Homemade bow from skis for hunting. How to make a bow from old skis with your own hands
I previously wrote about making a bow with my own hands http://www.sense-life.com/hands/lyk.php from a solid piece of wood, but the disadvantage of such a bow was the complexity of manufacturing and the long process of drying the wood. Now I want to tell you how to make a collapsible bow, which is free of these disadvantages, and besides, it fits in a small case, which is very convenient for transportation.
Let's start by making a bow handle. Let me make a reservation right away that the materials used depend on the tension of the bowstring. If the tension force is up to 10 kg, then the handle can be made from a solid wooden block 60x40x400, beech or birch (pine is not suitable for these purposes).
An excellent handle is made from a pair of 20 mm plywood plates glued together with epoxy. After coating the surface with epoxy, compress the plates in clamps. And the thickness is 40 mm.
You just need to use bakelite (waterproof) plywood. It is glued with something like epoxy and it is reliable. Simple plywood is not very suitable for these purposes (it cracks).
After that, we proceed to a rough selection of shapes with a semicircular, sharp chisel (I corrected it 2 times, the epoxy “sits” the tool a lot).
A very good assistant in this matter is a flat, semicircular rasp for rough processing of the surface, giving it a rough shape.
Then the handle is treated with coarse sandpaper, then with fine sandpaper and at the final stage with zero sandpaper.
Don't forget to drill holes for the M6 bolts to attach the bow arms.
It is advisable to place a leather pad (from old women's boots or jackets) under the bolts between the handle and the arms of the bow.
When the handle is finished, it can be covered with stain and ship varnish. Plywood, as you know, consists of layers, which, when the material is removed, play on the handle. Quite a funny effect.
So that you don’t have any questions about how to make a handle for a collapsible bow, I will provide a drawing (the drawing shows a 10x10 mm grid). You can redraw it on graph paper.
I would like to remind you that these materials for making the handle are applicable in the case of making a bow with a string tension force of up to 10 kg. If you use such a handle on more powerful bows, then there is a risk that the handle will not just break, but will explode into splinters, which can injure you.
Therefore, for more powerful bows, it is necessary to make reinforced handles from a set of woods according to the sandwich principle, as for example in this option - the base is beech, the “filling” is maple, walnut and mahogany (for grace). You can use any other dense wood, and the thickness of the filling does not play a special role, the main thing is that there is gluing.
All layers are coated with epoxy and clamped with clamps until completely dry. Clamps must be placed every 5-10 cm so that no voids form between the layers.
The result is blanks that in the future will be handles for a collapsible bow with a stronger string tension.
And lovers of beauty, with straight hands and good carpentry tools, can make not only a strong but also a beautiful handle.
Now let's start making the bow arms. Alternatively, you can use old skis as bow arms (see the master class on making a collapsible bow from skis http://www.sense-life.com/hands/lyk_razborniy_2.php). But the most suitable for these purposes are the “elastic elements” that are used to make sofas and beds. It is plywood, where all layers run lengthwise, dimensions: 1200x50x12 mm, but there are lamellas 8 mm thick. and length 700mm.
The dimensions of the arms are 700 mm long, 30 mm near the handle, 20 mm near the string mount, while the total length of the bow will be 1600 mm. It is not worth making the bow shorter, as the risk of breaking the arms increases. The best option is when the length of the bow matches the height of the shooter.
If you got slats with a thickness of 12 mm. then it is enough to saw them lengthwise obliquely, then attach them to each other and process them so that they are symmetrical to each other. The tension force of such a bow will be about 10-12 kg.
If you have lamellas 8 mm thick, then their use for a bow will be rather weak, so they will have to be strengthened.
To do this, take two lamellas and glue them together with epoxy (add a little less hardener so that the shoulders do not crack). But the best results are obtained by PVA glue “Moment” D-2, in red bottles, from the manufacturer Pritt Henkel (sold in hardware stores and construction markets).
Be sure to tighten it with clamps along the entire length and wait for it to dry. As a result, we get lamellas with a thickness of 16mm. It may seem to many that the shoulders are made of 16mm. The lamella will be very rigid because you simply cannot bend it in your hands. But when you assemble the bow completely, your doubts about the flexibility of the slats will disappear. Just keep in mind that with such stiff shoulders, it is advisable to use a reinforced handle.
We saw the glued lamellas obliquely and get future shoulders.
Let's put it on the handle and see how it all will look.
From scraps of lamellas we make a shelf for the bowstring. We cut out a couple of plates slightly wider than the shoulders (to allow further processing), apply the plate to the shoulder and drill two through holes, after which we generously coat everything with glue, and insert dowels into the holes on the glue. We compress it with clamps and leave it to dry for a day. It is best to remove the remaining glue with a rag in advance, so that when it dries you don’t have to worry about removing it.
We give symmetry to both shoulders. For precision, we squeeze the shoulders together with clamps and process the sides.
We outline the shape of the shelf for the bowstring. The shape can be any, as your imagination allows.
Cut off the excess with a jigsaw. Then we do the final treatment with sandpaper.
We make cuts in the shelf for a bowstring diameter of 3 mm. and to a depth of 7-8 mm.
We open the shoulders with stain and ship varnish.
For such a reinforced bow, you will need a string of at least 3.5 mm. If you don’t want to make a bowstring yourself http://www.sense-life.com/hands/lyk2.php then a Kevlar climbing sling is quite suitable (sold in tourist and mountaineering stores and in this thickness).
Now you can go outdoors for testing.
For the convenience of transporting a collapsible bow, you can make a small case.
Now you know how to make a collapsible bow with your own hands. Just don’t forget that a bow, like any weapon, requires a responsible attitude and compliance with all safety measures when shooting. And the amount of pleasure directly depends on how the bow is made.
Download the “video” https://yadi.sk/d/Iw7YdbIRmCawR on making a solid bow from laminated veneer. Using this principle, you can make bow limbs.
Download the book "History of Weapons. Bows and Crossbows" https://yadi.sk/d/FhahZYtHmCasp - all about bows and crossbows of all times and peoples.
Download the book "Armor and Weapons" https://yadi.sk/d/WybrS5dAmCauY This book reveals the fascinating thousand-year history of ancient weapons. Unique photographs show armor of gladiators, knights and samurai, daggers, crossbows and pistols!
I like to ski in the forest in winter. Every morning, like a maniac, I break the ski track after snow drifts, trying to find the old trail. Otherwise, you fall knee-deep (the thickness of the snow cover is more than a meter). Finally I got tired of it and bought wide hunting skis, in which walking on snow is not a problem. The question arose, what to do with old skis? It's a shame to throw it away. The answer appeared immediately after the question. Why not make a bow out of them? Skis are ready-made shoulders for a bow. Of course, it is better to use plastic skis for a bow, but since my skis were wooden, still of the Soviet type, I accordingly had to change the method of attaching the shoulders.
You can make a collapsible bow from plastic skis. The most difficult thing, however, is to make the bow handle. We talked to you about how to make it correctly in the article: . The technology is the same, only instead of laminate shoulders, plastic ski shoulders are used. We make the arms of the bow ten centimeters longer than the handle. If your handle is 45 centimeters long, then the length of the shoulder (including the part for overlapping the handle) should be 55 centimeters. Limbs that are too long will weaken the power of the bow. If your skis are too wide, then you should narrow the bow arms by sanding them down. If your goal is to make a bow for a child, then it is better to cut the skis in half lengthwise.
We attach the arms to the handle using bolts. By the way, if you make a puff handle, such as is described in the mentioned article about a collapsible bow, then you can use the same skis as the starting material.
My skis are wooden, so it is dangerous to make a collapsible bow out of them, because they may well delaminate or break over time at the points where they are attached to the handle. Of course, it’s not a fact that this will happen, but, as they say, God protects the best, and I have no desire to get a broken bow in the eye. Therefore, I choose a safer method of making a bow, namely, without a handle, as the third component of a collapsible bow.
We just put two shoulders on top of each other and sew them together using the same furniture bolts. And we wrap it tightly with a leather cord in the place that will mark the handle. Next, you can narrow the shoulders of the skis on one side, and a shelf will automatically appear. Before wrapping the handle, you can use a file (or sandpaper) to give it a more convenient shape, rounding and tapering it in the right places. Between the skis, at the junction of the handle, you can put a felt or rubber gasket.
An approximate drawing of the connection of the bow in the hilt area. You can make your own options...
Comrade Hobbit started an interesting topic, well, at least interesting to me. "Onion". Everyone decides for themselves the degree of necessity and possible use of these weapons, but in my opinion the topic is interesting and worthy of attention.
In search of information, I went to the Internet. Well, in general, people write a lot of things, some deserve attention, some don’t. I wanted to find an option that was cheap and cheerful. To spend a minimum of effort and time, and at the end get a more or less decent result. Found. That's what I want to post.
Next comes the copy-paste.
There is enough information on the net about making bows, strings, arrows and quivers, but it’s all quite scattered, so I decided to collect a description of the entire manufacturing process in one place. I will try to explain this in detail with photographs.
So the task is to make a bow, having a minimum of tools at home, quickly enough and with acceptable performance characteristics. The best first model is the compound longbow model. This is what we will do. For a complete set we need to make: a handle, shoulders, a bowstring, arrows and, if you really want, a quiver. And do it inexpensively.
The required set of tools is a drill or screwdriver, a knife, a plane, an electric jigsaw or saw, and lots and lots of sanding paper.
Part one: the handle.
To make it, we need a block of decent wood 30*50 mm, about 40 cm long. We must choose it responsibly, pine will not work for it, we need at least birch, preferably beech. We look at the annual rings of the blank. They should go along the wide side.
We mark the handle 4 times by 10 cm, as can be seen in the photo, this is one of the design options, you can come up with something of your own. We cut out the handle with a jigsaw or saw, drill 6 mm holes for furniture bolts and 3 mm blind holes along the edges and insert pieces of nails so that they stick out about five millimeters.
There is no point in finishing the handle right away; the bow will still need to be adjusted, so we’ll leave the sanding for later. 
Part two: shoulders.
The most controversial part is in materials, technologies and sizes.
I have tried many technologies - skis, veneer, composite shoulders, but everything is not the same. Absolutely by accident, I found a Klondike of blanks for shoulders at a local furniture factory. This happiness is called an elastic element and is a plywood, where all the layers run lengthwise, dimensions: length 120 cm, width 50 mm, thickness 12 mm, lightly varnished and has a large radius of curvature. In short, it’s just the thing for the shoulders of the bow! I forgot to say - the price is amazing, about 10 rubles for a set of shoulders! Similar products can be found in offices that assemble furniture.
We mark the workpieces brought home like this - we mark 15 mm diagonally on each edge, draw the cut location using the second workpiece (very convenient, given the curvature of the workpiece) and use a jigsaw to make two from one piece of wood!
Now is the time to decide on the size of the future miracle! English longbow - the prototype of the product was quite long. There is no point in making it less than 120 cm, because... there will be a large angle of bending of the shoulders, which means they will quickly fail. Also, a longbow has a more even pull when drawing the string. Our bow will be collapsible, so there’s no need to worry about how to transport it. We came to the dacha/picnic/barbecue, assembled it, shot it, took it apart, brought it home, put it in the closet. For quick assembly/disassembly, only two hex keys are required.
I got distracted somehow. We have already decided that the length of the bow will be 160 cm (just kidding, decide for yourself).
Based on this, the length of the shoulders will be 70 cm, i.e. bow length minus 20 cm between the shoulders on the handle and divide in half. The last time I made bows (they are in the pictures) were 180 cm long. I didn’t measure the force, but it was convenient for both children and their parents to shoot.
We put the two resulting blanks together, we are surprised at the curvature of our hands, we select the part that will become the shoulders, we measure, and saw off the excess. We apply it to the handle, drill a hole for a furniture nut with the largest head (50 mm bolts and nuts for them are available in stores selling furniture fittings, for a ruble per bolt). After removing the nail pieces from the handle, we collect the onion and rejoice!
It's best to mark the shoulders with upward arrows, like I did, because they are not interchangeable! Now we insert one piece of nail into the handle, assemble the bow, align the bow symmetrically and lightly press the handle, the nail will mark the place in the shoulder for the hole, drill a blind hole of about 5 mm. We do the same with the second shoulder.
Now the long-awaited time for skinning has come! We cut out the seats for the bowstring at a distance of 3 cm from the edge, cut out the handle, level the shoulders with a plane, cover all this beauty with varnish or paint. In short, creative freedom. One important point - the edge of the handle must be folded so that there is a gap of 1-1.5 mm between the handle and the shoulder, otherwise there is a chance of breaking the shoulder in this place! 
Part three: bowstring.
It’s easy to make a bowstring that has the necessary characteristics and a decent appearance! Forget about Kevlar, Dacron and others like them! These materials, not only do you find horseradish, have one advantage, but it is also the main disadvantage - they do not stretch! Those. If your children/slightly drunk comrades try to make fools with such a bowstring without an arrow, there is a real chance to change the bow limbs for new ones!
In short, we go to a fishing store and buy a spool of Chinese nylon thread for 25 rubles. Threads come in different thicknesses, I liked the thicker ones. We also need a board/block longer than the future bowstring and two large nails without heads. I used two bars sewn together with self-tapping screws. It is better to wind the future bowstring using a spool from the bobbin of your mother’s sewing machine. And if you cut out a U-shaped plate, drill a hole for the thread in the middle of the shelf and secure the spool in this device with a screw, winding the bowstring will be a pleasure!
It's time to decide on the length of the bowstring! Instead of a bowstring, we tie a rope, measure with a tape measure, that’s it! Remember that over time, the string will stretch under load.
We mark the measured distance on the previously prepared board/bar. Drill two holes, insert two nails without heads. We also mark the middle of the distance and 5 cm from the center in both directions. We tie a nylon thread to one of the nails and wind it with a slight even tension so that the total thickness of the bowstring is about 3 mm. We tie the ends of the bowstring and pull the knot so that it stands about 5 cm from the center, just be careful, the bowstring may fly off the nail. 
We take a device for winding, leave a tail of about 20 cm, begin to wind both strands of the bowstring in turn, wrap about 10 cm each, wrap the tail together with the strand, and finish by tying the winding with a simple knot. This way we will get blanks for bowstring loops. 
We move the loops back to the nails, wrap the loops, beautifully sealing the ends of the braid, wrap 10 cm in the middle under the bowstring, and seal the ends. That's it, the bowstring is ready!
Now how to dress it? We put it on one shoulder of the bow, but not in the cut, but further. Then we hook the string into the cut of the second shoulder, we press this shoulder into the floor so that it lies flat on the floor, resting against the bow handle, we squeeze the second shoulder up and insert the string into the cut. It is more convenient to do this together.
Part four: arrow.
An equally important detail of the shooting complex, so we do it carefully, although during post-shootings they get lost, break, etc. We go to a hardware store and buy a 10*10 mm bead. We buy a lot of it because... consumable material. We select carefully, straight layer, without knots. I charged 4 rubles per meter.
It's time to decide on the length of the future arrow. To do this, we stand up, pull our left hand with the index finger extended to the left, parallel to the ground, and look at this finger. The length of the arrow is the distance from the tip of the finger to the chin!
The arrow blank should be 5 cm longer than the future product.
We remove the edges of the glazing bead with a plane and bring it to a round state using the following device.
At the base there are two suitable boards/pieces of plywood; pieces of glazing bead with knots are nailed along the edge of one. A very evil piece of sandpaper on a rag base is glued to both parts of the device. The length of the device is comparable to the length of the arrow, the width is about 10 cm. If desired, both parts can be sewn together with a piece of leather along one edge. 
The principle of rounding is very simple, we clamp the workpiece into a screwdriver and perform back-and-forth movements at high speed for a couple of minutes. After this, use sandpaper 100, 200, 600 in your hands, only it is better to hold the paper through a rag so as not to get burned. As a result, we get an arrow shaft of amazing quality with a diameter of about 9 mm. I tried a 500 W drill, but it didn’t twist the workpiece into a spiral.
Cutting off<технологический хвостик>, make a cut perpendicular to the annual rings to a depth of 8-10 mm, expand the cut with a flat file, use it to round the edges of the cut, cut 1-1.5 mm from the top and bottom at a length of about 2 cm.
Part five: plumage.
I decided to move the production of the plumage into a separate part.
The goal is a simple weather-resistant bright plumage with good flight characteristics. For production we will need colored tape, aluminum tape, A4 paper. We cut the paper along the short edge to a width of 4 cm (4*21). We cut the aluminum tape 1*21 cm and fold it lengthwise with the aluminum facing out. 
We unwind the colored tape with the adhesive layer up on a flat surface, lay the paper so that 5 mm remains on both sides, glue strips of aluminum tape to these places and again a layer of colored tape on top. One such blank produces 4 feathers. So you need to do a lot of them.
Next, from any available material, we cut out a template for the future feather, the shape is for everyone, the optimal dimensions are length 8-10 cm, width 1.5-2 cm.
We trace the pattern with a ballpoint pen, cut out the feather, not forgetting 1 cm of aluminum tape on both sides for further wrapping. Feathers are even more consumable than arrows; after successful shooting, the frayed feathers on the found arrows can be cut off, the arrow can be cleaned with sandpaper and new feathers can be glued on! 
So, take the arrow, peel off the protective strip from the feather and carefully glue the feather at a distance of 3 cm from the edge of the arrow, and so on three times! The strips should touch each other. Next, we take colored tape, place it on a flat surface, which is okay, with the sticky layer up, cut off a piece of about 10 cm with a stationery knife, cut this piece into 5 ribbons 1 cm wide, glue three strips between the feathers, cut off the excess tape with the same knife, Use the remaining two pieces to wrap the feathers at the top and bottom. The plumage is ready! 
Part six: tips. Theoretical.
Regarding the tips. I will not quote what the law says about this, I will only say that the tips ordered a long time ago from a turner rusted and disappeared somewhere. I didn’t put tips, an arrow without a tip (albeit from a compound bow) pierces a medium-sized head of cabbage right through.
For those who like to shoot at each other, I can recommend doing<гуманизаторные наконечники>, they are made simply, take a strip of thick leather 1 cm wide, fold the strip in half, tie it to an arrow, then tie another strip crosswise, and wrap a cross of the same leather on top. I have never done such a miracle myself.
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Well, I’ll add on my own behalf. I myself have not yet had time to try out this technology: I can’t turn around at home, and the workshop will only be available with the first warming. But the wait isn’t long and that’s good news. If you are interested, I can post a report on the work done later.
And of course (since this is a copy-paste) I give
Materials:Skis: pieces of skis for making bow arms;
Lumber - for making a handle. You need either a large beam (minimum 8x8x50) or small beams;
A couple of bolts, washers, wing nuts - to attach the bow arms to the handle;
Nylon thread (or any low-stretch string) - for the bowstring.
Tools:
Clamps;
Hand drill with a set of drills;
Chisel, hammer;
Wood rasp or file;
Sandpaper of various grain sizes;
The tools listed below are not necessary, but will help make the process much easier if you are making a more complex bow handle.
Table saw;
Drilling machine;
Band-saw;
Plane;
Belt/disc sander.
Making a bow from skis
I used skis for mountain terrain. The ends are bent at an angle of 20 - 28 degrees. Bow limbs made from alpine skis will be more “strong” because... Alpine skis are tougher.Bow Handle Design
Original handles in real size:
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A collapsible bow includes two arms in its design, which are attached to both sides of the handle using nuts. The handle should have two flat surfaces for attaching the shoulders, a place for a hand grip, and a shelf-cutout for the passage of the arrow. The handle should not bend (at all!) while using the bow! As long as the bow satisfies these three conditions, it doesn't matter what it looks like. Now is a good opportunity to show your creativity.
Start developing your bow design with a couple of sketches on a piece of paper. I did a few scaled-down sketches so I could have some ideas before drawing the full size handle.
The two handles I created were approximately 51cm and 46cm in length. The handle pictured on the left was designed using only one bolt to secure the bow's limb, while the one on the right was designed using two bolts to each limb. Don't pay too much attention to this. Even after the bow is fully built, there are ways to change the angle to increase the tension on the string. We'll come back to this later.
Make a copy of your drawing so that you have the original drawing to transfer to the wood. Cut and glue the design to the foam board and cut it out using a knife or rasp.
On a foam handle, you can choose a comfortable shape for the part that your hand will hold on to, and adjust the curves before making the handle out of wood. The foam model helped me a lot. I'm not very good at transferring a three-dimensional picture from my imagination to a plane. Having a 3D model allowed me to tweak the design before making the wood handle.
Making a bow handle
Depending on your desire and available materials, this step can be short or take quite a long time. I didn't have a piece of wood large enough to make the handle, so I glued it together from several pieces. This method will also allow you to make the handle multi-colored. If you decide to use one piece of wood, get it as square as possible using a table saw, jointer, planer, and move on to the "Rough Cutting the Handle" step. If you want to make a handle glued together from several blocks, read on.
You will need several pieces of walnut, oak, and pecan wood. Take some time to “play” with them and create an interesting color combination from different types of wood.
Use a table saw to shape the selected pieces of wood into uniform widths (along the grain). The width of the blanks should be approximately 5 mm larger than the widest part of the ski. In my case it was approximately 5 cm for both pairs of skis. The 5mm allowance will be removed later with sandpaper. Now cut the planks to the same size along the length (across the grain).
To do this I used a hand-held circular saw. Please note that the planks turned out a little uneven. For high-quality gluing, it is important that the boards fit together as tightly as possible. If you have a plane or surface planer, make the boards even or sand them using sandpaper placed on a rectangular piece of wood.
Gluing the handle
Now the wooden planks are ready for gluing. Any glue for gluing wooden surfaces will work for us. Next I used wood glue. If after gluing you finish with some kind of polyurethane, then there is no need to use waterproof glue.
Cover the surface to be glued with small drops of glue, and then spread it over the entire surface to create a thin, even layer. After the glue has been applied to all the boards, press them together with a clamp and remove any beads of glue that protrude from the edges. Make sure there are no visible gaps between the boards. Leave them in this position overnight.
If you decide to save time and glue all the boards at once, they may move during the gluing process (see photo). Before you continue working, it will be better if they form one surface. In my case, I used a planer. To avoid displacement of the boards when fixing them with a clamp, glue them several at a time, and not all at once.
Making a bow handle
Rough sawing of the handle
So now you have a straight piece of solid wood (or glued wood), it's time to cut out the template and glue it to the wood.
Rough cutting of the bow handle is best done with a band saw, but a jigsaw will also work. First make cuts from the edges of the workpiece to the edge of the template. They are needed to make it easier to remove excess wood and facilitate sawing along the curved lines of the template.
Once these cuts have been made, begin sawing along curved lines. As soon as you reach the cuts, pieces of wood will fall off. This will create natural places to stop the cut.
Now you need to cut out the shelf for the boom to pass through. Turn the bow handle blank on its side and draw the outline of the shelf. If you have a band saw, the cutting process is simple - follow the same steps as when rough cutting the handle. If you only have a jigsaw (like me), then you may need a chisel. Most jigsaws can cut into boards up to 5cm thick. The handle I designed is about 7.5 - 9 cm thick when placed on its side.
To cut out a shelf with a chisel, hold the workpiece against the bench with a clamp and make a vertical cut with a handsaw. Next, turn the handle blank on its side and secure it again with a clamp on the bench. Using a hammer and chisel, carefully holding the chisel as perpendicular to the workpiece as possible, gradually cut out the shelf.
Now it's time to grind, use a rasp and sandpaper to give the handle a smooth shape. I did most of the work using a belt and disc sander.
Ski trimming
To get an idea of what the meadow will look like without the string, place the ski and bow handle together as shown above. You don't want the bow limb to be too long or you'll lose some power. This is especially true for cross-country skis, because... they are less harsh.
For a 45cm handle, I cut the ski to a length of 55cm (including the part that overlaps the handle). The shoulders were made slightly longer than the handle to maintain visual balance. Use a square to make a straight cutting line and cut off part of the ski using a hacksaw. Do not use a circular saw or ax for this operation, especially if the ski has metal reinforcement.
Make sure the ski is cut exactly at the right angle. If not, use sandpaper and a rasp to smooth out the corner.
Drilling holes for fasteners.
The number of bolts you need to use when attaching each bow limb to the grip depends on the diameter of the bolts. When using only one bolt on each side, I used an M12 bolt. When using two bolts - M8.
To drill the hole, use a drill bit that exactly matches the diameter of the bolt. You don't want the thread to cut into the wood. The bolt should fit into the socket without resistance, but should not play. At this stage it is very convenient to use a drilling machine. Press the ski to the handle with a clamp, place them on the drilling machine table, the plane should be perpendicular to the drill. If you don't have a drill press, these holes can be drilled with a hand drill.
Mark the center of the future hole (with an awl or nail) in the middle of the ski and approximately 3 cm from the edge of the ski. This will help you drill the hole accurately if you are not using a drill press. Place the bow limb and grip together and drill a hole together. You can also drill the holes individually.
To prevent the bolt head from protruding from behind and being scratched, it must be “recessed”. Use a drill bit that is a hair larger than the diameter of the widest part of the bolt head. Determine how deep to drill the hole by holding the bolt next to the folded ski and handle, as shown below. It is necessary that approximately 1-2 cm of thread protrudes from the front in order to put on the washer and tighten the wing nut. Make a mark on the handle and return to the drill press (or drill).
If you're wrong
It may happen that the arms of the bow will not be in line after you insert the bolts into the holes, and the bow will look something like this. A small gap like this will cause the bow limb to play, causing the bow to be inaccurate. Don't worry, it's easy to fix.
Cut and glue a small wooden wedge onto the end of the play arm. When the glue is dry, sand it down with sandpaper so that the shoulder fits tightly.
Finishing the bow handle
It's time to remove all marks and scratches. I used M40 sandpaper. M63 paper will also work. After sanding, remove the wood dust and apply the finishing touch. I used two pieces of finishing gloss polyurethane sandpaper with an intermediate sanding of M40.
Making a bowstring
To perform a weak bend (10 kg or less), there is no need to strengthen the ends of the arms. Several needle files I used for the jewelry did a good job of making the grooves. Be sure to round the edges of the grooves so that the bowstring does not rub against sharp edges.
For such a light bow, the nylon thread is strong enough to serve as a bowstring. The thread itself is too thin for the slot in the heel of the arrow to properly tension and shoot accurately. This can be corrected by weaving the thread in a special way (see below) to double its thickness.
Before making a thickened bowstring, determine how long the slightly untwisted bowstring should be. Tie two bow knots at the ends of the string and draw it across the bow. If the string is too long or too short, it will greatly interfere with its use. The distance between the string and the handle is called the "base". Although it may vary slightly between bows, it is approximately 18 cm.
To make a twisted string that will fit a bow, cut a piece of string equal to three times the length of the single string drawn as the bowstring.
The video below shows how to twist the thread. If you can't see it clearly enough, here's what happens: Fold the thread in half. Using the thumb and index finger of your left hand, hold the thread by the loop (with a pinch). Place the upper end of the thread coming out of the pinch on the end of your index finger, press it with your thumb and roll the pad of your thumb along the index finger to the joint, unwinding the weave of the thread. Having rolled the thread to the joint, press it with your thumb, and without releasing it, grab the second end of the thread with your index and middle fingers and turn the hand towards you. Move the pinch holding the loop forward a little. Repeat.
Detailed description of the operation on video (in English)
Now you have a large piece of twisted nylon thread, tie a double knot at the end to prevent unraveling, trim and melt the ends.
The string is almost ready. The part of the bowstring where it comes into contact with the fingers and the nock of the arrow is subject to increased wear when shooting. An additional thin thread layer can be added to strengthen the bowstring. This process is called bowstring maintenance. Maintain a section of the bowstring a few centimeters below and above the arrow shelf.
To prevent this area from fraying and sliding up and down, it is necessary to thread a hemp thread through the bowstring. Also, a small nail can be inserted into the twisted bowstring to thread the hemp thread. The tape in the top photo is used to hold the hemp thread in place during the twisting process.
This process is similar to basic overcasting. However, the hemp thread is not strong and pulls the end of the loop back and twists it. Therefore, thread the working end of the hemp thread in small increments through the twisted bowstring. Tie the end in a knot and add a drop of superglue to the end to prevent fraying.
Last steps.
Now the onion is completely ready. To finish, I glued a small piece of leather onto the arrow shelf.
Adjusting Bow Power
Here are some ways to increase the power of your bow.
Angle between the handle and the bow shoulder:
The smaller this angle, the more the bow arm will bend when drawing the string, and thus develop more energy. To avoid putting too much stress on the skis (otherwise they might break), I prefer to reduce this angle to 0?. The easiest way to change this angle is to cut a small wedge out of wood and drill appropriate holes. Insert a wedge between the arm and the handle and bolt them together. To make the wedge more visible in the photo, I wrapped it in paper. Shoulder wedging increases the draw of this bow from 26 to 30.Changing the length of the shoulders
If the bow limbs are too long, the bow can end up being quite weak. Long arms bend less when the bowstring is drawn. Less bending means less strength. The string can be drawn back further and the limbs can be bent more without likely breaking, increasing the strength of the bow. Shoulders that are too small can be broken by normal bowstring tension. My advice: if you want to replace the shoulders, measure approximately 10 centimeters from the edge of each shoulder. Drill new holes and make a new string.Removing material from the ends of the arms
Not all the force developed by the tension of the bowstring is transferred to the arrow. Significant energy is spent returning the shoulders to their original position. If the arms are lighter, less energy is required to move them, resulting in more energy transferred to the arrow. This does not change the draw weight of the bow, but it does make the bow more efficient and powerful.Because the ends of the bow must move as far as possible to reach the starting position, they are often the part of the bow from which material is removed. To remove material, use a rasp, file, sandpaper, and use them to “sharpen” the ends. If you remove too much material, you will compromise the structure of the bow. I warned you. This can be done as long as you don't go too far. Do not remove more than 20% of the material in the top third of the onion.
A hand-made ski bow is a medium-power device. It will withstand moisture and frost. The arms of such a device are identical, and therefore it will shoot smoothly.
Give new life to an old thing
Many people are interested in how to make a bow from skis with their own hands. It turns out that this is possible.
In ancient times, it took several years to make such a weapon. This should not be surprising, since drying and processing wood takes a lot of time.
Modern technologies and materials make it possible to reduce time consumption. Even at home, you can make a device in a few days. This article will give detailed instructions on how to make a bow from skis. It must be strictly adhered to. A drawing is also used in the manufacture of the product.
What materials and tools will be required?
How to make a bow from skis with your own hands? Despite the fact that manufacturing seems very simple, the process requires care and a certain skill in working with tools.
To make a bow from skis, you should prepare:
hacksaw; wood rasp; drill (can be used either manual or electric); clamps; hammer; chisel; grinder; plane; set of wood drills; hacksaw; sandpaper of different grits; glue.
Materials you will need:
skis; block of wood (size 80x80x50 mm); bolts; wing washers.
To make a bowstring, a fishing cord, nylon thread or string is used (the tighter it is, the better).
When making a device such as a bow from skis with your own hands, an important point is cutting out the handle. Making this part requires some effort. Therefore, it is a good idea to prepare a table saw (sawing machine), band saw, and drilling machine. So, we make a bow from skis.
Bow handle
A bow made from skis with your own hands will shoot accurately only if all the rules and exact dimensions are followed when making its handle. This detail gives the product a holistic look, largely determining the style of its execution.
The design of a product such as a ski bow depends entirely on the taste of the artist and can be very different. During manufacturing, you can use ready-made drawings or create your own schematic version, taking the proposed dimensions as a basis.
How long is the bow? The dimensions of the ski, as well as all other parts, are given in the detailed drawing.
When developing a handle design, the following points must be taken into account:
both ends should have flat shelves for shoulder fastenings; the place for gripping the hand should be of a good size, suitable for the width of the palm.
The work begins with the manufacture of this particular part.
To make a bow from old skis with your own hands, you will definitely need a drawing. Only the model of the handle is cut out from it. Its basis is penoplex 50 mm thick. The material can be easily cut using a regular stationery knife. After this process, you can begin the main production of the wooden handle.
Here are two options for how to do this. You can create a solid structure based on a wooden block, or you can create a composite structure from plywood strips that will be glued together. The main thing is to adhere to the basic principle: the handle should retain its shape and not bend when the bowstring is pulled.
Plywood strips that are cut according to the pattern should be coated with glue. They are stacked on top of each other and tightly fixed with clamps. In this state, the workpiece is left for a day. A solid handle is cut from a block of wood.
How to make a handle from different types of trees?
This option for making a handle is more complex, as it will take a lot of time, but the effort is worth it. Made from various types of wood, the piece is stylish and sophisticated. This manufacturing option can be used if a solid piece of wood is not available.
It is advisable to use bars from trees such as:
oak; walnut; pecan.
To get a catchy composition, you should decide on the choice of design, select the original shape of each detail, and compare colors.
An important note is that the cut is made along the grain. The bars are processed in such a way that they have the same width. It should be 5 mm larger than the width of the widest part of the ski. This reserve is required for final processing using glass or sandpaper.
No matter what tool you use at home, the edges of the boards will never turn out perfectly smooth. Here you should use a plane. All irregularities are removed with its help. If you don’t have a planer or thicknesser, you can use sandpaper, but such processing will take a lot of time. A grinder with a special disk on which abrasive paper is attached can speed up the process.
After processing the wood with a plane, the surface should be completely smooth. In construction supply stores you can purchase special dies on which the abrasive is fixed. They are used by painters to sand surfaces covered with putty. If there are no dies, then you can wrap the paper around a rectangular block.
Proper gluing process
After processing, the workpieces should be glued together. For this purpose, any type of glue is used, the instructions for which indicate that it can connect wooden surfaces. The glue must be resistant to moisture, otherwise you will have to resort to additional processing of the finished part with polyurethane or varnish used for yachts.
Apply a number of drops of glue to the surface to be bonded, then distribute them evenly over the entire surface.
The planks are placed tightly so that there are no gaps between them. Then they are fastened with clamps. The parts must dry for 12 hours. Be sure to check the instructions for the drying time of the glue you are using.
The same principle is followed when gluing plywood boards. True, to achieve the desired height, the amount used will be greater. You should try to glue in such an order that two surfaces are connected at a time, but no more.
Making a device such as a bow from wooden skis will take much longer if the handle is made from plywood sheets. Working with plywood sheets will take several days. Completing this stage will be faster if you use several sets of clamps. If you glue the plywood boards together at once and fasten them with one set of clamps, the parts will move in different directions and the work will have to start again. In this case, you will need to remove the glue from the parts.
How to cut out a handle?
From a prepared block of a solid or prefabricated structure (based on plywood planks), you should begin sawing out the handle. For this purpose, a foam model is used. It is compared with the finished drawing. If, after processing the foam, it is noted that the drawing has significant errors, then it is better to make corrections on paper.
After this, the drawing is transferred to the finished block, the contours are clearly drawn and the part is cut out using a band saw or jigsaw. The choice of the shape of the bow handle made from skis depends on the imagination of the performer.
This step is especially important because half of your process is already done, and it's not worth doing everything over again due to a mechanical error. Therefore, in this case, it is recommended to use the tool that you know how to work well with.
First of all, cuts are made along the entire perimeter from the edge of the workpiece to the cutting line, which is marked with a pencil or marker. The cutting width can be 2-3 cm. This way you can cut curved lines and naturally stop cutting. Once the distance is covered, unnecessary pieces of wood will fall away.
If the production of a bow from skis is carried out carefully, the product will differ little from its factory counterparts in terms of power and functionality. And its appearance could be better.
How to finish the handle?
The workpiece is processed using a plane and sandpaper until a flat and perfectly smooth surface is obtained. The handle should be treated with two layers of drying oil. Then it is coated with waterproof varnish.
How to make a shelf for arrows?
After the main part of the handle is cut out, a place for the boom shelf should be marked on it. It is thanks to the shelf that the bow will have an accurate sight.
To begin with, a contour is drawn on the side of the handle, and then it is cut out using a band saw. You can also use a jigsaw, but they should make the main cut, and then continue the process with a hammer and chisel.
This is explained by the technical characteristics of some jigsaw models. As a rule, their cutting depth is 5 cm. In our case, the figure should be 8 cm.
To ensure that the handle remains motionless during cutting, its shelves should be secured to the workbench with clamps.
How to make shoulders?
A homemade bow from skis requires the presence of shoulders. They are cut out. The important point here is maintaining proportions, since the power level of the bow depends on this.
Many people wonder how long the handle is and how long the arms of a ski bow are. With a handle length of 45 cm, the shoulders, taking into account the overlap, should be 55 cm each.
First you should outline the cutting line. It should be smooth. You should mark a right angle using a metal square or a protractor. You can correct the angle of the cut piece using a rasp.
The workpiece is sawed off with a hacksaw, since all skis are reinforced with metal, and the tool can be damaged.
Next, using a drill whose diameter matches the size of the bolts, a hole is drilled for attaching the shoulder and handle. Then the bolt will not wobble and will not allow the workpiece to crack due to the high resistance when screwed in.
First, you should mark the places where the holes will be located. There will be two of them on each side. The most difficult point is that you need to drill the handle and shoulder at the same time, placing them next to each other.
If one bolt is used on each side, then size 12M should be selected; if two on each shoulder, then size M8 should be used.
To recess the bolt head during drilling, a special nozzle with a limiter is used. It is used in the manufacture of furniture. If such a device could not be found, then you should find a drill whose diameter is slightly larger than the bolt head and drill the finished hole to the depth of the head.
After fastening the parts with wing bolts, their too long legs can be cut off with a grinder with a special metal cutting disc or a hacksaw.
To create grooves for the string, a homemade bow from old skis is sawed through the sides. These places are processed using a rasp so that the bowstring is not subject to abrasion at the points of contact with the shoulder.
It is recommended to glue a piece of leather onto the arrow shelf. You can also use polymer fabric.
When pulling the bowstring, one should not forget that in pursuit of power, one can put an unbearable load on the shoulders. As a result, they will crack or break.
The basis of the bowstring should be several threads, and not just one lace. For its production, strong fibers with an artificial composition are used. For example, expensive Kevlar, nylon, and lavsan are used. You can also use silk thread. An excellent bowstring will be made from a fishing cord. The thickness of the threads does not matter. The indicator will be reflected in the number of turns.
That, in fact, is all the explanation about how to make a bow from wooden skis. Next, we will look at making bowstrings and arrows.
Making a bowstring
The string can be wound around the legs of the stool. Different winding options will provide the desired length. The ends of the thread are tied with an Achilles knot. A protective winding must be made on the ears of the bowstring in the place where it is put on the shoulders. Typically a spacer is used. The winding should be tight and the turns should fit tightly together. Its length is approximately 15 cm. In this case, the turns begin in such a way that they hide the knot at the ends. Next, you should make an eye loop. Its base is tightly wrapped. A 15 cm long winding is also made in the middle of the bowstring. The fingers will rest on this place.
Making arrows for a bow
A homemade bow from skis at home requires making arrows. The arrow shaft can be made of wood. You can use ready-made wooden slats with a square cross-section or ordinary glazing beads processed to a round cross-section with a diameter of 9 mm. The main thing is that the material is straightforward.
The workpiece should be sanded. For this purpose, a drill is used at low speeds. The straighter the shaft of the arrow, the more accurately it will fly.
Making the tip
The tip can have a simple design: a driven nail wrapped in wire. But this tip is not so elaborate. It is much better to make the part from steel, the thickness of which is 1.5-2 mm.
A slot is made at the end of the bow and the tip is placed there with glue.
Making plumage
The feathering on the end of the arrow is made from bird feathers. One feather will produce two or three feathers. Its length should be from 5.0 to 9.0 cm.
Turkey feathers are the most suitable for arrows. Their best part, located closer to the base, is used.
The empennage barrel is processed in such a way that it can be glued to the arrow. The processing of the barrel is carried out with an emery wheel or sandpaper. The latter method is preferable.
