A) A selection of green wood bows. B) A Red Karee branch stave. C) Tillering stick.

Tillering string.

By Pedro Victor

Those who are interested in traditional and primitive archery may find themselves wondering how the ancients made bows and how Stone Age man managed to fashion weapons that equal the modern fibre-glass weapons sold in hunting and archery stores.

The answer is that the ancients often made their bows from green wood with minimum effort, using stone tools that are better suited to bow crafting than our modern metal tools.

Cutting and transporting wood
If at all possible, try to saw the stave rather than chopping it down with an axe. A small handheld pruning or folding saw often suffices for this purpose and also ensures that the craftsperson can clearly see the end grain of the cut wood. Additionally, this method ensures minimum wastage of the stave, particularly in cases where the stave length is close to the minimum required for crafting a useful bow.
In many areas the relative humidity (RH) is extremely low, therefore the exposed ends of the stave often check or crack within minutes due to effects of moisture evaporating from the wood. A convenient way to prevent this is to cover the ends with small plastic bags such as a sandwich or bank bag. These can be secured by wrapping an elastic band over the stave and bag at each end of the stave.

The stave thus cut and sealed can be transported and stored for several days provided the bags are not pierced. For long-term storage remove the bank bags and smear two layers of white wood glue on the ends, allowing several hours for the first layer to dry before applying the second.
In South Africa, woods should be cut between February and mid-August to ensure that a thick latewood growth ring forms the back of the bow. The early wood growth ring produced at the beginning (first month) of the growing season is softer and tends to produce an inferior bow or even worse, a complete bow failure.

Do not remove the bark from a cut stave prior to fashioning the bow in the rough.

Splitting the stave
I prefer not to split smaller diameter staves. It is possible to split staves and to have two useful pieces of wood, each of which can make a decent bow, however, it is possible and indeed often happens that one is left with two pieces of wood, neither of which can make a decent bow. The reason is that many woods are dense grained and do not split in a neat and predictable fashion. My preference is to remove wood from the stave in order to produce one good bow. Obviously this does not apply to large thick staves but to smaller 60 millimetre or thinner sapling staves.
In the case of thicker staves and trees, it is best to use a circular saw to saw a lengthwise cut down the centre of two opposing sides of the stave, going from end to end. A cold chisel can then be driven lengthwise into the centre of the end of the stave, causing a usually neat split of the stave down part of its length. Driving another chisel or wedge into the lengthwise cuts widens this split and alternating this process down the length of the stave should result in a quick and clean split.

Shaping the bow
After harvesting your stave it is best to work it as soon as possible. A period of 72 hours should be considered acceptable for white woods such as karee, oak, elm and hackberry (stinkwood). The reason for this is that when the stave is cut during the growing season, the bark is usually easily removed within this period. Allowing the stave to stand for longer periods may result in the bark adhering to the wood and makes bark stripping considerably more difficult. This is not the case with wild olive and black locust, where the stave retains its moisture for considerably longer.
Split staves should be worked as soon as possible, preferably with not more than 24 hours elapsing between splitting and working. Alternatively, the stave ends can be sealed with wood glue and seasoned in the traditional Saxon fashion.

In my experience it is best and easiest to reduce the bow stave into a rough-shaped bow while the wood is still green. In the case of white woods a rough-shaped limb thickness of around 23 millimetres from back to belly produces bows in the order of about 55 to 65 pounds draw weight or more.
Begin the work by marking a pencil or chalk line on each side of the stave, indicating the thickness to which you wish to reduce the stave. In laying out your stave avoid side knots or pins that enter the wood from the side (near the marked centre line). If you do not own a drawknife, a broad woodworking chisel and mallet can be used to remove larger pieces of wood, with the final work done with a coarse rasp. A small or medium-sized (block) plane can also be useful for this work, although the edges of the blade should ideally be rounded to reduce the tearing and chipping of the wood that may occur. The plane has the advantage that it produces a flat and smooth belly surface. A far easier method is to use a drawknife, which I have found to be one of the best investments a bowyer, amateur or professional can make. A small drawknife will suffice for most of these woodworking tasks and is particularly useful in the shaping of the bow front profile.

I find it best to work from the handle towards the nocks. Remember to leave the non-bending handle section about 35 millimetres thick. When you have reduced the limb wood to about 25 millimetre thickness using the drawknife or plane, a rasp is useful for removing the remainder of the wood without the risk of gouging or tearing at the belly surface.

A sureform tool is useful for removing most of the rasp marks, although this need not be done prior to stave drying and can be done afterwards with a bastard cut file. Rough tiller the stave by placing one limb tip on the floor, holding the other tip in your hand and pressing either at the handle or on the lower mid limb until the bow stave begins to bend. Do not apply all your strength, the bow should bend when between 15 and 30 kilograms are applied.

Drying bow wood
Don’t remove the bark from a cut flat bow style stave prior to fashioning the bow in the rough. The bark seals in the moisture, preventing cracks and checks and also provides a physical protection for the back from cuts and abrasions. White woods such as oak and white stinkwood are less prone to cracking than hardwoods such as wild olive and mulberry. However, all woods will crack when the bark is removed and the stave left unsealed and whole. This is due mainly to the tubular shape of the stave. The ratio of the exposed surface area to the internal volume is one determining factor, the other is the physical properties of the wood species in terms of specific density and oil/resin content.
Thus green wood that has a smaller surface area through which moisture must evaporate, compared to the volume of green wood containing moisture, invariably checks and cracks. Ways to prevent this are sealing the bark stripped stave with wood glue or varnish, or placing the stave in plastic bags. I have found that neither method is 100 per cent effective and that the bowyer invariably runs the risk of a cracked or checked bow stave when using these methods to dry the stave. Staves left in plastic bags for days at a time often develop mould or rot.

I have found it best to follow the system used by the ancients, the Native Americans and more recently suggested by Tim Baker. It is best to first shape and tiller the bow to a rough or basic form and then clamp the bow blank to a form. Alternatively, the bow can be dried and shaped over a fire, although this is potentially a more hazardous exercise and can lead to a ruined stave. The rough-shaped bow blank has much more surface area in comparison to volume and is less inclined to crack or check during the drying process. This shape is, however, more inclined to warp, hence the preference for clamping the stave to a bow form.

Drying method
Staves reduced to bow blank dimensions take about three weeks to dry when dried indoors. Drying staves should be kept indoors, meaning a house, not a hot garage or tool shed.
Remove the bark from the bow blank using a bark stripper.

Clamp the stave to the form, protecting the wood with leather or rubber pads on the pressure points and then allow it to dry.

Leave the uncovered stave in a cool dry place overnight (eight hours).
Cover the entire stave using two large plastic refuse bags to reduce evaporation of moisture and prevent checking.

Simply drape the bags closely over each half of the stave after cutting a hole in the bottom of the bag so that it may pass over the protruding tips of the bow form and secure the ends to the form using elastic bands.

Ensure that the bags are new and intact, without any holes except at the ends.
Remove the bags from the assembly or uncover for a period of one hour per day, then reseal the stave. It is best to turn the bags inside out on a daily basis.

Repeat this process daily for at least two weeks or until the stave is dry, which can take 30 days.
A bark-stripped stave will lose most of its moisture within the first 72 hours if it is not isolated within a microclimate such as plastic covers, drain pipe or even sealed with glue or varnish. Thereafter the stave continues to lose moisture at a slower rate, with the core or centre retaining more moisture than the surface. Testing with a moisture meter revealed that bow blanks that tested at or below eight per cent moisture content on the surface could well be at around 16 per cent in the core. This is one of the reasons for taking a bit longer to dry a bow stave or blank. The bow stave may well be below eight per cent moisture content after the drying process and may need to be rehydrated by leaving it in a bathroom or microclimate chamber such as a moistened length of drainpipe for about one week. In humid areas such as the coastal regions the bow blanks should be at eight to twelve per cent moisture content naturally, not requiring rehydration.

The bow has stabilised to equilibrium moisture when it stops losing weight for 25 per cent of the total drying time, or when the wood stops feeling colder than other dry wood in the same environment. Wood that is drying indoors is colder than dry wood due to the cooling effect of evaporating moisture.
Never leave a drying, bark-stripped stave in the sun. The surface of the wood dries much too quickly, causing checking and cracking as the internal moisture content remains much higher than that of the surface.

For any enquiries related to wooden bow crafting or to discuss the possibility of classes contact Pedro Victor on 083 7033966.

For enquiries about custom-made knives and edged tools such as draw knives and adzes please contact Chris Botha on 0835230817 or refer to his website http://www.blademarket.co.za/.

Next issue: Making the bark stripper, bark stripping, tillering, burnishing the bow, and finishes and staining wood.