, Judah
Hi Judah,
I currently do not have any experience with woods native to Australia. I am currently working with someone in Australia to get some different types of wood to make bows with. Although it will be a while before I have the results of that. I will be experimenting with Stringybark, Soapwood, Ironbark, Pink Bloodwood and Black Wattle.
Thanks,
clay
Yes you can make the bow whatever weight you want. You would just need to keep removing wood from the belly while keeping the limbs bending evenly until you arrive at your target weight. If you are interested in learning more about the bow making process there is hours of video instruction available at patreon.com/clayhayes or on the dvds available on our website at https://www.twistedstave.com/shop/master-bowyer-dvd-3-disk-set/
Thanks,
Clay