The bow blanks now get shaped using a drawknife, into an intermediate shape - they will then be steamed and bent. Once bent, they go into my wood kiln (more homemade equipment) after a few days to get good and dry. They will then be further smoothed and shaped using spokeshaves. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The process of bringing the bow blanks down to the desired size is done with a drawknife on a shavehorse - this shavehorse is from the book, built by me. The shavehorse is an absolutely brilliant invention, essentially a super adjustable, super fast clamp, that utilizes the force you exert with the drawknife to clamp the piece just as hard. You push with your foot and pull with the drawknife - so it clamps, and gives you leverage with which to cut. It is so much better than using a bench vise it cannot be overstated. It allows you to unclamp, adjust, and reclamp in seconds, which is incredibly helpful when working with these cutting tools.
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| The bow blank on my shavehorse |
Closeup - the lighter wood on the left is the sapwood, closer to the bark
This picture shows the wood fibers running the length of the bow - this is what I need, for strength and more reliable bending. It also shows that this piece is almost wide enough for two bows (the pencil mark is the width I need), but I know I cannot get two out of it :(. The left half will wind up as shavings. FWIW, this is what we call the "radial" plane of a piece of wood. The drawknife work is easier here than on the "tangential" plane, so this is usually shaved first. "Tangential" means at a tangent to the growth rings, "radial" means along the radius of the circles formed by the growth rings.
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| One of my drawknives - this one is great for shaving bows and spindles |
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Ready for bending
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Closeup - it's half of an octagon, and not perfectly straight!
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You will notice that this bow is a bit crooked. This is ok, as the crookedness will go away once it's bent and smoothed. The reason it's crooked, is that the drawknife follows the wood fibers when used properly, so if the fibers are a bit crooked, the drawknife doesn't remove that. We need the fibers to be continuous from end to end, for strength, and so that the piece will bend well without splitting. In some ways, seeing the little bit of crookedness is reassuring that you used the drawknife properly...
