Carving a Juniper Short Bow
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- Making a juniper short bow from a rough and rotten stave, for challenge and practice. In the end it was the prettiest stave I've ever worked. The bow draws 30# at 24" and is unbacked with a chased ring back.
There were some major drying checks in the stave I wasn't able to get rid of by wood removal, so I decided to leave them in the bow and shoot for a lower draw weight. The stave has a few inches of natural deflex, which is normally a disadvantage but gave me some extra margin for error I really needed.
Keep in mind that most species of wood are perishable and not suitable for bow making use after exposure to decay. Some of the few exceptions are Osage, Yew, Locust, and Juniper.
In the end I got a fun snap shooter perfect for indoor shooting in my shop range. My other projects were all in a drying stage, so it was great to fit in a quick bow from my favorite wood to work. It's been a few days and the shop still smells like cedar.
Go make a bow
-Dan
Pink Flamenco by Doug Maxwell is licensed under a RUclips Audio Library License.
The bob ross of bowmaking. Solid stuff man.
Bow Ross?
I just came here to say that...
I absolutely love finding small RUclipsrs like yourself who make truly quality content and watching them grow, you are definitely one of my very favorite Bowers to watch.
From an unusable wasted juniper stave to a gorgeous peace of art!!!
That should be the new bowyers moto!!!
Thanks omar, I agree!
Ishi bow wood, Juniper that is, pretty stuff, you did an amassing job, thanks for sharing
it’s snappy, pretty, and smells great. Just wish it were easier to find a good piece
ishi used californian incense cedar i believe. this bowmakers using Eastern red cedar
I love this kind of bow making culture, where something people would usually call firewood or junk can be turned into a beautiful piece of useful art. Keep up the amazing work!!!!!
Drawknife hero! Dang those were some great knife skills
The colour was just amazing
Started ugly but by the end this was one of the prettiest staves i’ve worked
what a beauty ! thanks for sharing
Thanks again Tehc. This piece was an absolute joy
Great video Dan! Cool to see u get sumthing outta that piece!
Thanks Rich. You gotta come over for a wood harvest sometime. I got some great staves in the last haul. Will be making a video out of it too.
@@DanSantanaBows I know I been dieing to get out there! I saw that haul was real nice! Sucks I been crazy busy working 50+ hr weeks. Plus having my 2 kiddos doesn't give me much time at all. Got lucky and found a big 3 stem hickory tipped next to my job and been cutting it up on lunch break.
Love the skill that it takes to make bows from difficult staves. I guess you could say you made a kid bow or a “shorter draw person” bow as well. Great work!
Good vid man! That's a sweet looking wood
Thanks man. You’ve been killing it on your channel lately, I’m very glad to see it!
Very well done as usual. I think you should consider doing a tutorial on how to sharpen draw knives.
Good idea. Second time someone’s asked for this today. I would like to do one all about drawknives
Lovely!
You're a natural bow builder
The wood wanted to be a bow I guess!
I really enjoyed this
Thanks Justin!
Never in my life would I have thought that would make a bow.
New subscriber here
And love the music to... I just harvested a 8mtr tall Juniper, broken in half from a snowload and was searching for some ideas on turning it into a bow. And then stumbled across yours. Amasing
Thanks Leo. Juniper also does well with rawhide backing or sinew
never thought a selfbow could be made out of that stuff... I've only had success with it when backed with sinew. The smell is wonderful though, and it's probably the easiest wood to work.
Beautiful piece of work and gorgeous wood, there was a good bow in there and you found it !
Thanks Charles!
Nice work Dan.
Lovely work as usual !
Thangs again David, always appreciate it
I’m impressed.
thanks very much Alan
Your voice is very peaceful.
Thanks for breathing life back into that wood.
what a piece of art and skil you have.l. you have a god send gift.thanks again for sharing your gift with us
Thanks again my friend, much appreciated
Bravo
Most underrated video on RUclips!!! We’ll done sir, very inspiring and informative channel!! Thank you
Thanks Squach!
Nice! I am glad I found your channel. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful story, voice, work, bow!
Thanks, M!
Well done!
Nice work,Bud.
Great!
I have made one too.The wood of Junuper is amazing. Very flexible.
Special stuff. Always a joy to work
I love your Chanel
I just built my first bow and it was out of juniper
Inspiring content! I was searching for videos showcasing Juniper being crafted into a bow. Your video did not disappoint. I've never made a bow but I aspire to and WILL one day. I've spent the last 3 years learning how to knap stone arrowheads and my ultimate goal is to craft my own bow and arrows. Thanks for sharing!
Hell yeah there was a bow in there brother. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks man glad I found it!
Beautiful. It's like I can feel that Beautiful wood through your videos.
Beautiful video and beautiful bow! That was fun to watch
Thanks Michelle, glad to hear it
Soothing voice you have dear Bowman!
Thank you!
I'm glad I found this again! I have a eastern red cedar stave that's not particularly great quality I've been scared to mess with
You are good a bow making 👍🏹
Thanks Mike!
This channel must and will grow.....
Let’s do it! Thank you my friend
Nice work with that stave 👍
I have been wanting to give this a try with juniper, I live in nothern AZ and we have lots of juniper and yes they are brittle and notty. The old Navajo used sinue to back the bow and I want to give that a try to.
Amazing!Good Medicine!
That bow is absolutely beautiful!!!! Could you make more short bows?!
Or even could you make the bow or improved bow from Red Dead Redemption II? Wonderful video dan.
Thanks NotNot, short bows are a lot of fun to make and shoot. I just like the forgiveness of a longer bow
Excellent, I have many behind the house, maybe I'll use Juniper for my next bow. I usually use ASH or ELM.
Give it a try! Smells delicious but it’s hard to find a knot free tree. Look for two that grow up against each other- there won’t be any knots where they touch
@@DanSantanaBows thanks for the advice, I know what you mean , I will need to look around a while to get a longer stave. Will probably back it with rawhide after initial tillering. Thanks.
Many tribes in the southwest often chose juniper for their bows, simply because it was the only real option. As such, they figured out a few tricks to help with the shaping of the bow and to mitigate the cracking issue; use a steam treatment to help with shaping, and impregnate the stave with a blend of at least two or three different types of tree saps (dissolve them in hot vodka, strain solid particles out with a mesh screen and then paint it on your bow heavily). If you add some chaparral oil to the mix, it will resist sun damage for generations. All that said, you made a beautiful bow, and now I'm looking at my juniper trees and wondering the same thing; might there be a bow in there somewhere?
What do you call the process with the resins? I’m familiar with the scandinavian word maelming, which is very similar. I’ve done several times with white woods using pine resin in grain alcohol, but usually prefer a good heat treat, which doesn’t add any mass
@@DanSantanaBows I'm not aware of a name for it, it's just an approach that revealed itself to me in my studies of alchemy; when you mix three or more different tree saps together in alcohol and filter the result, you are left with a liquid which possess all the medicinal and physical qualities of each, potentiating against each other. When the alcohol evaporates, the saps combine to make a new sap that dries out way stronger and harder. I use it for exotic hardwood projects to achieve a finish similar to an epoxy coating, but with a safer and non-toxic natural alternative. It produces a very rich and strong finish.
I am bit skeptical of this. The Native Americans did not have distilled alcohol until recently in their history. If they did do this, it would not have been for very long. Do you have a source by chance?
The Native Americans style Juniper bows I have seen reproductions of have not experienced any such treatment to my knowledge. They perform fine without it. Juniper doesn’t need fancy treatment, other than perhaps some sinew backing, to create very high quality and excellent performing bows. At least from the data I’ve seen on juniper bows that do not self destruct. But I could see how such treatment would allow for lower quality juniper wood to make a good bow. That would have been useful for short period where they had vodka but not firearms
Apparently the arrow flight record for the primitive simple composite class (I believe that means sinew backed) is held by a Rocky Mountain Juniper bow
@@flightlesschicken7769 obviously natives didnt have grain alcohol, but they did have other substances they used as thinners and cutting agents, and they did combine resins and oils to make them stronger and last longer. we have alcohol though, so i was sharing a helpful tip that makes the process easier and cleaner, but you can see the use of saps and pitch in all sorts of items.
@@joshuawayne9811 Ah, yes, I see
That reminds me of Aragorn's bow from lotr.
Thanks Northman
that piece of wood is quite naughty
Always with juniper. Delicious wood
It’s interesting that you use a thumb draw! How long have you been practicing that? Also it seems like you got some good katra there
My archery skills are a mess! I like practicing all kinds of draws. Usually I test shoot bows with thumb draw because it’s more forgiving of wrist slap. But when I shoot further than a few meters away I switch to mediterranean as my main grip
shes a drop dead beauty ong
I just love the music, most people put the crappy music in town on there
The fully rounded bows really tickle my fancy.
A fun and simple design. Doesn’t always make sense but i love it when it does
That's why I think it wasn't the inian bow but the skill of the archer
Beautiful wood and bow. Were you wary of fully drawing it or was the draw strength too much for you?
I’m only snap shooting it. Just drawing as far back as I need, which is not far indoors. This is how I shoot shortbows. Max draw is 24” but i’m doing about 15” or so in most of the shots in the video. There are heavier bows in my other videos.
Obviously this isn’t how you should shoot long draw bows. In that case I use an anchor point and shoot the usual way.
Lovely! How about treating it with heat..? 🤔
Thanx for the epics!
Thanks Jon. I heat treat almost all my white wood bows, but juniper isn’t a great candidate for this in my opinion. I like to heat treat when the wood is prone to set, but for woods that could possibly break in tension before taking much set, a heat treat will carry too much risk for not enough benefit
Great video dude! Subbed for life 💪🏻
It’s the ‘normal’ kind here in the us. Look at the numbers on the pipe and look for Sch40
Strange the juniper in Arizona consists of all white wood with a brown core.
Alligator juniper is on the browner side I think but most species I’ve seen have a reddish brown or pink tint in the heartwood. As far as I know all make good bows assuming you find a clean enough piece
Yeah alligator is my favorite. Shaggy is good also. They are both have brown heart wood. What I like about juniper is I can carve it green back it and about one month later it's ready to tiller and shoot.
Awesome videos just found ur channel love wood working and love how u feel about the wood your work with I have similar thoughts
✨🧸✨🙂👍
Is it all heartwood? Even on the back? NIce bow!
👍👍👍💥
Hi man! I found a couple of days ago a juniper bush stem that I thaught perfect for a wooden bow. I've finished building it and are now stretching it out as it's dryes on day 3. I was wondering if you could give me some guidence by mabey looking att pictures of it and and give some advice on how not to make it break.
Thanks beforehand and cheers from Sweden.
Sure thing. Are you on reddit? Post them on r/bowyer and I’ll have a look
That’s either a very heavy very sharp drawknife or very soft wood??
A bit of both. You can see the same knife in most of my other videos
How well does eastern red cedar hold up in the long run?
We Cherokee call that eastern red cedar
Genetically it’s a juniper and technically isn’t really a cedar, but everyone calls it by the common name
I greased mine with bear grease and they seem to preform much better ,you can use any animal fat
I haven’t really noticed that myself. Some other bowyers have tested this and found mixed results. The grease is a good moisture barrier which will protect you from set and indirectly help with performance, but the added weight takes a small sliver off of arrow speed. It’s just a small amount and still totally worth it for the moisture barrier
Hi! I’m that guy with the dead standing yew earlier today from Reddit! Your video really emboldened me to go and make my own bow! Btw, is your bow based on any finds? I find this one really similar to one made by Stephen Fox here on RUclips. I think he was making it based on finds from Viking-age Ireland!
Glad to hear! It’s not based on any historical finds, I just made whatever I thought the stave could handle
I noticed the nerf toy company have made a revolver bow this looks better than the legolas since you can actually see how it operated and it does not make the bow look hideous like an upright cross bow.so anyways it’s a normal bow with a revolver chamber drum to the side that you put arrows in.you shot you’re first arrow.then then there is a trigger on the bow that spins the drum to the next loaded arrow.i think if this was made as a real bow it beat the legolas since it’s still the simplicity of a bow and aroma and you can see the open chamber unlike the legolas where everything is hidden in some plywood box.can you please make one you be the first
The advantage of the instant legolas mechanism is fewer moving parts. It’s easy to clear jams so you don’t need to be able to see inside. The nerf gun would also look like a big crossbow if you give it an actual full draw length. With a small draw length like the nerf bows, the instant legolas design would be even more compact and sleek.
I think the best place to put a a revolver magazine would be a crossbow. Thanks for the idea Ashley
@@DanSantanaBows can you please google what I just said I think you mis understood my comment it’s not a magazine it’s just a circular carrier it’s pink and girly looking just type nerf bow revolver or bow revolver or pink nerf bow if you could teach us how to make it trust me it will beat the legolas
Pretty sure I know what you’re talking about. The problem is it doesn’t shoot real arrows. Once you adapt it to be able to shoot real arrows with a full draw length I don’t think this would be less bulky than the instant legolas. You need some kind of rail like a tong ah to keep the arrow away from the archers hand so they don’t shoot themselves, and at that point any device will look like a big crossbow. The nerf toy doesn’t need this because the arrows aren’t really dangerous
Лук не делают из древесины полной трещин.
What did you use to seal the wood?
Quedó bueno el arco cómo se llama la madera ???
Gracias Jose, es Juniperus virginiana
Che legno e grazie
Juniperus virginiana
What do you do with all the bows you make?
I have a nice collection. I’m also making bows for sale now and will have a website up soon.
Какой наждачной бумагой вы заисчиваеие скобель?
Mostly 220 and 320 grit. See the board bow tutorial for finishing instructions
I wouldn't waste my time,....I'd shoot for 55# and settle for 45 or 50.
I don't want beauty I want performance.
And it was too brief,.....I think there was way more to it,.....like getting off the rotten wood.
Many bowyers enjoy the challenge of difficult staves as a way to test abilities and practice with tools. I have enough bows that are performance minded and of a higher weight already, it’s not always about that. Only building one type of bow in one type of weight range is a good way to lose out on a lot of skill. Taking on different designs and materials makes you a better bowyer and also more design fluent.
I also don’t think you should discount lightweight bows. They put a lot of food on the table in human history and shouldn’t be overlooked. I definitely wouldn’t hunt with a lighter bow but it’s an important part of understanding the whole of archery
Wood ?
Juniperus virginiana
Mirip Brandon Lee..
What's the tool that's used for shaving called ?
Drawknife. See my video about them for recommendations
You can harvest animals with it.
It would take game with good arrows, I’d just rather use a heavier more powerful bow
Can it be a propper bow wood?
If you find a clean piece and prepare the back well. Best to chase a growth ring but you have some leeway not to. Most folks back juniper with rawhide or sinew, and for this it’s top notch bow wood. It can be great stuff, it just needs some extra consideration and you have to design around it rather than forcing your way
Che legno hai usato
hey dude you come from kentucky right?
Massachusetts
@@DanSantanaBows yeah cause one guy here he wanted to have a penobscot so bad but shipping would cost 200€. so I told him you make penobscot too and gave him a link to your channel. maybe you can make a good deal
Consulta para todos los que le interese el tema de los arcos primitivos de esta parte de América Latina. Canal JDBarba Archivo Filmación histórica 1909 Tierra del Fuego fabricación arcos Indigenashttps:
Extraordinario documento, única filmación...
Reitero, el video NO es mío...No soy tan mayor...jajaja por e,so no lo puse público me lo guardo como arcchivo personal y porque estoy averiguando si es real...Saludos
That looks like eastern Red Cedar to me. Certainly Not Juniper.
ERC is a juniper, Juniperus virginiana. It was misclassified as a cedar early on and the name stuck
@@DanSantanaBows Okay, I gottcha. Thanks.
Could you kill a deer with it?