• Registered: 2012-01-04
  • Posts: 7

Topic: Buildng a bow

Hello,

First time poster, found the website about a week ago but have known about trad. Korean bows for sometime.

The reason for my title is that I am wanting to build a bow that follows the lines and hopefully similar draw length of these wonderful Korean bows. I have built two small recurve bows for my children and enjoyed not only the process but the short length and how well they have performed (yes, I let my kids shoot them too big_smile ). The idea of making a bow as short as a trad. K. bow that can shoot an arrow with authority  and yet be drawn past 29" has intrigued me for some time.

I am hoping I can learn from the board members here some of the aspects of these bows that I should know in order to start experimenting. My plan is to use standard modern materials (wood core, fiberglass and carbon fiber laminations, epoxy etc.). I have no qualms about the fact I may fail miserably before I get what I want but that is half the fun, seeking the truth of the matter, as it were.

My main concern is figuring out what the basic limb dimensions should be ie. limb widths, thickness etc. I live in western Montana with a lot of traditional bow hunters but I have not been able to find anyone with a Hwarang or Kaya to look at. From what I have seen in the pictures it appears the limbs are thinner in the midsection, where the limbs bend/arc the most and then begin to get a little thicker towards the ends where the "static" ends start, and near the riser area. Is this the case?

The limbs also look very narrow compared to modern recurves here in the states. Do the limbs maintain a fairly even parallel width to the ends or is there a consistent taper?

I was also hoping someone with a Kaya bow pulling 40-45 lbs. might be able to measure the thickness of the limbs along their length so I will have a baseline to start from when ordering the laminations.

I hope I am not being too forward for a first time poster and appreciate any help I can get form everyone here. I'm a knife maker with about 400+ blades (not a forger but do all fazes of construction) under my belt and would be more than willing to help with any information I can offer on the subject.

Thanks for reading this and appreciate your time,

Rod

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  • Registered: 2011-11-27
  • Posts: 207
  • User Karma: 5

Re: Buildng a bow

Welcome aboard Rod.  I'll be interested in your progress, and I'm sure the guys here will be more than willing to help. I don't know much about them myself, however. I hope to be ordering a new Hwarang soon!
                                                             Will

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  • Registered: 2011-08-31
  • Posts: 150
  • User Karma: 1

Re: Buildng a bow

Please post pics!

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4 Reply by Kanuck (edited by Kanuck 2012-01-07 19:07:15)

  • From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
  • Registered: 2011-12-06
  • Posts: 53
  • User Karma: 1

Re: Buildng a bow

Rod

I am your neighbor in Medicine Hat Alberta, about 2 hours from Havre, wherever that is in relation to you. I just took delivery of my first Hwarang and hope to try my hand at building these bows too. My bow is 50#@28" but out at 32" or so, where it is meant to be drawn it pulls 64# or so. I need to find a better bow scale before I can plot a force draw curve.

I'm not going to publish detailed limb dimensions but I will say that the bow appears to be largely symmetrical with a nock to nock length over the relaxed limbs of approximately 49" with the 3 1/2" grip in the middle. At the nock the dimensions (measured over leather) are 0.95"x0.65", at mid limb 1.005"x0.265", at arrow pass 1.04"x0.725". Distance from nocks to centre of string pad is 4". I have read that the limbs are a composite of 2-3 layers of bamboo, a layer or two of carbon fiber (presumably uni directional), a layer of fiberglass for stability ( presumably bi or tri directional) and an outer layer of thin birch bark and a face of phenolic in a very glossy black.  The bow is gorgeous and would be very difficult to reproduce.

My advice is to order a Hwarang from Bluelake. It will be cheaper in the long run. Then, you can experiment with building something similar.

Kanuck

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  • Registered: 2012-01-04
  • Posts: 7

Re: Buildng a bow

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate the help. If I can get a bow together that works I'll see if I can post some pictures.

Kanuk, thanks for the input. And yes we are neighbors, I'm in the Flathead Valley, so not too far from you. I have been up your way a little further, west of Edmonton a few times, really beautiful country. And thanks for taking the time to give me an idea of the basic dimensions for the limbs.

I hope I didn't come across in my first post as though I am trying to steal any ideas or take any business away from the current bowyers or dealers. This is strictly for my own enjoyment and I have no intentions of making bows for profit (already too busy making knives).

As far as purchasing a bow, I would be all for it but I would rather build with my own hands  if its feasible (an extension of my knife making). I have a couple guys that come over to my shop one night a week (boys club in the man cave) to work on knives of their own design and the idea of building bows came about last fall. They want to make take down recurves and I figured while we were at it I'd try something different. I'm also hoping to get my kids involved in the process as well so they will have more appreciation for whats involved in making stuff.

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  • Registered: 2011-11-27
  • Posts: 207
  • User Karma: 5

Re: Buildng a bow

Let's see some of your knives, eh?   lol

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7 Reply by RDinMT (edited by RDinMT 2012-01-10 01:45:41)

  • Registered: 2012-01-04
  • Posts: 7

Re: Buildng a bow

WillScarlet wrote:

Let's see some of your knives, eh?   lol

I posted a link over on the general forum for some pics of my knife (thought it would be more appropriate than on the bow forum). So here you go: http://www.koreanarchery.org/punbb/view … 1408#p1408

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  • Registered: 2010-10-15
  • Posts: 860
  • User Karma: 82

Re: Buildng a bow

RDinMT wrote:

As far as purchasing a bow, I would be all for it but I would rather build with my own hands  if its feasible (an extension of my knife making). I have a couple guys that come over to my shop one night a week (boys club in the man cave) to work on knives of their own design and the idea of building bows came about last fall. They want to make take down recurves and I figured while we were at it I'd try something different. I'm also hoping to get my kids involved in the process as well so they will have more appreciation for whats involved in making stuff.

If you are interested in building your own laminated bow, I would recommend starting with a commercial bow kit to help understand the process; from there, you can work on your own design.  Here is an example: http://www.kustomkingarchery.com/Lamina … ducts/132/

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  • Registered: 2012-01-04
  • Posts: 7

Re: Buildng a bow

Hi Bluelake,

Thanks for the link. I've built two bows for my children following pretty much the same process as that in the link. I think I have my lam. stack figured out to get me in the ball park. Next is to draw out the unstrung profile. The more one looks into it the more appreciation you get for the time spent by bowyers through the centuries developing these bows. Its one thing slapping some wood and fiberglass lams. together with epoxy, quite another carving wood and horn by hand and combining them into a work of art that slings arrows like they do.

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