Making a Maple Longbow: From Tree to Bow
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- Building a 60 pound maple longbow from start to finish. This one draws 60# at 28" and measures 75" nock to nock.
PDF build notes: dansantanabows...
The unique music in this video comes from my awesome friend and cousin in Uruguay-Marcos Topolanski Quintero. Download his tracks on iTunes, and also check him out on Instagram, Spotify, and here on UA-cam.
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Downloadable build notes and diagrams dansantanabows.com/maple-longbow-build-notes/
Oh man oh man. The relationship between a man and his sword and between him and his bow! The bow becomes your arm. I feel it. When you make your own bow, and you flex it and draw it. You are able to feel every weak spot and strong spot, you able to feel how far it can be drawn back. It's like you can feel every fibre in that bow. You can feel the arrow float off that bow in slow motion. So amazing. This content captures that feeling and show cases it. Someone won't know the feeling until they become one with the bow by crafting it themselves. You've outdone yourself Sir. I feel it.
Thanks Musaad, I feel the same!
Can’t get enough of your content, Dan. Excellent craftsmanship and professional editing and camera work. Thank you for sharing your talent with us
Thanks Brandon, this one was a joy to make
The best soundtrack of all UA-cam videos....absolutely beautiful
Thanks Al! I’ve heard the album so many times and still love it
Great bow and video! Glad to see you back!
thanks as always my friend!
Your cousin has great fingering techniques. Reminds me of a music teacher I had once at a conservatory years ago.
I think he made a deal with the bow gods! He’s amazing to watch live
A masterpiece, in every way. Thank you for everything you do for this craft
Always a pleasure. I love talking bows with you all
Everything about this video is first class. Very well done.
thanks Steve!
A man and a craft to emulate. Nice production.
After your videos, I get an urge to go make a bow... Thanks!
I hope so!
Love your work - both the video and the bow! Immaculate as usual. And a huge vote of approval on Tung Oil for the finish!
Thanks again Jody! Gotta love tung oil. It’s smelly but very worth it
These are always beautifully made videos, and they work. I have made them. His flat bow in maple is excellent.
Great bow
Great video. The finishes on your bows are amazing. I liked how this one looked like it was made of antler when you were done. Fantastic. I also like the vice you made to hold your bows. I tried to make one but I just couldn’t get it right. Keep making videos man, they are greatly appreciated.
Thanks! Check out my video on workholding methods. In that one I take the vise apart so you can see how it works. Let me know if you have any more questions about getting one set up
17:12
I love that face when you have done something you are proud of. Love your work and keep doing what you do 🙂
Thanks finn! I have a soft spot for this bow. It took more set than I was happy with which made me reject it a bit at first but it’s great in the hand and the simplicity won me over
Love your content. Always gets me excited to work on my own projects. Keep it up!
Glad to hear! What are you working on?
Absolutely beautifully done Dan! Always a pleasure to see your videos and your craftsmanship on display. Bravo! And your cousin is an extremely gifted guitarist as well...
absolutely love your works and videos!! your work is professional and your content shows how much you are enjoying the process. which makes us enjoy it too. Please keep up uploading new ones, can't wait to see more!
dude this music is amazing, bow too.
This man truely deserves more subs
.....and arrows.
Nice
Thanks for all the great videos with so much information, also very relaxing. I'm Kiowa/Choctaw and your help is greatly appreciated in my making of my ancestor's traditional bows. Thanks so much.
Stunning content. Love it ! Keep doing more please=))
You got it Georgy!
Much respect, dig what you’re doing and your promo is something else man. Inspiration from creation.✊🏼
Very good, love your workshop.
What a magnificent bow! Looks and shoots extraordinary! Kudos, Dan
Thanks Steve!
I'm inspired. I use maple for so many things, and I use all species in what I create, whether it's in furniture or just simply making rods to use for friction fire starting. Dan thank you.
Unfortunately the hard maples are much better for bow wood. I usually use sugar maple but have also tried silver and red maple and they’re not nearly as good
Love your content man, I love your cousins music too I’m a musician too, your passion for making bows is evident and it relaxes me watching I’m sure one day I will try it too. What’s great also is the scenery in which you build what a place to make bows id love to learn more about the place and if you make a living from your amazing bows. Thanks Don
Thqank you so much for the Video and the downloadable notes and diagrams. I really love them. Im doing such notes and diagrams for my bushcraft projects too. Unfortunately I am very bad at drawing.
It gets better! I started like that. When I started restoring fountain pens for fun I naturally got in a lot more practice
Comparing several staves side by side and explaining why you chose this one over the other ones would have helped immensely. I'm beginning to believe that it didn't which one because they are all going to become bows anyway. Excellent work.
It’s not exactly what you’re asking for, but see my video the back of the bow 6 ways. This will help you understand the needs for bow wood in a most general sense. Let me know if there’s anything you’re still missing
The biggest thing is choosing a clean and straight enough piece with an unviolated back. Beyond that, you have to see a bow inside it and be willing to spend a very long time with that wood, taking on its problems as your own
Great video! Cómo siempre Daniel! Te doy las Gracias por poder colaborar!
Always a huge pleasure! I’m excited to work on the new album
Eres un buen guitarrista. Gracias. Esos instrumentales son hermosos
@@stevedriscoll2539 muchas gracias! 😊
Great video! The bow looks great as well. I have three nice maple logs ready to be split into staves and seasoned. One of the bows might wind up looking like yours with any luck.
Great work! You should consider running on site workshops.
I actually do. If you’re in MA shoot me a message to set one up
After I finish building our house, I am going to make a bow. It will give me a reason for buying carving hand tools. I will probably get more enjoyment in building it as opposed to using it. Cheers from Canada, and thank-you for the great content.
THANKS VERY INFORMATIVE 👍👍👍
Good job and imazing work 👏👏👏👏 congratulatiosn from Brasil !
I Love traditional archery 👏👏👏👏🏹🏹🏹👍🙏
Muito obrigado!
Awesome video! So much valuable information in this, really has me excited to try making my own bow as I've just taken up archery a few months ago and I'm absolutely hooked 😄
Another great video. Love your cousin’s music!
Thanks Eddie, me too, I don’t get tired of it!
Can you post a video of how you sharpen and hone your drawknives? Your videos are superb! Very classy! Thanks!
Thanks! Check out the drawknife video
You do good work dude. I like your relationship to wood and I’ve slowly begun my first attempt, I’m cool if it fails “it’s expected to, so i just grabbed a knotted piece of dry yellow birch. It’s been interesting
Watching for the 3rd time today✨
Great video! A little off topic but curious to know more about your target - can you tell us how it was made? Seems simple and sturdy!
This one is made by bulldog targets. Works well for me but it tends to eat arrowheads if they aren’t flush. For testing bows I also have a target on wheels which is just a big nylon bag filled with old towels and scraps
After 3 real goes, finally got one to shoot an arrow. Broke 3 more roughing them out too fast. Made with a hatchet, rasp and knife as a scraper, tiller is probably bad, but it shoots, and at 38.8#@24", its pretty quick with a paracord string and heavy arrow. I was actually surprised how hard it hit. I'm a little scared to tiller a rounded belly, only just made a flat one.
Great work
super😍
In the shot of all the staves side by side was there some birch (or similarly barked tree) way on the right?
I think that was buckthorn. In the bow wood harvest video I name them in order
@@DanSantanaBows ah yes that would make sense with the horizontal shapes that made me think birch
I love it, great bow and video! I have some maple too, how did you preserve the bark on the back like that?
You should watch his recent video on “The Back of the Bow: 6 Ways” (potential paraphrase, but it’s the most recent video before this one, I think!). He goes through the natural back look. :)
@@EricaSwallow Awesome, thanks for the reference!
I left some thin streaks of inner bark on the bow and dyed the back with iron vinegar stain. When I sanded the bow this tool on a mottled look because of the textured nature of the back.
One of the upcoming videos will be a guide specific to this but for now check out chapter 1 of my last video which talks about natural backs
Doing this right now with a real * THICC* red oak board. Where I can get a nice thick shape out of it for a nice heavy bow
Very nice video.and music. And drawings are very helpfull. Is the bow more narrow in the handle section than further out? And what is your purpose for that. Greetings from Denmark.
It’s about 1.25” wide at the handle, which is the widest part. Usually if the handle is narrower that’s fine for better arrow clearance but requires a longer bow
@@DanSantanaBows thanks. Just your drawings says 1 3/8 midlimb. Made me wonder.
Suppose 1 1/8 is what you meant??
I will make a longbow from elm with flat belly. Rectangular profile. Do you think that's a good idea??
Great video. Do you have any experience making a bow with dogwood?
great bow wood! Very dense stuff. It’s a lot like maple but i’d say slightly better
How good is maple compared to hickory and oak to make bows ?)
If maple is any it would be a lot cheaper then oak.
A bit tougher than red oak but it will break more easily than hickory. Sugar maple is excellent bow wood but softer maples like red are not too good
I just made my first long bow ever its made out of maple all i have to do is sand it stain it and seal it now
Congrats! You should post some pictures on r/bowyer
@@DanSantanaBows will do
Do you ever use a curved stave? I have a 8 foot yew branch that is curved like a already strung bow. I think I can split it in two staves, a reflex and a deflex.
The branch is shaped just like this bracket ). Have you ever done this before? Or is it a waste of time ?
Yeah it’s very worthwhile. Deflex staves are very understated since you can steam them into a nice deflex recurve. Staves with a little reflex are nice but too much can be gnarly to tiller.
Try to keep track of which side of the curve is under compression and which is under tension and separate them cleanly. If you split at an angle to both you may get a lot of warp when you dry
@@DanSantanaBows thanks I was hoping it would be ok because I only see straight or snakey staves being used on UA-cam. I was able to keep track of the upside and the down side of the limb by leaving the rough spot where it broke before I cut all the way through the limb. I also noticed that the underside half of the limb is reddish heartwood and the upper/ tension side of the branch is sapwood. Cross section shows a nice 5 mm sap wood layer all the way around.
I’d like to make a long bow but may have to settle for a short bow as I only have 2 six footers and 3 short pieces.
Do you ever make two pice longbows ?
@@andrewsock1608 Yeah look into the Z splice for more info. I briefly showed one in my two bows from one post video, and if I’m not mistaken i think there’s a guide to a z splice in the description of that video
Yeah wow that was just a fantastic viewing experience
20:14 man, you need hardly level up how you stay, body shooting position is week, you need straight back, head up, shoulders down... Very good video and channel!
👍
I'm a little confused with longbows. Should I go for a full compass tiller where the entire bow is one continuous bend? Or should I go for a more elliptical shape with stiffer handles/inner limbs & more flexible outers? I thought longbows could only call for elliptical since the limbs aren't as wide, there for calling for more thickness taper and less inner limb bending. Can't get much info on longbows, and it seems people like to refer to "full compass" as circular which is also quite confusing
You can do it both ways. See my video on tillering, especially the diagrams. I go into a deep dive on this topic. Let me know if you still have any more questions
@@DanSantanaBows Alright, thanks. I'll check it out
Maple? did not know it could be used. This is in Arizona?
I have access to a lot of multistemmed very straight yews of varying thickness.
Should I look out for a stem I can quarter? Or can I use halves or even the whole stem?
Yes this is briefly indicated in the splitting diagram. Also see my quick drying video for an example of an unsplit stave
Hello! Tell me please what type of wood or what tree did you cut? Thank you
Sugar maple
Do you notice any compression cracks? was maple a good long bow wood?
@@guntherhuemer1767 Nope. Sugar maple is excellent. See my recent stress test video.
@@DanSantanaBows do you ever tried bird cherry(prunus padus) ?
@@guntherhuemer1767 Yes it’s good stuff but hard to dry without cracking
how much weight can you draw
can i use red oak for this bow
👍
How long woule my bowstring be?
Make a single loop flemish twist string and adjust the length with a bowyers knot until your brace height is about 6”
See my board bow tutorial for instructions
Very pleasant beautiful video, but as far as a how to goes, what and why did u do everything you did, why u used the tools u used, why the dark stain on the back etc. This is more of a skilled bowyer get off video than a how to
Oh the music was 👌
Check out my board bow tutorial which covers all the basics and let me know if you have any questions or need help ua-cam.com/play/PLi5Xnel2aIJbu4eFn1MvC_w7cGVIPCFwD.html&si=_myWU1lGXsiHRqzs
You heat treat the back?
never, just the belly
@@DanSantanaBows gotcha. Great looking bow btw. Reason I asked is I noticed the color on the back when you were done. Where did the dark color in the back come from?
that’s from iron-vinegar stain, which reacts more strongly where the bark is
Great bow, and I know you provide the blue prints, but I wish your videos were less ASMR and more instructional.
See my tutorials for instructions, this is a build along
Well I used drywall fibre glass tape and guess what guy’s it is rubbish going with thick cloth this time
That bow should be 68 inches.
75 is way to long
@@tonymaurice4157 Too long for what? I wanted less stack
RuneScape irl
I see you doing the work on the that piece of wood but you do not explain anything or say anything it's just silence you're not showing how you look at the grain of the wood to see how it works for tethering or what you're doing to cut it or lay it out you're not doing any of it you're just making the bow. This you need to explain yourself in detail
This video is intended for someone already familiar with the basic terms and process. If you are feeling out of the loop, check out the board bow tutorial linked below. If you want a simpler project, see the survival bow video. The playlist below organizes the more important beginner topics. The back of the bow video will help you understand grain orientation.
Let me know if you have any more questions, and if you need detailed help visit us at r/bowyer on reddit. Good luck and feel free to post as many questions and tiller checks as you need!
ua-cam.com/play/PLi5Xnel2aIJbu4eFn1MvC_w7cGVIPCFwD.html&si=bgpxrcLNWwAEyOS1
Great videos and beautiful results. I have a problem. Military imjury with resulting plate in neck and no left collar bone. Can no longer pull anything over 20 lbs. Also cant turn head over 15 deg so cant shoot with left arm out straight to left reducing power further. Can only shoot old Indian kids Boy Scout fibreglass 15 lb bow from 1958. Tried to make board bow but as i got it down to 18 to 20 lbs it looked nice. Tillering great. But broke at handle on 5th shot. Fiberglass tape back. I wonder if you ever go too far in reducing weight, like a table that rocks which you trim leg by leg until you get a serving tray, and wind up with a bow way lighter than you planned? Like the 35 lb becomes 20? If so please give me an email before using it for firewood. Just had to leave my woods and fields in MO to retirement HOA small home. At 78 not much time left to get it right working in back yard. So i could do final sanding and stain etc if you have an "ooops!" laying around in firewood pile. Thanks. Karl signalcorpschief@gmail
When you use the weight at 11:00, how many times are you supposed to draw it in that check? Why do you draw it that many times? Just curious!
Great question! The textbook answer is that you should pull the bow about 20 times between tiller sessions to let the bow settle in. I find that at least 10 does the trick. If you skip this step you’re not seeing the bow’s true tiller the way it will settle in, so you may work the wrong areas or take the tiller in the wrong direction.
What’s going on at the 6:30 mark? What are the dark spots you’re chiseling away?
Those are some knots that I don’t want in the belly of the bow. It’s better to try to make the limb only out of the main fibers that flow with the limb-fibers that perpendicularly out like knots are mostly just dead weight so it’s better to eliminate these where possible. Trees naturally grow around knots and don’t like to have weak spots so this is mainly about letting the tree show you where it has laid out the strength. Usually the fibers naturally swell around a knot like a river does around a rock, and you just have to follow those fibers around rather than ignoring them and cutting straight lines.