This page deals with
selfbows. By definition a selfbow is a bow that is made from a single
piece of wood called a stave or from 2 pieces of wood,
called billets, joined at the handle by a splice. From this stave or spliced
billets a bow is made by tillering the limbs out and then shaping a
handle. The handle can have an arrow shelf to support the arrow or it can
be made to shoot off the hand. A self-bow can also be made as a D style
bow. The deffinition of a D bow is one that has no handle but bends
through the handle, an example of this would be most North American native bows
and English longbows or warbows. This is how a D bow gets its label as its braced and drawn shape is
that of a D. To be a self-bow the bow must not have a backing, this would mean
a hard backing such as a thin strip of wood or soft backing such as rawhide or
sinew. Such bows are called simple composite or backed bows and another part of my site
deals with those. A decorative backing such as snakeskin or fish-skin
does make a self-bow a simple composite as its purpose is decorative only. There are links to the left that will take you to
pictures of some self-bows I have made over the years. Some have been sold,
others were specially made for customers and some I still have as personal
bows. Browse through and see if anything catches your fancy. If you
have questions or wish to place an order then just send me an e-mail via the
contact me button.
There are many different styles of selfbows and below you can see some examples of them.
This first bow is a simple D bow such as the North American natives would have used a few hundred years ago. This particular bow was made using Elm and it was based on a museum piece. It was made especially for an Algonquin chief in northern Ontario who wanted a bow that represented his culture. Even though this bows primary purpose is as a wall decoration it is fully functional and draws 60# @ 28". Bows such relatively easy to make and their price starts at $250 and, depending on the options and how much decoration there is, go up from there.
This next bow is a stiff handled flatbow made
in a pyramid style. This particular bow is made from one stave of Hop Hornbeam, or Ironwood. Ironwood is an outstanding bow wood and my wood of choice when making durable high performance bows.
Bows like this were also used by locals but were less common. This
particular bow pulls 55# @ 28" and is made to shoot off the hand, it
therefore has no arrow shelf. It is a smooth shooting bow. Bows such
as this are also relatively easy to make and their price start at $250
and, depending on the options, go up from there.
This next bow is a more difficult bow to make.
It is a stiff handled static recurve made from Red Elm. Elm is also an outstanding wood and makes fast hard-hitting hunting bow. This bow had
its recurves steam bent, then the bows limbs were heat tempered and
reflexed several inches. The construction of this bow was the base for
a how-to article in the Primitive Archer Magazine on high performance recurves. Bows like this are
not easy to make but the end result is spectacular with performance
that is hard to match by even the top modern glass bows. They are very fast and
shoot very well. Bows like this start at $375 and go up from there.
This bow is also an very hard bow to make. It
is a static recurve but with this bow the handle is deflexed.
This adds stability to the bows and make it more user friendly.
Performance is not quite as good as the previous bow but the deflex
allows for a shorter bow to be made for a same draw length. This
particular bow is made from Osage and is only 56" long. Osage is a premium bow wood and preferred by many bowyers. Its draw
length is 28" where it pulls more than 60#. Bows such as this start at
$425 and depending on the options go up from there.
This last bow in this list is a self Yew Warbow. This is an
example of a bow the English of old used before gunpowder was
discovered and firearms invented. These bows were massive, some being
nearly 7' long and had a draw weight that most people these days cannot
pull. They were meant to launch very heavy arrows at long distances to
try to kill or disable the armoured knights of old. These bows, because
of the very high draw weight, in some cases 150# or more, are rather
difficult to make and good Yew is also a hard wood to find. This particular bow was custom made for a fellow in Nevada. The price on these
bows when made from a premium bow wood such as Yew start at $700 and go up from there. Bows like these when made from other species of wood such as Elm or HHB start at $350 and depending on the options go up from there.
For more pictures of selfbows use the buttons to the
left. They will take you to other pictures of bows I have made over
the years. You can e-mail me for questions or orders at marc@ironwoodbowyer.com or use the contact me button.
