Weekend Bowyery

A while back, my sister and her family expressed a desire to build their own bows. This led to the First Ever Bluefeather Archery Workshop!

Due to time constraints, we had about 24 hours to accomplish our mission. So a basic board bow design was the order of the day. It started on Friday night with a quick lesson on how to pick a good board for a bow, and the group posed for the Before portrait.

Soon-to-be-Bowyers with their soon-to-be-bows.

We started by taking measurements and laying out our bows.


Everyone worked to the best of their abilities, and pretty soon we were on to cutting out the rough shapes.


including a MacGyver solution to keeping the sawdust out of the cutting area. Nice bandito look for Steph, too!

Then came the first of much, much sanding. All of the bow blanks needed to be sanded down on the sides and the back to prepare for gluing on the riser (handle) and the silk backing.  Steph found some excellent 100% silk ties that would have looked rather questionable on a human, and everyone picked one they wanted and cut them apart. Sanding took up a lot of the evening.



After much prep work, we finally glued up the bows around midnight. (In our defense, we didn't get started until a bit after eight that night!)  Steph, Harrison and Julio all used Tightbond III to glue on their risers and ties.  Dad used epoxy, as did I on the "demo" bow I was building. The ties may have been awful for people, but they ended up looking really cool on the bows!






The next moring, my friend Matt joined us, so I gave him the "demo" bow to finish for himself. I cut the bellies out of most of the bows to save some time, and the shop quickly became a beautiful, chaotic dance of people working on bows. Sanding, cutting in nocks, more sanding...



Soon we were into tillering, or getting the bows to bend how we wanted them too. I also did a quick lesson on building Flemish twist strings, and Dad, Julio and Harrison all gave it a go!

Matt waiting for tillering assistance, Dad working on a string, and Harrison waiting for the tillering tree.


Harrison soon had his bow on the tillering tree and learned the basics.

After much tiller checking, sanding, checking, and sanding, the students started work on their risers (handles) to get a good grip, and cut their arrow shelves in.



Dad marking his riser for the arrow shelf and grip.



Matt was the first one to finish his grip and arrow shelf, and it was time to shoot a few arrows and see how it worked out.

Success!

Following close on the heels of Matt was the other left handed shooter of the group, Julio - Showing fine form as he released his first arrow!



I taught Matt how to put serving on his string while Julio tweaked his bow.

Dad has some great tools for cutting down on build time.  I usually do this part with files and sandpaper wrapped around my finger.  Way to work smarter - not harder Dad!


Julio moved on to serving his string while Harrison and Steph were finishing up their handles and arrow rests.



Meanwhile, Dad was ready to fire his first arrow.  A sweet shooting little bow, there!


Harrison was next up, having done about 99% of the work on his bow himself! Well Done HD!


As Dad added the serving to his string,  Steph released her first arrow at about a quarter to eight, bringing out total to five shootable bows in just under 24 hours!  Excellent form too, Steph! And from a well made bow!



Five new bowyers with their five new bows!  From Left to Right -
Harrison, with his 72" 20# @ 25" bow.
Terry, with his 66" 25# @ 28" bow.
Steph, with her 66" 20# @ 25" bow.
Julio, with his 66" 25# @ 28" bow.
Matt, with his 72" 33# @ 28" bow.




Those were just sticks last night at that time!  Well done group!

And the obligatory full draw shot...


Sweet!



It was a very fun, if hectic weekend.  I learned that working in a shop not my own requires a bit more prep work, but loved working in Dad's well equipped shop. And it was really, really fun to see those I had just taught a skill turning around and teaching it to others.  I liked the looks of satisfaction on everyones face as they fired their first arrows, too.  When I do this again, I'll plan for shorter work days and more days, total. But overall I think it worked out great!

Well done inaugural class of Bluefeather Bowyers!  Happy shooting!

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Off to a Good Start

Well, this year is starting out much better than last year. Not only have I avoided diverticulitis, but last year's hospital stay will - in a weird way - help us out at tax time. And I have been far more productive in the shop than all of last year combined.  It started off with finishing a couple of stained glass transoms for a couple in town.

Which was fun, because I've never done a piece as big as the one above their front door.

Then I dove in headfirst into making a go of the Bluefeather business, and ordered a slew of knife parts, bow parts and other stuff. For a few days it was like Christmas around here for me. Boxes arriving from afar filled with fun things for me to build in the shop.

I cranked out my first knife of the year...

A nice 440C steel blade with mammoth tooth scales and brass bolsters.

And I built a test bow out of hickory...

The reason it is a test bow is
1. I've never built anything out of hickory, and different species of wood have different working qualities.

2. I was using a build method that I got from an e-book from the good folks at Rudderbows, and wanted to make sure I could do the process from start to finish for when I go down to Mom and Dads in March. I'm going to be teaching Dad and my nephew Harrison, and maybe his mom and dad, how to build bows of various styles.

3. I've never built a reflex/deflex bow before and tillering them is a little different from tillering a straight bow.

As for the testing...
1. Hickory is pretty amazing stuff. It is very dense and makes a fine bow. I was able to make the limbs of the bow thinner than I thought and still make the bow pull at 45 lbs. at 28 inches, which is over what you'd need to hunt with, if you do that sort of thing. The hickory grain comes off in little strings almost, that can develop into big chunks of wood, so fine sanding is a must. Overall I would use this again for bows. It is good stuff!

2. The bow form in the e-book worked great. As did their instructions. Though the book is on how to make a bamboo backed ipe bow, I figured the theory was the same. It was, and I am confident that my next few bows will be even better using that method.

3. The tiller could have come out a little bit better, as the top limb bends a little less than the bottom, and usually you want that the other way around. I could have corrected it, but the weight would have dropped and it seems to shoot just fine anyway.

I used bloodwood for trim and tips, and oak for the top of the riser (handle). Next time, I'll replace that with hickory.

All told, it is a very powerful bow, and I'm pretty pleased with it. I'm going to take it up to the Footed Shaft next week some time and let them shoot it to tell me what they think, and to recommend what arrows to shoot off of it.  Should be fun.

So.  I've got a pretty good start on 2012. I'm going to continue to attack these days and fill them with as much as I can. I've still got projects for a few people to get done, and until I puzzle out how to do some of them, I'll keep making knives and bows. I've got parts for five more knives and six or seven bows. That'll keep me busy!

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Greetings 2012

The year is new once more. Anyone who reads this blog, and that might be just me, will notice that December is devoid of posts. It's not that nothing noteworthy happened in the last month of 2011, but rather that 2011 was not such a fun year, and I was ignoring it for all I was worth until it was over.

I was also planning how to attack this new year of 2012. With the help and support of my beautiful Wife, I am taking this year to chase after my dreams and goals like never before. In fact, I'll be focusing on just one thing this year...

Finding a balance in my passions. Shop time, triathlon time, and most importantly, family time.

In the shop, I'll be spending January finishing up Bluefeather projects I didn't finish last year. Clearing the books, you might say. Then I'll be gearing up to create things. The primary focus will be on my knives and on archery bows. But I'll still do some glass and other projects if they come up. My goal is to at least match my income from being a medic (using last year as the baseline.) it will be lots of fun, hard work. But I believe I can do it.

In the area of triathlons, I am going to create and maintain a workout schedule that allows me to train for at least two triathlons and an open water swim. I'm registered for the Pigman Sprint Tri in June, and as soon as I post this I'm heading back to their website to register for the first Pigman Olympic distance Tri. That is in August, and is essentially twice the distance of a sprint, except the swim part that is three times a sprint swim. The only part that worries me about this plan is the 6.2 mile run that finishes the race. I'm not yet much of a runner. It will be lots of fun, hard work. But I believe I can do it.

As for my family, I will continue to try and be a better husband, father, son and sibling to all those I love. I would be nothing without their support, encouragement and love. We are starting a new program for the Boyo in place of Cub Scouts this year. Our scout troop is sort of a disorganized mess, and rather than try to jump in and fix it, the Wife thought of a plan whereby our family of four takes a couple of days each month to do some adventuring. Trips to the Science Museum in the Cities, or to the zoo, planetarium, and other places to learn and explore will replace the pack meetings. And den meetings will be replaced with a day of doing something fun and cool at or near home. Science projects, gardening projects, shop projects, camping, canoeing, and basically adventuring! It will be lots of fun, hard work. But I believe we can do it.

And if at the end of this year I have found a way to balance this three legged stool, you will find a supremely happy and content me sitting there with my goofy grin.

To start things off, I will change my perspective on the year 2011, right before your eyes. While it is true that we came close to losing both of my parents, and I had my first hospital stay, as did my little Sweet Pea, and there were some issues in other parts of my life that were extremely stressful, in all it could have been worse. Mom and/or Dad could have died. I could have needed surgery for my diverticulitis instead of just heavy antibiotics. And I shudder to think what could have been with Sweet Pea ingesting Grammy's Meds at a time when so much was so dark anyway. Yes, the year sucked. But I was extremely blessed that things turned out the way they did. It made the celebrations at the end of the year that much more special.

So, bring on the challenges, failures and triumphs of 2012. I think I am actually, finally ready for them. This is my year to go big or go home. It will be lots of fun, hard work. But I believe.

I believe.

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Call Me Fletcher

It's time for yet another installment of "John's New Skill of the Day!" That's right, I'm learning something new. Shocked, aren't you!?!

So here's what I had. When I shot the new arrows I bought a couple of weeks ago I noticed that they wobbled a lot before hitting the target. Not terrible, and I could still kill the pumpkins from 10 to 20 yards out pretty regularly. But I couldn't figure out what was causing the wobble.

For those of you out there (like me) who are not as fluent in Archery as the pros, there are a few things that make a difference in arrow flight. Things like spine weight, what points you use and how many grains those are, whether the arrow is wood, carbon, aluminum, what sort of fletching, left wing or right wing feathers... it truly boggles the mind. So I googled the problem and thought perhaps I was using field points that were too light. (Those are the pointy things on the front, but not the razor like broadheads used for hunting) I visited the gun and archery shop across the road for the first time since we've lived here, and met a very friendly guy who knows loads more about archery than I. I described the problem and he told me that the solution was in the fletching, or feathers, on the back of the arrow. My arrows were using plastic feathers, which apparently when shot from a wooden bow like mine will bounce off the arrow shelf and cause the arrow to wobble when it flies. He suggested I re-fletch my arrows with 5 1/2" real feathers as a solution. Then he directed me to a traditional archery shop across town to get what I needed, as they would have more choices and gear for a traditional archer (that's me).

That he didn't try and sell me something I didn't need and even directed me to another store has earned them my business! They have an indoor range there, and I will happily go there a few times this winter to thank them for the help!

Anyway, I headed to the traditional archery store later in the day, and was like a kid in a candy store. Bows everywhere. And not those metal hunting bows, but wooden works of art. Arrows and materials for all sorts of building of archery stuff. It was awesome! I bought a fletching jig, which was a little spendy, but worth it. And picked out some colors for my arrows.

New toys in tow, I headed home and learned to fletch arrows. With the jig it is not as hard as I thought, and I'm looking forward to a return visit to the store to get supplies to make the entire arrow!

Before...

After...

How do the new arrows work? Well, after I finished a couple, I took them out to give them a try. Wobble - gone. They flew as straight as... well, you know. And I was drilling the pumpkins within an inch of my aim point. I've got four more to do, then I'm going to re-fletch the Boyo's arrows as well since his vanes are plastic and his arrows are also a bit wobbly.

It is a delightful way to spend an evening, and will add a new dimension to my budding bowyer skills.

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Time to Go Oly

I'm kicking around the idea of doing an olympic length triathlon at the end of next season. That's the next step up from the sprint tri. Just to refresh your memory, a sprint tri has a swim of around 500 yards, a bike of around 15 miles, and a 5K run - 3.1 miles. Olympic distance is a 1.5K swim, which is around a mile, a 40K bike - around 25 miles, and a 10K run - 6.2 miles. It's double the run, which will be the toughest part for me, and three times the swim, which may just work in my favor! I know I can do a 25 mile bike, as I've done a few in training for the sprints.

Tonight I went for a swim. When I arrived at the pool, both were completely empty and as I had my choice of the two, I decided to warm up in the warmer pool. I swam the first hundred, adjusted the goggles, and started out again. 300 yards later I was feeling quite warm and decided that after another hundred (completing a 500) I'd shift over to the other pool and do a couple more 500's.
I hopped into the cooler pool, took note of the time clock and started at the top of the nearest minute. About 400 yards in I felt pretty good, and decided I'd shoot for a full mile and see what my time would be. I kept waiting for the weary to set in, but I kept a solid, comfortable pace and felt good through the entire swim! As I finished the 1650, I did a time check. 28:50. Not speedy, but not too bad. The best part was I felt that I could keep on swimming. But since this was my third time in the water since August, I decided to leave it at a mile and work up from here.
28:50 is about 1:45 per 100 yards. Not too shabby. Not too shabby. My race pace for the sprint tri's is around 1:30, so I have some room for improvement. But I now have a baseline time to work with and the confidence that I can swim pretty much indefinitely should the need arise. And I am a solid third of the way to doing an olympic length tri. Now if I can bike 40K and run 10K, and do all three together... everything will be peachy! So, yeah. I think I can be ready for an "Oly" sometime next season.
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Happy Elevensday

It's the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year of our century. I'm posting this at 11:11 pm. For the nano-second it takes to pass through 11:11:11:11 to the billionth power, not much can be done. But it's cool to think that it's the last all binary date we'll have in our lifetimes.

It's also Veterans Day. The continuation of Armistice Day, which for those of you non history types was the end of The Great War to End All Wars. Or WWI, as we call it these days. They stopped that war on November 11th, and 11:11 in the year 1918. Unfortunately it did not End All Wars. So we celebrate Veterans Day. Celebrate and remember all those who served this country in uniform. Those like me, who served mostly in peace time and never in a foreign war, right through to those who gave the last full measure, like my USMC brother SSgt. P. We thank those that are still around to thank, and keep in our hearts the memories of those that aren't.

Freedom was never free. It has cost us dearly throughout the decades. Thank you to all who served and were willing to do what they could for their country.  It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn good.

Oh, and Happy Elevensday as well.

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I'm All a Quiver

So, a couple of years ago I traded a knife repair for a tanned deer hide. As I put a new handle on the knife (buffalo horn, turned out pretty nice!) I was imagining all of the things I could do with a tanned deer hide. Leggings, maybe. No, no! A shirt! Yeah a buckskin shirt would be fun! Maybe some knife sheaths, too.

So when the hide arrived, I was a little taken aback when it had the hair still on it. It was nicely tanned, but had a few too many holes to make clothes out of. I'm not too sure what a hair on shirt would have looked like anyway. I had no idea what to do with it, so I folded it up and stored it until an idea would come.

Fast forward a year and as I was driving home after a night shift, I saw a little red fox that had been hit by a car and was quite deceased laying half in and half out of the road. I stopped to toss it into the ditch so no other critters who might want to dine on it would meet the same fate, and noticed that it was still warm and not too damaged. I have a friend at work who tans skins of all sorts and thought he might like a nice fresh fox, so I went home, grabbed some trash bags and went back to collect the fox. I called my friend, who gave me advice for keeping it on ice until I could get it to him, and worked out a deal to trade a knife that I built for the tanned fox hide.  This time I knew the hair would be on, and when the fox skin arrived, it was really quite pretty. But I again had no idea what I would use a fox skin for. A hat maybe? I even tossed around the idea of a sporran for my kilt.  But the fox got rolled up and put with the deer hide...

Fast forward to this fall. The Boyo has taken to archery, and we've had about a half dozen good afternoons of ploinking away at the Halloween pumpkins with our bows.

The one on the left is my oak longbow, the one on the right is my first laminated recurve bow that I built as a test. It only has a draw weight of about 15 pounds, so I gave it to the Boyo to use. It shoots pretty well, and he seems to like it a lot!

So after our first few times shooting my old Boy Scout Arrow of Light arrows, I went and bought us each new arrows so I could retire the AoL's.  On the plus side, we now had more arrows to shoot at the pumpkins! On the down side, we had nothing to carry them in. I sat down a few nights ago thinking 'If only I had some leather or something that I could whip up a couple of quivers with.'

It seemed that finally I had a notion of what to do with those tanned hides! So after some fussing and measuring and research and tinkering, I built myself a quiver from the deer hide. It has a broken arrow inside as a stiffener that also serves as a place to attach a carabiner to make it a hip quiver...

And I built the Boyo a quiver out of the fox...

Originally it had the legs and head attached, but it looked like a dead fox hanging from his back. I clipped those off, but left the tail. I think the look is much better.  He insisted in having a back quiver, because that's how Robin Hood does it, and he is convinced that is how the Lakota used to do it, too when they hunted deer and buffalo. So we ran over to Fleet Farm and he picked out a belt, and I made it into a back quiver for him. It can be easily converted to a hip quiver when he gets older if he wants.

Anyway, we've been out shooting with them twice now, and they seem to work very well. I'm going to add a few embellishments to mine, but overall I'm quite pleased with the results!

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