There should be a warning on here that building bows is highly addictive. It only takes once and you're hooked. I've been clean now for a few years but after watching this I very well might go on a binge.
Your group of four videos you made 11 years ago on bow building sent me down an endless rabbit hole. Thank you for the very watchable and very useful videos!
Amazing after all the years of innovation and tech, as humans we still just love a bow.. Somthing about them and slingshots that will be forever timless..
I’ve made a couple of reflex/deflex bows, but I didn’t deflex it in the handle like you did and then build back up with laminates. I like that a lot! Get more of the limb in reflex and with your heat treating, it’s holding a lot of it. Great job! I like your use of hand saws and chisels, I’m spoiled and always used bandsaw on initial shaping. All the riser shaping I’ve used only rasps, but your way is faster roughing it in. Great bow! I also watched a short ten minute clip of when you learned you had won Alone. I think you’re still living the life lessons you learned from that entire experience.
I was up at Beaver’s Bend Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago and the had a very old homemade clamping device that you use. People were asking what is was and I told them that i follow a guy of UA-cam that….. excellent craftsmanship.
To be a great bowyer is one thing,to be a great bowyer and to have all the knowledge to be able to use that bow to its full potential in the wild is something else completely! Kudos to you brother and blessings and light from England and thank you for all your time spent sharing your wisdom and knowledge
Like the deflection tool lol thanks for sharing clay really appreciate it I lost my house and bow building has kept me fed and sheltered so much appreciate you man take care
Super cool design. Turned out very nice! Started watching your vids like 10 years ago and have been building and hunting with selfbows ever since. This last year was my fist season hunting with stone points and self arrows (ocean spray and river cane) took a mule deer and a javalina. Thanks for the inspiration and the start in wood bows
Im setting up my first bow making shop in my old shed. I live in central kentucky super rural area surrounded by a neighbor farmers land 500 acres. Asked him if i could forage for osage and he happily said yes and told me where his grandad had purposely set up an entire grove of osage they use to use for fence post. 100s of osage and black locust trees in a 2 acre set of woods. I found one osage in the middle that is large and almost completely straight with no bark wrap no visible off shoot knots in the best parts. Im going to harvest it this coming weekend probably 5 bows of what i hope to be prime staves just in the bottom half. Im excited to make my first bow to totally screw up lol. But theres so many there... cant wait to get splitting and curing.
I do the same. Get busy with life and just don’t have time for UA-cam videos. When I do have time though, I have a tendency to binge….lol great video Clay. Thanks for putting these videos together for us fans.
Made my first bow that i feel is a solid hunting bow. Hickory flat bow shoots a 12g per lb arrow at 162fps and now im hooked!!! Not to sound corney but i admire you in many ways and love your videos! Wish the best for you and your family.
Man I enjoy your videos! Started watching after I saw you on alone and never miss a video. I used to really enjoy shooting recurves, started in the backyard with my dad when I was 6 or so and they were a big part of my life up until just a few years ago. Unfortunately at the age I am now my shoulders are shot, I have arthritis in both shoulders. Probably exacerbated as a result of a life of pushups, I'm retired army, and archery. Nowadays I make and shoot slingshots, another passion I've had all my life, yup almost 60 and still play with slingshots. Much easier on my shoulders and still scratches the shooting and even hunting itch. Not sure if you've ever thought about slingshots but I bet with your woodworking skills and archery prowess you'd be absolutely deadly with a slingshot!
During the whole video I had a deja vu. I thought bow looked familiar. And then when you turned the odd fletch in during shooting I figured it is the bow from the video you posted a while back about archery tips. The one where you spent a lot of time on psychological trigger. And where you said "This particular setup likes to shoot odd fletch in". :) Loved the video. I would really liked to try to build a bow someday. My grandfather from the father side was a boat maker. My grand father from the mothers side was a furniture maker. Both were really good with wood. Me being a programmer pretty much stopped working with wood once they died and I stopped helping them. Really a shame since I have most of the "regular" wood working tools you have in my fathers basement but have not touched them in over 30 years. Guess 46 is not to old to try to regain some of the skills I lost over time. Maybe once my grandkids arrive I can be the grandfather they help build stuff from wood.
There is a Kiowa bow that is made of osage with the bark and sapwood left on and it survived. Not sure if you've seen or heard of this. Maybe u don't always have to chase a ring
I like how you used heat to bend the riser into a forward handle. Never seen that before. Was that a change in plans? Carving the riser has always been my favourite part of bow building.
I’ve been a toxophilite ever since I saw Chuck Connors shoot a flaming arrow into the powder supply of the Calvary. I didn’t have much of a male figure in my life and the outdoors and archery was already innate to me. I made due with what I could. The rest of the boys in my neighborhood were a bit more fortunate and had the fancy double six shooters that popped flat caps. Me? I cut limbs/ branches and built my bow so I could be the Indian when we played cowboys and Indians. In retrospect I know it was a bit dangerous me flinging branches with my limb bow while the other boys snapped their caps. It was a sight to behold. My greatest achievement was when I found a pair of wooden crutches and made my best bow. If you know what I’m talking about then you’ll see a similar bow to the one you just built. Your craftsmanship is relaxing to watch in the late evenings sipping on some tasty coffee. I think if I were to take up bow building now, the Mrs would flip. Watching you do what you do creates an ember within my heart. Almost nostalgic. Thank you, Clay. You’re a gentleman and a scholar. P.S. Did you move from Idaho?
Beautiful! You sir are a true Master Craftsman. I’ve been practicing building with Black Locust, not fully cured but I need to do something. I have 7 billets still seasoning. I’m in Australia NSW and once I knew how to identify the Locust I see it everywhere. Osage not so much, it’s more north of me but will definitely grab some soon. Your stash looks preemo 👌🏼. Thank you so much for your awesome content.
@@clayhayeshunterwe have many introduced species that take off here. A bit like the eucalyptus in California, I’ve heard they are a problem. I did find some a heap of Osage yesterday 2hrs from me growing feral which I am very happy about. Hard to find a big and straight enough one. I cut one that was dead so cured already, and hope that is ok.The wood looks fine after taking off the sap wood which did have a small amount of insect damage. I’m loving every aspect of this craft. 👍🏼
They used to make broad axes with that bevel style for making log houses and stuff. Have you ever made a Penoboscot four limbed bow? In theory a four limbed bow the same poundaged as a traditional would produce a faster arrow speed. Thanks for the awesome video!!!
Would be interesting to build a cross bow for us older people with deteriorated shoulders and other joints. Enjoy them while you have them. Remember ticks can kill and it’s a very sad and slow death.
My entire battle with how to go about something like this is finding the right wood. Should I find a heavy wood, or a watery wood like a gum tree. I'm in Australia and have no idea what I could use. What am I looking for? Thanks again for your video, and well done on the Alone series. Amazing effort all around!
Great job, you included every possible strategy to improve the performance, you can see the build up of your toolkit from your previous videos. Does heat treating in your opinion make a difference to hard wood like osage, because so far most people use it for mainly white woods ? Also if you dont mind, how far are the nocks from the handle ?
The overall length is 64”. Stiff handle section, including faces is around 10”. As for fire hardening Osage, this is the only one I’ve done and it was very mild. I couldn’t really say at this point if it’s worth the effort.
The benefits of heat-treating decline as wood density increases, since we're basically increasing belly wood density with heat. And the greater the gap between tension and compression, the more heat will help. Osage is already very dense and has balanced tension/compression characteristics, so unless you get a low-density piece or use the sapwood (something I've done), it won't have much effect
You make it look effortless with the simplest of tools! Curious though, I know you're partial to the drawknife for scraping but I'm wondering if you've ever tried a card scraper? Or an adjustable spoke shave? They make holders for the card scraper and both tools are used just like a drawknife but can take very precise shavings like a plane. I'm envious of your endless supply of premium osage!
Note for anyone building a bow with a built up handle: make sure you have zero bend within an inch of the where the built up material feathers out (essentially bend must end at the fade). If not, you run the risk of that whole handle lamination popping right off in your hand while you’re shooting it.
There should be a warning on here that building bows is highly addictive. It only takes once and you're hooked. I've been clean now for a few years but after watching this I very well might go on a binge.
It’s a good addiction 😜
Hold on strong, you are on the recurve now.
Building one successful one. Not quite there yet
Remember your 12 Steps!
Step 1: Find your stave. Step 2:…
Amen to that ,i round my shelf's with a round file my dad showed me and the arrow fits even closer to center shot plus helps with fletching clearance
Your group of four videos you made 11 years ago on bow building sent me down an endless rabbit hole. Thank you for the very watchable and very useful videos!
It's a good addiction!
One of the few channels I press the like button at the start of the video😀
Amazing after all the years of innovation and tech, as humans we still just love a bow.. Somthing about them and slingshots that will be forever timless..
100%
I’ve made a couple of reflex/deflex bows, but I didn’t deflex it in the handle like you did and then build back up with laminates. I like that a lot! Get more of the limb in reflex and with your heat treating, it’s holding a lot of it. Great job!
I like your use of hand saws and chisels, I’m spoiled and always used bandsaw on initial shaping. All the riser shaping I’ve used only rasps, but your way is faster roughing it in. Great bow!
I also watched a short ten minute clip of when you learned you had won Alone. I think you’re still living the life lessons you learned from that entire experience.
Thanks Greg, I never had access to a bandsaw so just developed others ways to get things done.
A lot of bowyers agree that on a all wood bow you want all the deflex to start in the handle fg back and belly it doesn't really matter
I was up at Beaver’s Bend Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago and the had a very old homemade clamping device that you use. People were asking what is was and I told them that i follow a guy of UA-cam that….. excellent craftsmanship.
To be a great bowyer is one thing,to be a great bowyer and to have all the knowledge to be able to use that bow to its full potential in the wild is something else completely! Kudos to you brother and blessings and light from England and thank you for all your time spent sharing your wisdom and knowledge
Right on
love seeing that axe being put to use makin a bow, beautiful job!
Fantastic axe!
That is some fine crafmanship. i hope many will be inspired by this (for whatever they do).
Young man, you bring back memories of when I was younger and living every boys dream; thank you for that...
Just what I needed before I finally started making a bow myself
Like the deflection tool lol thanks for sharing clay really appreciate it I lost my house and bow building has kept me fed and sheltered so much appreciate you man take care
Мастер на все руки.просто шедевральная работа!👍🏻 good job
similar to how i found your video 10 years ago and started. not into the survival stuff but still educational.
That’s a beauty brother. At 6’ 250, that bow would suit me perfectly.😁. That was cool watching the handle deflex.
Thanks 👍
I really like the the adaptation of using a big socket in a vice to bend the handle. Thinking about applying the same principle's to a 5 bend bow
Using car in this heat for hotbox , next level genius
If the weather there is like here he's lucky it didn't burst into flame! 😂
@@asmith7876 true
This is awesome man! Beautiful bow. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Real nice .. that little exhale while stringing the Bow and shooting it says it all .. Hard work and strong Bow !
Awesome work, Clay! It has been some years since I built one, but I'll never use the steam tube again, thanks to your instruction 👍
I learned alot in this video it is by watching not by words that i actually learned
good on you Clay a pleasure to watch your efforts mate, from a fellow bow maker.
A beautiful and strong looking bow. I hope to make bows like that one day.
Man thos build was amazing I need one in my life ❤ 🙏 for hunting
Amazing video! Thanks for taking us along for the ride. Really cool design and I was amazed at your efficiency with the basic tools.
Clay, If you would continue only building bows on this channel, I would still be watching! Great Video!
Yes it's what got me started Clay by far the best teacher, you inspired me that i could do it working on my second osage one next.
That method of bending in the deflex in the handle was mint.
I'm going ot have to give that a go on my next R/D build
Right on
Beauty! Always a joy seeing you work and the end result is gorgeous!
Awesome Clay. Thx. A 21st century style self bow. Well done.
Thanks 👍
Sir U play with wood perfection, ur tools r soul of u , master class❤👌 , (drawing knife is a gift from fallen ones) wish I cud be ur disciple 😊🙏
Nice bow!now I'm getting motivated to delve in bowmaking🤩🥰😍
Go for it!
Absolutely beauty of a bow, i have a soft spot for selfbows 😍
Oh yes!
@@clayhayeshunter i did my 1st reflex tips this weekend, gotta learn to shoot this bow again 😅
Loved this build, deflex/ reflex is a great design and that bow is zinging.
Super cool design. Turned out very nice! Started watching your vids like 10 years ago and have been building and hunting with selfbows ever since. This last year was my fist season hunting with stone points and self arrows (ocean spray and river cane) took a mule deer and a javalina. Thanks for the inspiration and the start in wood bows
That's awesome!
FANTASTIC BOW CLAY A REAL BEAUTY, BASIC TOOLS BUILD! FANTASTIC TRADES MAN. DO REALLY ENJOY YOUR VIDEOS, REAL HANDS ON!!👍🏹
Glad you like them!
Super cool design , nice work
Thank you very much!
Truly a master of your craft Clay
thank ya
Well done! Look forward to seeing you work the gruops and tuning for a hunt!
Very cool bow, and a great video! God has gifted you my friend!
John 14:6
Thank you very much!
Nearly one of those ASMR or whatever it is with the rain and draw knife strokes. Only a true Texican can misspell an abbreviation 😂
Beautiful workmanship man beautiful
Thank you kindly
That is awesome, what a beautiful bow!!!!
Awesome bow clay much respect
Much appreciated
Your looking good Clay. Great video. You are referenced multiple times on season 12 of alone. Quite the legacy you have created.
Thank ya
Im setting up my first bow making shop in my old shed. I live in central kentucky super rural area surrounded by a neighbor farmers land 500 acres. Asked him if i could forage for osage and he happily said yes and told me where his grandad had purposely set up an entire grove of osage they use to use for fence post. 100s of osage and black locust trees in a 2 acre set of woods. I found one osage in the middle that is large and almost completely straight with no bark wrap no visible off shoot knots in the best parts. Im going to harvest it this coming weekend probably 5 bows of what i hope to be prime staves just in the bottom half. Im excited to make my first bow to totally screw up lol. But theres so many there... cant wait to get splitting and curing.
Have fun!
Sweet looking bow my friend
Clay your videos are so inspiring
Glad you like them!
Awesome job,love your work
Very nice bow! Dog at the end cracked me up. Hes "helping". Haha.
You are the master Clay , very nice!
Thank you very much!
Very nice job Clay!!!
Playing catch up Clay on your vids, been busy on farm. But this is a helluva great video. So much I watched it 2x.😅
I do the same. Get busy with life and just don’t have time for UA-cam videos. When I do have time though, I have a tendency to binge….lol great video Clay. Thanks for putting these videos together for us fans.
Another excellent video. All the best from Wales 🏴 🏹
Can you make the comanche short bow please? Thank you very much ❤
Awsome job as always. you make it look effortless
Thank you! Cheers!
Hey Clay, I would love to see you do some videos on asiatic horse bows and give your thoughts.
Love watching these videos and I can't wait see you using it out hunting keep up the awesome work 👍💪🏹
Love to see our sheath in action to @1:35 we partner with Broad River Forge and Jordan Jonas - Great Job Clay the bow looks great!
Interesting method
Make one and draw for the entries on your UA-cam channel
Great stuff as always!!
Made my first bow that i feel is a solid hunting bow. Hickory flat bow shoots a 12g per lb arrow at 162fps and now im hooked!!! Not to sound corney but i admire you in many ways and love your videos! Wish the best for you and your family.
many thanks!
dang man, ur so talented that you do that with sub par tools no shirt, probably wearing crocs like ya, no big deal its a perfect bow!
Hast Du sehr schön gemacht. Gerne dabei zugeschaut! 🙂
Man I enjoy your videos! Started watching after I saw you on alone and never miss a video. I used to really enjoy shooting recurves, started in the backyard with my dad when I was 6 or so and they were a big part of my life up until just a few years ago. Unfortunately at the age I am now my shoulders are shot, I have arthritis in both shoulders. Probably exacerbated as a result of a life of pushups, I'm retired army, and archery. Nowadays I make and shoot slingshots, another passion I've had all my life, yup almost 60 and still play with slingshots. Much easier on my shoulders and still scratches the shooting and even hunting itch. Not sure if you've ever thought about slingshots but I bet with your woodworking skills and archery prowess you'd be absolutely deadly with a slingshot!
I haven't thought much about them but I may whip one up just for the heck of it!
This is an awesome build, man.
The best thing I have ever seen!
Nice
Love the build!!!!! nice bow too!!!💪🔥❤️
Nice work
_Nice_ bow and work, Clay. 👌
Nice bow great job, I'm your fan.
Thank you very much!
During the whole video I had a deja vu. I thought bow looked familiar. And then when you turned the odd fletch in during shooting I figured it is the bow from the video you posted a while back about archery tips. The one where you spent a lot of time on psychological trigger. And where you said "This particular setup likes to shoot odd fletch in". :)
Loved the video. I would really liked to try to build a bow someday. My grandfather from the father side was a boat maker. My grand father from the mothers side was a furniture maker. Both were really good with wood. Me being a programmer pretty much stopped working with wood once they died and I stopped helping them. Really a shame since I have most of the "regular" wood working tools you have in my fathers basement but have not touched them in over 30 years. Guess 46 is not to old to try to regain some of the skills I lost over time. Maybe once my grandkids arrive I can be the grandfather they help build stuff from wood.
Has anyone used one of your bows for their Alone season yet? Those are beautiful
that seems a great bow, great work as always
Thank you! Cheers!
Very nice build Clay!
Thanks!
Beautiful work, bro!👊💥👊😎
There is a Kiowa bow that is made of osage with the bark and sapwood left on and it survived. Not sure if you've seen or heard of this. Maybe u don't always have to chase a ring
Havent seen it all but already know its gonna be good ,
I like how you used heat to bend the riser into a forward handle. Never seen that before. Was that a change in plans? Carving the riser has always been my favourite part of bow building.
It's great to see some content?more hunting vloggs please I like the wilderness uploads 😂❤
More to come
Holy shit Clay. Definitely leveled up on that one!!!!!
Thank ya
I was wondering if you could try and build a comanchee style bow or perhaps another native style bow. That would be really cool
A top work !
Good job
Excellent work. Thanks for the video...type of wood used ❤❤❤
Not my type of handle, but, damn the craft!
I’ve been a toxophilite ever since I saw Chuck Connors shoot a flaming arrow into the powder supply of the Calvary. I didn’t have much of a male figure in my life and the outdoors and archery was already innate to me. I made due with what I could. The rest of the boys in my neighborhood were a bit more fortunate and had the fancy double six shooters that popped flat caps. Me? I cut limbs/ branches and built my bow so I could be the Indian when we played cowboys and Indians. In retrospect I know it was a bit dangerous me flinging branches with my limb bow while the other boys snapped their caps. It was a sight to behold. My greatest achievement was when I found a pair of wooden crutches and made my best bow. If you know what I’m talking about then you’ll see a similar bow to the one you just built. Your craftsmanship is relaxing to watch in the late evenings sipping on some tasty coffee. I think if I were to take up bow building now, the Mrs would flip. Watching you do what you do creates an ember within my heart. Almost nostalgic.
Thank you, Clay.
You’re a gentleman and a scholar.
P.S. Did you move from Idaho?
I did pretty much the same as a child. We haven't moved. just spend a few months in florida each year. We'll be heading back to Idaho soon.
I’ve missed seeing bow builds, great stuff!! Also be good (not knowing the hunting rules from Australia) to see some hunting up again soon.
Beautiful! You sir are a true Master Craftsman. I’ve been practicing building with Black Locust, not fully cured but I need to do something. I have 7 billets still seasoning. I’m in Australia NSW and once I knew how to identify the Locust I see it everywhere. Osage not so much, it’s more north of me but will definitely grab some soon. Your stash looks preemo 👌🏼. Thank you so much for your awesome content.
Awesome, I didn't know you had locust down that way.
@@clayhayeshunterwe have many introduced species that take off here. A bit like the eucalyptus in California, I’ve heard they are a problem. I did find some a heap of Osage yesterday 2hrs from me growing feral which I am very happy about. Hard to find a big and straight enough one. I cut one that was dead so cured already, and hope that is ok.The wood looks fine after taking off the sap wood which did have a small amount of insect damage. I’m loving every aspect of this craft. 👍🏼
Odličan...
They used to make broad axes with that bevel style for making log houses and stuff. Have you ever made a Penoboscot four limbed bow? In theory a four limbed bow the same poundaged as a traditional would produce a faster arrow speed. Thanks for the awesome video!!!
Very nice 👌
Would be interesting to build a cross bow for us older people with deteriorated shoulders and other joints.
Enjoy them while you have them. Remember ticks can kill and it’s a very sad and slow death.
My entire battle with how to go about something like this is finding the right wood. Should I find a heavy wood, or a watery wood like a gum tree. I'm in Australia and have no idea what I could use. What am I looking for? Thanks again for your video, and well done on the Alone series. Amazing effort all around!
Great job, you included every possible strategy to improve the performance, you can see the build up of your toolkit from your previous videos. Does heat treating in your opinion make a difference to hard wood like osage, because so far most people use it for mainly white woods ? Also if you dont mind, how far are the nocks from the handle ?
The overall length is 64”. Stiff handle section, including faces is around 10”. As for fire hardening Osage, this is the only one I’ve done and it was very mild. I couldn’t really say at this point if it’s worth the effort.
The benefits of heat-treating decline as wood density increases, since we're basically increasing belly wood density with heat. And the greater the gap between tension and compression, the more heat will help. Osage is already very dense and has balanced tension/compression characteristics, so unless you get a low-density piece or use the sapwood (something I've done), it won't have much effect
You make it look effortless with the simplest of tools! Curious though, I know you're partial to the drawknife for scraping but I'm wondering if you've ever tried a card scraper? Or an adjustable spoke shave? They make holders for the card scraper and both tools are used just like a drawknife but can take very precise shavings like a plane. I'm envious of your endless supply of premium osage!
Note for anyone building a bow with a built up handle: make sure you have zero bend within an inch of the where the built up material feathers out (essentially bend must end at the fade). If not, you run the risk of that whole handle lamination popping right off in your hand while you’re shooting it.
💯
I'd stop right there, would be a very good hunting bow at that poundage !!!
Damn clay all cut up working hard :D
Excelente. Very good 👏👏👏🇧🇷