Build Your Own Bow ▪ Preparing Ash Wood

[Zip, Boom, Bang] How would you prepare ash wood for a bow? Preparing An Ash Stave With Hand Tools
[Music: TeknoAXE – Born Of Flame] [Heartbeat] This video will show you a hand tool way. I split logs for bows when they are thicker than 8 cm (3.25"). That way the handle region will be still thick enough. First find the bow in your log and place that side up. Draw guiding lines along the sides and turn one of these up. Start the split on the thin end with hatchet. Never use a steel hammer as it will damage it. Drive a wedge into the split until you hear some crackle. When the crack wanders away from your line use your hatchet for corrections. Repeatingly flip the log and use a second wedge from the other side.

Unfortunately this split went a bit too far to one side. You can pull apart both sides and cut remaining fibres with the hatchet. Use a wooden board to protect your hatchet from hitting the ground and straighten the stave's sides. The more wood you remove the less likely it will get cracks but the more likely it will bend. I personally tend to leave plenty of spare wood.

If you don't remove the bark it will get bone hard and very likely become an insect hostel. Bugs love ash bark and will destroy the outer anual rings. This is an example on an old waste billet. I use a small very sharp draw knife and hold it upside down. If you are lucky you can just strip away the bark. Make sure to not stop at the bast fibre and work right down to the wood. The bast fibre is easy to identify as it darkens when exposed to air. Seal the wood 10 cm (4") from the end right around bottom, sides, back and belly. This prevents it from cracking. You can use any substance that protects against air but wood glue works best for me. Finally store the stave in a dry and shallow place for about a year. Production + Direction + Camera: Gornarak Musik (CC BY 3.0 License): Born Of Flame by TeknoAXE Software: Audacity, avidemux, gimp, hydrogen, LibreOffice, ffmpeg, Inkscape, LMMS, OpenShot Tools: Wooden Hammer, Steel Wedges, Hatchet, Blue Snowball iCE, Nikon 1 J2 Materials: Wood Glue

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