one of my latest

this bow needs refinishing, but it's pretty much done.

it is an american white ash selfbow. it's 60" nock to nock, with 4" static tip overlays and a riser 8 1/2" fade to fade. the riser and overlays are oak. it draws around 60lb @ 26", but it's been tillered two inches past for safety.

i've been shooting it a few months now and it's taken almost 2" of set, but it's a good preformer and i can live with it. the outer limbs are a bit overbuild i think, but handshock is minimal.

i recently bought some putpleheart, paduk and some more ash, so i'll be starting a few new ones soon.

Very nice work.

Beutiful work Canid.

Beauty. Very nice. i'm lookin for a bowmaker in my area to make me one. I'm not good at getting 2 sides the same. lol. I have a compound, but its just not very traditional ya know?

my very latest, a christmas gift for a friend's 8 year old son:

red oak self longbow with white oak riser and nock re-enforcements. 20lb @24", tillered a few inches past for safety and to allow for his growth over the next couple years.

Great work canid!!

yeah, compounds are fun, but they just don't have the same spirit as a stick that's 9/10s broken ;)

WOW! That's a sweet bow! Did you laminate with epoxy?

Very nice work, Truley a brother of the bow.

no lamination, just selfbow sealed and stained with minwax polyshades, 90% golden pecan / 10% red oak. i'll probably give it several coats of clear hard finish, but i've noticed spar tends to crack on bows with a high draw to length ratio [there is only 43.5" of working area in the bow].

Very nice!

as you might see, i've come to throw much of the conventional bowyery wisdom ot the window on many of my bows.

That is awsome, great work.

great job. Looks like one you could buy

nice bows what is the draw weight of the firt one

about 60lb at 26 inches of draw. it's a little rocket. as shorter bows tend to it stacks a bit though.

Very Nice work Candid!

I ordered a piece of Hickory a little over a year ago, a wedge with bark on one side and the ends painted. I kept it inside but I don't know if it's still good for making a bow. If any of you can give me some idea I would appreciate it. Thanks!

examine the stave for checks and splits. if it's been kept indoors and your house is relatively dry, an end-sealed stave will only continue to dry and season indoors.

if there are checks or splits, that will of course affect how you must lay the bow out.

even if your house is damp [mine is in the winter] or if the humidity fluctuates a lot, the sealed ends protect the wood from gaining or loosing moisture quickly, and that is a large contributor to checking and splitting.

even if it's taken on or held in much moisture [unlikely]; as long as it's not a lot, it won't have hurt the stave.

another consideration of storage is bugs. sometimes larvae of weevils, beetles, wasps, etc come in with the wood and continue eating into it during storage or seasoning. when this happens, unless the wood dosen't dry out at all, the damage is usually minimal, and the holes aren't bored deep.

Canid, Like the bows. Throwing the bowyer wisdom out the window is a great idea. I think so many bowyers get stuck trying to replicate what's already been made and the end result is just another bow.

2" of set, not bad. I've always said that set is not all bad.


Let's see pics of the hickory stave. Nothing like a good ol piece of hickory.

Canid that is amazing work on your part. You truly have a gift there.

yeah; i'd like to see that stave too. i only get to work wth board lumber at the moment.

Real nice work Canid!!!

Yep, what GW said, very impressive canid.

Very nice bows, I wish I had the patience to make them. I do have a compound that I use quite often (although its extremely old). But, I always prefer thing I make with my hands better even if they dont always function as well. But again excellent work keep it up, might be able to make a few extra bucks off a hobby that you are great at.:D

Thanks Candid - The stave looks OK but is bowed a bit (concave on the bark side) but straight. No splits or blemishes. The weather here in northeast Ohio during the Winter is cold and dry. Like I said, I've kept it indoors over the past year. I plan to doing something with it by Spring.

I'll take a picture of it so you can see what it looks like.

that's a good direction to have it bowed. if it's straight and there's no significant twist, your bow might be fine just the way you lay it out.

I forgot to take a picture of it but I will. It seems straight and not twisted at all.

here's some more of what i'm working on atm:

the two matched shafts @ top are going to be a wall mounted display for allen [the kid the small bow was given to]. it's going to have the olive cock, and black hen feathers. i'll probably finish it out with a couple more matched shafts with field points before all is said and done.

i found a geat local supplier for fletching materials, and various small fur peices of many different animals, natural and dyed, in a fly-fishing shop in town. the owner is friendly, and offered to make special orders from one of his distributors, and give a bulk discount if i need it.

i'm putting carribou fur silencers on my strings now, and a short-haired soft mole fur on the arrow pass/shelf of my favorite bow.

the knife is probably going to a friend in china who is well missed back home.

Thanks for the pics. Beer bottle tips?

nah, those'ns are obsidian from glass buttes oregon and somewhere near paradise ca.

the white one is porcelain from an old sink i found along a roadside [i have another knife made from that aswell].

the obsidian ones at the middle right are two of my first attempts at yahi/ishi points.

the two small ones at bottom are for a pair of ear rings for my neighbor.

Nice work.

Wow canid, Nice knapping there. nice pic's thanks

Can I ask, how long does it take you to make a bow like the first one you kindly showed us?

well, slow and sporadic working aside, i've invested about 8 hours into that bow of actual work at a best guess.

with bows i make for others, i put a couple more into cosmetic care and aesthetics.

Very nice work canid.

i'm especially liking this little knife, but as usual [in line with my luck] i have the back edge straight as a razor, and had a bit more trouble with the blade edge, so it waves a bit.

i with i had some bigger spalls left.

Nice job, a beautiful piece of work. You definately have a talent.

Really nice work purdy bow!
Although useless for me as I have a 29" minimum draw length. If my legs were the length Leonardo DeVinci says the are correct for me I'd be 4" taller because I am 6'1"; but finger tip to finger tip I am 6'5" I wear the same sleeve length shirt as my best friend who is 6'6". That's why my draw length is that long. When I was training for the Olympics back in my youth and using the under the chin anchor I had to use full length arrows from uncut aluminium as I drew 34". I started to build my first selfbow and used the draw length times 2 plus 6 inches for the length formula I read somewhere. A 66" bow is actually what I built. Broke after 10 arrows; but dadgum it drew smoooooooooth.

i draw between 28 and 29" at a comfortable full draw, but this is not that sort of bow. every archer who plans ever to hunt should be encouraged to practice drawing short, as many hunting situations will not allow a full draw shot. this bow is for hunting, and it's made to be a shorter draw bow so that i am used to drawing it that way consistently.