Verum Vox Vocis

This stick of red oak is going to be the basis of my next, hopefully more successful bow. It's a piece of 1"x2" quartersawn red oak, 5' long exactly. The grain runs nearly straight all the way end to end. I'll be making this bow 59" nock to nock and hopefully around 40#@26". Continue reading "Second Red Oak Longbow- Day 1, Roughing Out" »

Right, so I said I'd continue my flemish twist tutorial today. Here I am.

To start off, you take your two bundles and grasp them near one end together between your left thumb and forefinger. Twist the top bundle away from you, then bring it over the bottom bundle. Now, the original bottom bundle is the top bundle and the original top bundle is the bottom bundle.
Continue reading "Making a Flemish Twist Bowstring, Part 2" »

Today, I finished off my tiller string and finally got to start tillering. Using the tillering stick/tree (I'll write a tutorial about this soon.) I made earlier today, I started off with a low brace, per the suggestions of a few friends on the PaleoPlanet forum. My low brace is about 1 1/2" and the tiller seems OK. It looks like there's a bit of twist where the jigsaw took a notch out of it, I'll try to remove wood where appropriate, but it looks pretty bad on that front.

I don't have enough pictures to really do a buildalong writeup for the tiller, so here's how tillering is done. My way. I string the bow and put it up on the tiller tree. I look at it, for bad spots in the arc. After I've looked at it, I take it down, unstring it, scrape it with the Surform, restring and repeat. Really, it's not the greatest way to tiller, but that's how I wound up doing it. I'll work out a better method soon.

In the end, I guess this bow was doomed from the moment that notch got taken out. It exploded just shy of full draw at 26". Lucky for me, it exploded up and away. I've got more sticks of wood and more bows to build, so it's no problem. All part of the learning experience. Next time, maybe I'll be luckier. Maybe I'll do better. Until then...



-Chan OUt

As it turns out, it's taking a bit more than a day for me to get to tillering, partly because I don't have a bowstring yet. Yesterday, I went out to FS Archery in Tustin and got myself a 1/4 lb spool of black Dacron B-50. Later in the day, I realized that was probably a mistake. I'm definitely going to need two spools... not just one. And I might have needed to get some bowstring wax also, but hey... hindsight is 20/20.

Once I got home, I set to work building a string jig and making my first string. This is going to be fun... Continue reading "Flemish Bowstring Buildalong, Part 1" »

I started this afternoon with a quick bit of double-check research to see what I should be doing for the belly of the bow. What it looks like, is that I need to sketch out a gradual taper along the side of the limb, from the full thickness at the grip to a 1/2" at the tips.

Continue reading "Red Oak Longbow #1- Day 2, Belly and Nocks" »

Today, I went by Home Depot and picked a 6' long stick of plain sawn red oak. The grain is far from perfect and there are a few rings running off what will become the back* of the bow. *(The back of the bow, is the side that faces away from the archer and the string.) The growth rings all run at a fairly shallow angle though, so I'm hoping it will be OK that I don't chase a ring. If need be, I can back it with cotton, burlap, or any other of a dozen good backing materials. Continue reading "Red Oak Longbow #1- Day 1, Roughing Out" »

Ya, I know, I haven't posted anything in over a month. Sorry. I've been busy with procrastination and actual work. Depending on what style you want to use, I've got between 17 and 21 pages so far. I think I've just finished up my first draft of Chapter 3 and will move on to Chapter 4 and 5 now. I've gone back through Chaps 1-3 already and redone them to my liking, so I think they're fairly finished.

If anybody would like to go over it and check it out for me, I'd appreciate a message or comment.

Thanks a lot
-Chan OUt

Yes, yes... I know. I haven't posted in over a week. I've been kind of busy working on development of my Digital Portfolio, so I haven't gotten around to doing that much on the blog, or typing up my book. I have chapters three through five written, just waiting to be typed, filled, edited, drafted, wait-- I mean typed, edited, filled, and edited again. There we go. If you ever get a chance to read the written copy, you will notice that it is VERY different from the typed copy, especially as soon as I get around to posting up the second draft/revision of the first two chapters. When I write it in the notebook, it is only drafting, sort of fleshing out the ideas into paragraph form. When I type it though, I'm really working it into a finished product, something that reads better. Quite frankly, it's just me being lazy. I don't particularly want to write that much by hand. I'll try and get up either A) another chapter, or B) the second revisions of the first two chapters, by the end of the week.

-Chan OUt

PS, Check out the forum at Forum @ HarrisonChan.com You can sign up and discuss the novel, or what's happening at school. Sea Dragons FTW!