It’s been ages since I made myself a bow. So when I uncovered a forgotten Elm stave which I’d had up in the barn rafters for a couple of years, I rather fancied turning it into my next favourite stumping primitive.
Whilst the stave was fairly clean, it did have a knarly looking end section which looked more trouble than worth the effort to work around. So I opted to cut this end off. This only left me with 61″ to play with. That’s not much for a white wood bow.
A white wood bow this short, intended to be drawn back to my 26″ draw length, would stack unless the tips were flicked. But flicking the tips on an otherwise short and straight stave would probably overstress the limbs.
As the added reflex was only to reduce stack, not add speed, I opted to deflex the handle section/fades so that it would cancel out the added stress from the recurve induced throughout both outer thirds. This is something that I tend to do routinely now, as even just a whisper of R&D makes for a much smoother, less stacky draw.
And as this white wood bow was always going to be a tad on the short side of ideal, to make sure that there would be no risk of his bow blowing up on me in a few years time, I decided to sinew back it with 3oz of Red Deer leg tendon sinew. Whilst it’s always a hassle and a massive faff to sinew back a bow, in addition to the extra durability sinew backing brings, it don’t half add some resistance to set, not to mention a fair bit of extra zip!
The stain on the wood is iron chloride, and the light dark effect on the sinew was achieved by painting the rough sinew backing jet black using my local “bideblack” earth pigment mixed with TBIII, which was then sanded along all the high spots to reveal the underlying natural sinew colour standing proud above the black sinew valley bottoms.
Edge work was done with the same black paint and the white dots are deer leg bone dust mixed with glue. I personally really like this kind of edging as it really makes the face profile pop.
Tip overlays are wild Red deer antler, and the handle/ arrow pass is covered with my home produced traditional spruce bark tanned wild roe deer leather. The wood was finished and sealed with shellac.
Given the sinew component, this bow took a full year to build from start to finish, but I’m really happy with how she came out. She is fast and light in the hand, and produces zero hand shock. Quiet as a feather and very pointable too. Whilst I’ve yet to put more than a couple of hundred arrows through her, she is already rapidly becoming one of my favourite woodland bows.
Here are the stats:
Draw Weight: 48lbs at 26” Mass: 660 grams Length NTN: 59.5” Width: 1 3/4” at widest part Tips: 5” semi static 3/8” wide at the nocks. Back: Moderately crowned with a pyramidal face profile. Belly Profile: Working limb sections flat with rounded corners, transitioning at the tips to ridged shaped cross section. Tiller: Elliptical. 1/4” positive Brace height: 5 1/2″
Since gaining a bit of a reputation locally for being the guy who makes “Character bows”, I’ve been “gifted” rather a lot of “character staves”! And not wanting to appear ungrateful, I’ve become prone to accepting these staves, rather than politely declining the “generous” offer of yet more firewood!
Actually, once in a while, some of these typically low diameter branch staves don’t look too bad, (at least upon initial inspection) and the bow featured in this post was built from one such branch stave which was donated to me in 2022.
Despite the low diameter and general knottiness of this particular branch stave, there was one face which looked quite nice and could make for a sound back. So other than a couple of branch whirls to deal with on the belly side, I could easily envisage making a simple but effective primitive bow from this stave. So in the spring of 2024 I set to work on it.
Roughing out was straight forward enough and I was pleased to get past all the pith without running low on heart wood material. I decided to keep the face profile fairly narrow so as to minimise the amount of sapwood which was curling around the edges towards the belly due to the low diameter and high crown on the back.
The stave was fairly straight other than a tiny amount of deflex right in the middle where I’d lay out a stiff handle with fades. I decided to leave this deflex alone since I only had 62″ of overall length to work with, and really hoped to get 27″ of draw length out of this bow. I figured that lightly flicked tips could possibly work since the deflex in the handle would help cushion the extra strain that any reflex might place on the relatively short working sections of the limbs. Flicking the tips would help reduce any stack experienced which might result from the short length.
A stiff 4″ handle with 3″ fades, and 5″ stiff tips would reduce the overall working sections of both limbs down to around 20″, which isn’t a great deal to support the load that a 27″ draw would place on a bow as short as this one. So after roughing out and steaming the tips into a light reflex, I decided to sinew back this stave and leave her to cure out over the summer of 2024.
By early autumn the sinew backing appeared to be thoroughly cured and a little bit of overall reflex had been drawn into the stave as the sinew had shrunk down tight. This often happens when enough sinew is used, which is why I typically apply my sinew backings by weight to ensure enough (but not too much) sinew is applied.
I find that a total of 3 ounces of sinew (an ounce and a half of dry processed sinew per limb) is the perfect amount for a bow in the 58 – 64″ range. 3 oz is plenty enough sinew to add significant extra power and resistance to set, but not so much sinew that the added weight of the sinew starts to add power robbing mass to the limbs.
I find that more than 3oz of sinew on a bow this length crosses the point of diminishing returns, and the extra weight the additional sinew gives to the limbs can actually start to decrease arrow speed and create a fair bit of limb vibration too. This vibration post string release is typically felt as an uncomfortable form of hand shock. So when it comes to sinew backing a bow, more is not necessarily better!
So 3oz of dry sinew is about perfect, so long as the bulk of its distribution is along the working sections of the limbs, as opposed to the handle section or the last 6″ of the tips, which will not be improved one bit by the added weight of a full thickness layer of sinew. In fact the tips really only want as thin a layer of sinew as is possible. Just enough to cover the visible surface of the back. Enough to add structural integrity but not weight.
The stave was brought into shape and a rounded D shaped belly was chosen so as to get as much sap wood off the belly corners as possible. This allowed for the retention of as much heart wood as possible and resulted in an overall ratio of around 50/50 sapwood/heartwood. Which was pretty good for a low diameter branch stave.
Three of the small knots presenting on the belly were a bit weak looking so I opted to dig them out and fill them with a mixture of epoxy and yew dust so as to add back some strength whilst retaining as best a natural look as possible.
Before putting the long string on for the first few pulls the stave held about 2″ of overall reflex, but I new that a fair bit of that overall reflex would disappear once the tillering got well underway. And as expected, by the time 26″ had been reached the overall reflex had reduced to about an inch. My expectation was for it to drop another inch by the time full draw was reached and the bow had been properly shot in, and my expectation was spot on.
So after a thorough shooting in period, the overall reflex/deflex reduce to about neutral, which was ideal for a bow which was going to end up only 60″ nock to nock. The light reflex in the tips had held it’s shape, even with their relatively low diameter, and the 1/4″ positive tiller had stayed true throughout the shooting in period.
46# at 27″ was about right for a stave of this nature and she was pleasant to shoot too. So to finish her up I fitted her up with a pair of red deer antler tip overlays. To decorate the back I fitted a nice King Rat snake skin which I had squirreled away. As well as looking quite cool, I also like that snake skins are pretty water resistant and afford a sinew backing quite a bit of extra protection from water/humidity ingress, which is always a bonus in a humid country like ours!
This snake skin wasn’t long enough to run tip to tip so I left the tips bare to show off the sinew backing. The transition from the snake skin to the sinew at the tips was wrapped with deer back strap sinew to tidy up the termination of the snake skin. The snake skin and the sinew wrappings were then edged with a black paint made from my local black earth pigment (Bideblack) mixed with hide glue. And the cream coloured dots added to the black painted boarder were made from mixing hide glue with deer bone dust.
The bow was finish and sealed thoroughly with 8 coats of danish oil made satin in appearance through a final pumice polish buffed down with wax paste. I opted to cover the slightly contoured handle with a nice piece of my home bark tanned red deer leather in a nice natural red tan colour, laced up with some leather lace cut from a roe deer hide I bark tanned last year.
The arrow pass is a piece of red deer shin leather which I tanned with some of the hair still on. It’s a bit like a rustic primitive version of the calves hair leather pieces you can buy from archery shops, only cooler!
I really enjoyed building this bow and found her to be really pleasurable to shoot. The chrono consistently recorded speeds of around 150ft/sec from a 400 grain arrow which is quite reasonable for a character branch stave.
The balanced tiller and flicked low mass tips helped mitigate any hand shock and the slightly contoured handle made for a nice comfortable grip. I can imagine this bow giving someone many years of enjoyable and reliable shooting so will be offering this bow for sale in my Southmoor Bows Etsy shop, the listing can be found here: Sinew and Snake Skin Backed Primitive Yew R&D Longbow 4627 – Etsy UK
Specifics are as follows: Draw Weight: 46lbs at 27” Mass: 725 grams Length NTN: 60” Width: 1 3/8” at widest part Tips: 5” working 3/8” wide at the nocks. Back: Moderately crowned with undulations with a pyramidal face profile. Belly Profile: Working limb sections D shaped, transitioning at the tips to ridged shaped cross section. Tiller: Elliptical. 1/8” positive Brace height: 5 1/2″
This bow was built from a short, thin but nice straight English yew stave which had been propped up in the corner of the barn for at least three years. It was too short to make a bow fit for a 28″ draw, and it was also a bit too narrow to produce a draw weight much above 30lbs.
After a bit of thought I decided to see if I could turn it into a short ladies or teens bow. The stave was pretty straight and without much wiggle. The sapwood was about 10mm thick so I reduced it down to about 6mm. The growth rings were a couple of mm thick so staying true to one growth ring on the back was quite easy.
Since the stave was so short, I wanted to reflex the outer thirds of both limbs in order to reduce any stack experienced at full draw. In an attempt to avoid over stressing the bow with too much overall reflex, I also wanted to deflex the handle as a means to minimise the risk of the limbs taking on excessive set. This was a fairly short stave after all.
After roughing out, the R&D shape was achieved by using a mixture of both steam and the heat gun to persuade the stave to conform to the shape of one of my wooden R&D forms. After the desired shape was achieved, the stave was sinew backed using wild Red Deer leg sinew and hide glue.
After being put away to cure out for 6 months, I finally got around to digging the stave back out for tillering. As is often the case with pre shaped staves, this one tillered out very quick and came off the tillering tree roughed out at around 42# at 26″.
After a good bit of shooting in, and a quick retiller to let off the top limb a bit more, she was finally pulling around 38# at full draw. And after a bit more shooting in and with the tiller now holding fast, I was ready to think about decorations, overlays and general finishing.
For tip overlays I laminated a couple of pieces of deer leg bone onto some buffalo horn. As a decorative backing, I chose to use a couple of nice wild sea bass skins which came from a cracking lure caught open reef fish which I’d been very fortunate to catch on the north Devon coast last summer (photo of the fish at the bottom). The reef bass often take on a nice dark colour around this part of the world and I’d been itching to use some as bow backing material for ages, so was keen to make this my first attempt.
The skins were fitted with TBiii and were edged with a black paint made from a mixture of hide glue and a locally produced earth pigment called “Bideblack”, which I’d collected from the cliffs directly behind the reef beach where the bass was caught. The white dots where made from mixing deer bone dust with hide glue and were applied with a pointed stick.
The handle cover is my own home made spruce bark tanned wild red deer leather, died with some Iron Chloride which I’d earlier made from wire wool mixed with vinegar. The Iron chloride reacts with the tannins bound within bark tanned leather, turning the leather dark black.
The lacing is done with my own bark tanned roe deer hide, and the arrow shelf/pass is bark tanned red deer shin leather cut from an edge piece which still had some hair on it. After staining the leather black I thought the natural golden brown colour of the hair stood out great, giving a pretty cool unique look. Deer shin leather makes for great arrow pass/shelf material as it is very dense. This makes it super tough and durable whilst still being nice and thin.
As you’ll see from the photos, there were three knots in this stave, I wanted to incorporate all three knots into the bow’s character so I deliberately left them nice and thick and wide to avoid any likelihood of them producing a weakness, or an unsightly pinch.
Two of the knots were unsound and needed to be dug out and refilled, so rather than dowel them like most do, I decided to improve their aesthetic appeal by filling them both full of with a mixture or epoxy and natural/stained yew dust. This gave both knots significant extra strength, as well as a much more natural knot like appearance. I think they look far better that the customary heartwood dowel and glue approach which most bowyers use to fill knot voids.
After sanding buffing and burnishing she was treated to 8 coats of danish oil and a buffing down with fine pumice and oil. Then a final application of paste wax to leave a nice satin finish.
I was really pleased with how this one turned out. She’s a smooth drawing, whisper quite little thing and the sinew helps send a 380 grain arrow out there at an impressive 145ft/sec. Not bad for a R&D primitive with only a 26″ draw!
Specifics are as follows: Draw Weight: 38lbs at 26” Mass: 532 grams Length NTN: 55” Width: 1 1/4” at widest part Tips: 5” static 3/8” wide at the nocks. Back: Moderately crowned with undulations with a pyramidal face profile. Belly Profile: Working limb sections D shaped, transitioning at the tips to ridged shaped cross section. Tiller: Eliptical. 1/8” positive Brace height: 5″
Hope you like her!
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This was the Bass from which I used the skins in the build. The black sooty looking pigment on the shale rocks behind is what I used mixed with hide glue to make the black paint which edged the skins.
Back in the spring I was contacted by a friend of a guy who had purchased the character yew flatty I blogged about here: Primitive Character Yew Flat bow 52#@28” (Bow no. 14) – Southmoor Bows which he had bought through the Southmoor Bows ETSY shop. This guys friend really liked that particular bow, so he got in touch with me to ask if I could build him something with a primitive vibe, but a bit heavier, as this chap came from a ELB background and was accustomed to shooting bows in the 65lb plus bracket.
After a bit of discussion we settled on a plan. I had in my possession a rather nice and character laden Yew branch sucker stave, which I could easily envisage being turned into a Holmegaard type longbow. This stave measured 71″ so was both long/wide and clean enough to produce a heavier draw weight bow built in a classic Holmegaard/pyramidal/flatbow type design, as opposed to something more like an ELB, which is a widely accepted design, recognised as being well suited to bows intended for higher draw weights.
We’d settled on a target draw weight of somewhere around the 65-75lb mark, so I had to now figure out how I could optimise the bows design and features to encompass the heavier than average draw weight, as well as all the wonderful characteristics of this particular stave.
Rather than go full on Holmegaard and get all anal about precise authentic dimensions, I decided to let the stave dictate the overal profile. And to ensure long term durability I opted to incorporate a robust application of sinew backing to minimise both potential set, and vulnerability to wear and tear over time.
So my plan was to build a straight limbed pyramidal profiled long bow with semi lever like needles for tips, and a completely static handle section. The bow would end up 70″ nock to nock and have 8″ static tips. These none bending tips, combined with a 4.5″ stiff handle with 3″ long flowing fades, would leave me with just about 43.5″ of working limbs. Since this wasn’t a massive amount of moving wood, I decided to lay the bow out asymmetrically so as to give the bottom limb a bit more support over the long term.
The intention was to maintain the original crowned shape of the back, whilst adopting a rounded D shaped belly cross section throughout the fades and working sections of the limbs. The tips would transition in cross section from D shaped to ridged to reduce mass whilst remaining static. The handle would remain deep and relatively straight with no shelf as the chap who asked me to build this bow was a fan of shooting off the knuckle.
The stave had no overall natural reflex or deflex, but the 6 sets of branch whirls which were evenly distributed between both limbs did have some contour, thus giving the false impression of deflex where the grain flowed around the knot whirls. These flowing lines would need to be incorporated into the final profile of the bow as my intension was not to interfere with the natural shape of the staves side profile. Fortunately, this particular stave was completely absent of any twist or snake, so other than working around the knotty branch whirls, laying out the intended profile was, for once, a doddle!
The Heartwood/sapwood ration was about right too, with this stave having no more than 1/4″ of sapwood under the bark. Subsequently, I only had to get the bark off in order to expose what would end up being the back of the bow directly below the sinew. This meant that the final composition of heartwood/sapwood would end up being around a 70/30 ratio. Perfect!
So after roughing out the face profile and reducing the belly to facilitate better drying, I set about the arduous process of applying 3.5 oz of wild red deer leg sinew, applied to the back of the stave with my own home made sinew glue cooked up from a bunch of sinew scraps and tendon sheathing material. After applying all the sinew and given the glue plenty of time to set up, I wrapped her in gauze and left her to dry and cure out completely for 6 months. And what a long wait that was!!
The sinew backing came out great, so after what felt like an eternity, I fitted a pair of stag horn tip overlays and got a long string on her for a few short pulls. All looked good and after a bit of tweaking here and there, she was soon at brace and being pulled to 26″
As usual, I like to spend a fair bit of time shooting in a bow before attempting to get the last couple of inches of tiller finalised. So I spent a week putting her through her paces so that she could settle in and reveal any tiller correction that might be necessary before calling the job done. For once this bow didn’t budge off tiller, and had settled in to a nice 1/4″ positive tiller, which felt very well ballanced at full draw.
Final touches included a stag horn inlay for an arrow pass, and a gorgeous piece of my home produced bark tanned red deer leather as a handle cover, all sewn up with lace cut from some flank leather from the same hide. To seal her up I saturated the gorgeous grain of the wood with several applications of raw tung oil, caped off with half a dozen coats of Danish oil to fully protect her from dirt and moisture. Last but not least, the glossy Danish oil finish was sanded smooth and polished with fine pumice powder to leave her with a beautiful satin finish which sheds water and really shows off the grain.
I really enjoyed building this bow and will definitely build another “Holmegaard” like this one just as soon as I get my hands on another suitable stave. She’s a little on the heavy side for me personally, but I did enjoy the speed and power that was greater than what I’m used to. The loud whack she delivered when sending my stumping arrows on their way never got boring! She turned out to be quite nippy across the chrono too by consistently sending 550 grain arrows over the sensors at between165-175Fps, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, isn’t too shabby for a simple English yew branch stave!
Specifics are as follows: Draw Weight: 70lbs at 28” Mass: 850 grams Length NTN: 70” Width: 1 7/8″ at widest part Tips: 8” static 1/2” wide Back: Crowned with undulations. : Pyramidal face profile Belly Profile: Working limb sections D shaped, transitioning at the tips from semi circular, into ridge shaped cross section. Tiller: Eliptical. 1/4” positive Brace height: 6″
This bow started out life as a fairly short branch stave at 62 inches, but I had to lop off another couple inches due to deep drying checks in both ends. This left me with around 58 inches to play with, which isn’t really enough to produce a bow intended to reach a typical 28″ draw length, so right off the bat I planned on being content with a 26″ final draw length, if she survived the plan!
The stave had a small amount of natural reflex at the middle of the handle section, and natural deflex in what would be the inner third of the top limb, so rather than fighting with that, I opted to add the same amount of deflex to the inner third of the bottom limb to balance the natural shape of the stave.
Since the stave was quite short, I also opted to flick the tips to counter the deflex a bit, plus, since she would end up quite short, the recurved tips would significantly reduce any likelihood of uncomfortable stack at the end of the draw. Whilst shaping the bottom limb I also took the opportunity to improve the overall string alignment by tweaking the outer third of the bottom limb in order to make the alignment of the tip section straighter, which in turn pulled the string back in line with the centre of the handle.
I always seem to find that deflex reflex profiled bows tiller a lot quicker and easier than straight limbed bows for some reason, and this bow was tillering out nicely. That was until I uncovered a significant and unavoidable delamination in one of the heartwood growth rings in the top limb. The ring was so deep that the only way I was going to clear the delamination was by digging out most of the heartwood. Since most of the heartwood was going to have to leave, I was left with no choice but to opt for a mild hollow limb design as all I was left with was mostly high crowned sapwood to build from. Fortunately I’d not removed any sapwood at this point as i didn’t feel the need to chase a ring, so I still felt confident that I had enough wood to make a bow.
Personally I prefer a yew heartwood/sapwood ratio of around at least 50/50, but this bow was going to end up more like 40/60. Many bowyers would condemn such a ratio, but in my experience, for flatbows at least, an almost entirely sapwood yew bow will still make for a snappy shooting and durable bow if tillered well. And this bow did not disappoint, despite the loss of so much heartwood.
In order to emphasis what little heartwood I was left with, I decided to fume this stave in ammonia, which really added some character by giving the wood a unique, almost antique like look which only yew can bring about. I’ll definitely be fuming more yew bows in the future as the results I’ve experienced so far have been fantastic!
This stave had a couple of potentially problematic knots in the top limb which needed to be delt with before putting any significate torque on them, so after drilling the soft rotten material out, I decided to plug them both with yew heartwood, as there was quite a cavity left after all the muck had been removed.
After getting to brace height I decided to rawhide back her with wild red deer rawhide for extra durability, which left me with quite a canvass to decorate after tillering was completed. Since I had nothing in the way of snake skins to back her with, I opted to use a native design which I’d seen in the Bowyers Bible Vol 1. So after shooting her in I mixed up some of my local Devonian earth pigments with my own hide glue and set about painting the backing in a pattern inspired by the “Hupa” Western Indian tribes recorded from the Northern California/Southern Oregon region.
Tip overlays and arrow passes made from red deer antler were fitted, and the handle cover was made from a gorgeous piece of Bark tanned wild red deer leather, which I tanned myself in sitka spruce bark that came from the very same group of trees which are in the background to the photos bellow. The leather grip is also sewn up with red deer leather lacing.
After a lot of shooting in and a little re tillering to balance things out post settling in, I was really pleased with the end result. She’s super pointable, snappy, light in the hand and performs without any hand shock at all. And she turned out to be a nippy little thing, consistently hitting speeds around the 150FPs mark shooting a 500 Grain arrow. She would make for a great hunting bow, especially in a blind as she’s so manoeuvrable due to being so short.
Specifics are as follows: Draw Weight: 46lbs at 26” Mass: 630 grams Length NTN: 57” Width: 2” at widest part Tips: 4” semi static 3/8” wide Back: Crowned with undulations. : Pyramidal face profile Belly Profile: Working limb sections undulating to mirror back, transitioning at the tips to D shaped/ridge cross section. Tiller: Aggressive eliptical. 1/8” positive Brace height: 5.5″
I love using deer antler for tip overlays on primitive bows. Not only does antler function well as a material for tip overlays, it also looks amazing. And given that primitive bow hunters both past and present have relished the opportunity to hunt deer, it seems fitting that a material from such a prestigious quary species should be used to enhance and embellish a primitive bow.
In this article I’d like to share my 4 most important principles to making beautiful, functional and efficient deer antler tip overlays.
For this project, you will need the following tools, materials and equipment:
An unfinished bow stave without nocks already fitted.
Suitable sized pieces of deer antler cut from the coronet end of an antler.
A wood saw with small to medium sized teeth.
A rasp/coarse file/belt sander.
Titebond III wood glue.
Spring clamp.
Vice.
Wet kitchen towel.
Tile saw (optional).
Chainsaw file.
Sandpaper 80/100/120 grit.
Principle # 1 – Select the right type of antler.
For the purpose of making deer antler tip overlays, you will not want to use a piece of antler which is full of the pithy porous honeycomb like structure that you will typically find in antler from sections anywhere other than the coronet end of the antler. Antler from the coronet end is very nearly solid all the way through. Antler from anywhere else is effectively hollow from all the micro holes. Maximise the strength of your antler tip overlays by ensuring that your overlay material of choice is solid, or at least as close to solid as is possible.
For this tip overlay project I’ve decided to use red deer antler. The piece on the left is the coronet end from a yearling red stag and is perfect. The piece on the right is cut from the middle of an antler and has the typical hollow, porous appearance. I’ll be using the piece on the left.
Principle # 2 – Achieve the basic shape and profile of your tip overlays BEFORE you glue them on.
Don’t be tempted to simply saw your antler into blocks and then glue then on with a view to shaping them later. Shape then first before gluing!
This antler has some nice features which, with care and planning, could be carried over into the final appearance of the tip overlays.
I often see people take a tip overlay material such as antler and simply glue a chunk of it to the tips of their bows. Once the glue has set, they will then set about shaping the overlay.
The problem I see with this method is that the desirable character of antler is mainly at the surface level. It therefore cannot be optimised for inclusion in the final shape and appearance of the overlay unless these characters conform to the desirable shape and profile of the finished overlay.
If a chunk of antler has simply been glued on to a bow tip before shaping, the shape of the chunk of antler will likely be nothing like what is required of the finished overlay. As the functionality of the overlay will take precedence over its beauty, optimising shape and profile will rank more important than aesthetic appeal.
The absence of appropriate shape and profile will necessitate the removal of the surface material. This will result in the removal of much, if not all of the surface material along with all of the desirable characteristics and features of antler.
For example, if a chunk of antler with beautiful pearling is simply stuck on to a bow tip before shaping, the likelihood of that pearling remaining within the final shape and profile of the overlay after surface material has been removed is very low.
To put it another way, the amount of material which will need to be removed in order to obtain the final shape and profile of the overlay will have resulted in much of the antlers character being removed.
By shaping your overlay before gluing them on you will be able to optimise the inclusion of desirable features whilst prioritising the removal of unwanted material from areas which have undesirable feature. Examples of a desirable features might include the natural colours, shapes and pattern of pearling. Example of undesirable features might include the porous backside of the overlay or a plain spot which lacks any colour or features.
Once I have selected a good piece of antler I will select which part I want to use based on its appearance and its internal structure and integrity. The piece I choose to work with will then be ripped down the middle to create two equal albeit oversized slabs of antler.
The pithy middles of the pieces in this picture is minimal and will be ground away as the profile is finalised leaving behind solid antler for maximum overlay strength. By prioritising the removal of material from the back of the overlay I will be able to retain as much character from the upper surface as possible.Here I’m using my Shinto rasp to flatten the sides of my overlay pieces so that they are easier to grip in the vice. By doing this first I will be able to secure each overlay well enough to rasp away the undesirable portions of material whilst retaining and incorporating the desirable features into the final design.Rasps are useful tools when it comes to shaping antler. Rasps remove material fast and efficiently so are ideal tools for achieving the basic shape and profile requirements.Basic face width ready to be reduced into the basic shape and profile.Now that I can grip the pieces in the vice, I can work on using my rasps to shape the basic top profile. I want to retain some of the colour and pearling whilst at the same time achieving an efficient design.By mounting the Shinto rasp in the vice, I can grind the antler pieces against the cutting face and shape the face of the overlay with ease. This method helps keep everything nice and flat.Basic rounded top profile achieved. Note how I have retained enough of the dark brown colour to contrast beautifully against the ivory cream colour of the exposed underlying internal antler material.Now I’m switching my attention to the back side of the overlay. This is where the bulk of the waste material will be removed from. This will facilitate the creation of the classic wedge-shaped taper which enables a beautiful, natural and functional transition from the overlay to the back of the bow.
It is important that the angle of your overlays taper is nice and low. I aim for around 10 degrees. This will allow for easy stringing of your bow. If you choose too steep an angle, you will find that when you come to string your bow, the string loop meets the transition to the overlay and comes to an abrupt halt rather than slipping smoothly over the overlay and into the string groove.
Here I have gripped the top end of the overlay piece in the vice so that I can rasp away at the underside of the overlay to produce the basic wedge shape. I have pushed a scrapper in underneath the bottom end of the overlay in order to stop it from getting pushed down into the jaws of the vice as I apply top-down pressure from the rasp.Here I am finalising the wedge shape and thickness. By simply dragging the overlay towards me across the fine face on the Shinto rasp I can rapidly remove excess material from the underside of the overlay piece. Used this way the Shinto rasp is a great tool for creating a perfectly flat base. This makes matching the overlay to the back of the bow tip much easier later on.A final functional wedge shape has been achieved whilst retaining maximum aesthetic appeal. Notice how the small amount of porous pith that was previously visible has now gone. I’m now just left with solid antler which will maximise the strength of the overlay. If I’d chosen a piece of antler from further up the antler then the pithy middle would still remain a considerable part of the overlay and would therefore compromise the structural integrity of the overlay once the string groove was cut in. The retention of the pith would likely result in a break at the string groove at some point in the future.A view from on top. You can see that this overlay has been left much wider than it needs to be. This excessive temporary width is helpful at this stage and throughout the gluing stage. The final width can easily be achieved once the overlay is secured in position.
Now that the basic shape and profile is complete, there will be very little work to do to the top of the overlay after it has been glued on. Since there will be no need to take any more tools to the top of the overlay, the risk of damaging the back of the bow where the overlay transitions to wood is reduced significantly.
Principle # 3 – Create the strongest bond possible.
A bow is only as strong as its weakest point. Any joint is likely to be a weak point. With that in mind it is critical that all joints be made as strong as is possible.
Your bow string will sit directly on top of your tip overlays and receive the full force of your bows draw weight. Any torque will be felt by the tip overlays too. It is therefore imperative that the bond which you establish between your tip overlays and the back of your bow is made as strong as possible. We can maximise the strength of our tip overlay joint by ensuring three things have been attended to.
Firstly we must maximise the contact surface area between the components which are to be joined. In this instance we are talking about the roughly shaped overlay being jointed to the wooden tip of our primitive bow.
By making sure that your tip overlays are at least 1” long we are providing adequate surface area to create a large enough contact area to create a strong enough bond. Personally, I like to make my overlay a little longer than this and typically make my overlays between 1 ½” and 2” long. On static tips you could make your overlays even longer of course.
Let us assume we have made sure that our tip overlays have a contact surface area which is at least 1” X 3/8”” wide. Now we must optimise the contact between the two surfaces by making sure that the two faces to be joined together are as well fitted to one another as is reasonably possible.
Creating a flat surface on the limb tip to optimise the fit between the overlay and the back of the bow tip.
By flattening the stave tips ready to receive the overlays we can begin to check how well the two surfaces match up. I like to take my time here and make sure that the two contact surfaces meet up perfectly before gluing. Don’t rush this part. Take the time to make sure that the two surfaces match up without any gaps.
Go careful when you start to flatten your bow tips. It is easy to get carried away and compromise the growth ring which forms the back of your bow. If this happens beneath your overlay, then it will not be an issue as the overlay will distribute the stresses back to the outer growth ring.
If, however, you accidently cut through the growth ring on the back of your bow ahead of your overlay then you will likely break the whole tip off your bow when you come to draw it. Always make sure that the transition from bow back to overlay occurs on the actual growth ring which makes up the back of your bow.
Once the rasp has levelled the tip and the overlay has been tested for fit, sand out any tool marks so that you do not have to try and removed tool marks after the overlay has been fitted.Once both surfaces are matched up perfectly and all the tool marks have been sanded out of the back of the bow tip, don’t waste any time getting you overlays glued up and clamped.
Wood absorbs glue much more readily when freshly exposed wood cells make up the surface layer to be glued. If you leave your prepared bow tips for any amount of time then, the freshly exposed surface layer of the wood will lose some of its ability to soak up the glue. Freshly exposed wood is hydrophilic. However, even after a short amount of time has lapsed, the exposed wood surface soon reverts back to being somewhat hydrophobic. So, get you bow tips and overlays matched up and glued up ASAP for the strongest possible bond.
Stave tips ready for sizing up with TBIII.
The second thing to consider when trying to create the strongest possible bond is which adhesive to use. I’ve tried all kinds of adhesives over the years but always find myself coming back to Titebond. I’m currently using the MK III stuff and am happy to report that it really is a great adhesive for gluing most natural materials to wood.
TBIII applied liberally but only on the contact areas.
If you are planning on using a stain on your finished bow then try and avoid getting glue anywhere other than the contact surface of you overlay area. Any glue that gets on the back of your bow will get soaked into the surface layers of the wood. This creates an impermeable layer which can prevent the absorption of stains at a later date. If this happens then you may need to intervene in order to avoid unsightly patches of unstained wood. You may have to scrap/sand away the upper layers of wood cells from affected areas in order to allow a stain to penetrate evenly across all parts of the bow.
I always like to glue up both contact surfaces. I also make a habit of leaving both glued surfaces to soak up some glue before positioning the two surfaces together for clamping. I believe this “sizing up” habit allows more time for the freshly exposed wood cells to suck up more glue. In fact, with wood that has been dried down to below 10% moisture content, it is often the case that more glue needs to be added after 5 minutes of sizing up. This is because much of the glue will now have been sucked up into the wood emphasising the need for an additional application of glue before placing the overlay in situ ready for clamping.
The third consideration to be made in order to create the strongest bond possible is the method of clamping used to press the glued surfaces together.
Making sure the excess glue is wiped off whilst it is still wet. I use a wet piece of kitchen towel for this.
I find that if I apply significant compression to an overlay immediately after gluing up, all that happens is the overlay slips off the tip. To avoid this from happening, I only use slight pressure from a spring grip type clamp for the first 10 – 15 minutes of drying. This allows the glue to soak as deep as possible into the wood and start to grip the overlay into position. By doing this you will stop the overlay from simply slipping off the stave tip when the compression is increased to full pressure.
After 10-15 minutes I remove the spring clamp and insert the bow tip carrying the overlay into the jaws of my vice. From here I can crank up the pressure to make sure that the bond is really good and strong. The pressure which can be exerted from the vice will ensure that no gapes appear at the joint line.
Be sensible with the amount of pressure applied to the overlay/bow tip and use something reasonably soft as a packing material to protect the bow tip and the overlay from damage from the metal jaws of the vice. I use scraps of leather for this purpose.
Here is the bow tip with the glued-up overlay in situ, set in the vice to cure under pressure. I leave it set up like this in the vice overnight.
I’ve never had an overlay come off when the join has been prepared, glued and clamped it the manner described above. The same can’t be said for the common practice of using superglue and a spring clamp!
After at least 6 hours of drying time, you should now be able to finalise the shape and profile of your tip overlays. Before you grab your tools and start working on the final appearance of you bow tips and overlays, take the time to ensure that the strength of your overlays will not be compromised by their final design.
The maintenance of strength needs to be given priority. A broken tip overlay is a significant repair at best, a broken bow at worst. Very fine bow tips are very popular these days but as tempting as it may be to reduce the width of your tip overlays to the bare minimum, antler is quite brittle and can snap under load if reduced too much.
An overstressed antler tip overlay will typically break at the string groove. To mitigate against this, I like to leave at least 5mm of material in the string groove. In order to achieve this, I find that an antler tip overlay needs to be at least 7/16th” wide and 3/8th”thick. I also like to leave the bottom overlay bluntly tipped because the bottom tip is always more likely to get knocked than the top tip.
Whilst you could leave your overlays much wider and thicker than this, by leaving excessive material at the tips you will be leaving unnecessary mass in the very tips of your bow. This additional mass will affect the performance of your bow albeit in a very subtle way. If maximising speed and minimising hand shock is important to you then aim to achieve a final shape and profile which reduces mass to a minimum whilst preserving strength.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That said, long thin antler tip overlays are very easy on the eye. Especially if a suitable amount of antler colour and pearling has been retained during the shaping process. Play with a few different shapes and profiles and see what works for you.
After a night to dry I work the tips down to a basic profile with rasps, files and 80 grit sandpaper. The top tip will be pointed and the bottom tip will have a slightly more blunted appearance as a hedge against knocks.Filing out the rasp marks once the basic shape has been achieved.
The bottom tip overlay ready for string grooves.
The top tip overlay ready for string grooves.
Note that I will often leave both tip overlays oversized until after tillering is complete. Then I will refine the shape and profile to suit my overall bow design and appearance.
I use a tile saw to cut the initial tillering string groove on antler tip overlays as it removes material fast and accurately. Once tillering is completed, I’ll finish off the string grooves with a chainsaw file and sandpaper.
I like quite fine tips on willow leaf shaped limbs. These overlays are on a bow with some character. Since these particular limb tips are angled out due to the naturally curved out limbs, it was necessary to carry the string groove around the sides of the overlay to ensure that the string did not slip off the sides. This can happen on crooked limb tips which only have a groove cut across the face of the overlay.
Finished antler tip overlay (bottom nock). Note the rounded profile I’ve gone for on this lower limb nock. This design is simply to minimise the effects of a potential impact with the ground.Bottom limb tip overlay viewed from the side.Top limb tip overlay. Since this overlay will be less likely to impact with the ground etc I’ve gone for the more typical pointed profile.Top Limb tip overlay viewed from the side.
So to recap, before you embark on your next antler tip overlay project, be sure to take the time to:
Select the right type of antler first. Then make the effort to achieve the basic shape and profile of your tip overlays BEFORE you glue them on. Work through the steps necessary to create the strongest bond possible. And finally finish your overlays in a way which is guaranteed to maximise strength, minimise mass, whilst emphasising the beauty of this magnificent natural material.
