An Ultimate Guide to Making a Recurve Bow from Scratch

There are so many people, who want to know how to make a recurve bow from scratch. Are you one among them? Well, in this tutorial, I will tell the basic and the easiest way to make a perfect recurve bow. Even if you want to make a professional bow, the instructions here will help you to make a perfect one!

I will be stating every detail in this tutorial for the perfect bow and would be pleased if it can end up, making you, the most desired bow. Just have a look at this cost-effective and very creative bow making tutorial.

Read more information on Best Night Vision Crossbow Scopes in our blog!

What You Will Need To Follow This Tutorial

Make-A-Recurve-Bow-From-Scratch

There are some very basic things that you will need to make the perfect recurve bow from scratch. Here is a list of the useful and important materials that you will need:

  • A piece of yew, for a standard bow, 5 feet by 3 inches
  • A pencil
  • A rasp
  • A file
  • A wooden board must be 2 by 4 feet
  • An electric saw
  • A very large and strong pot filled with water
  • A stove
  • Some large clamps
  • A sandpaper
  • A nylon bowstring

The size described above is for a standard size recurve bow, however, for your differences in the size of the bow that you want, the piece of yew and wooden board size will vary.

It also requires your patience, a little more time and your hard working skills to make this commendable bow. This specific bow is particularly found very helpful in shooting from the back of a horse.

All of the materials listed above are easily available and with the help of my tutorial, you will be able to make a cost-friendly and very nice bow at home, without the need to purchase a new one.

Related Video:


Step By Step Instructions

Making The Grip Area:

Take the yew board and make an “X” exactly in the centre of the board. Now this marks our 3 inches, above and below the X. This is the grip area which is the first basic step to make.

Making The Bow Shape:

Now with the help of the rasp and file, make the shape of the bow. Use whatever technique you can to make the best design for the bow, in the right dimensions.

Make sure, the bow limb has to be ½ inch thick and ½ inch wide particularly, on both the ends of the bow.

Also, make sure that your grip area is 1 inch in thickness and 5/8 inches at the width. Try to keep the limbs of the bow equal, as much as possible. There must also be a gentle taper, from the ends of the bow to its grip.

Footboard:

Now is the turn for your foot board. Into the 2/4 foot board, make a curve. Make sure that your curve stretches the full length and width of the board.

Also, try to keep the length and width as equally as possible for you.

Take Water:

Now, put the pot of water on the stove and heat the water until it comes to boil. Now tale one limb of the bow and dip that into the boiling water, and leave it there for 3 to 4 hours.

Also, see that your limb emerges from the pliable water.

Clamping:

Now fix the pliable limb to the curve that you have cut on the wooden board. Be very careful with it and make sure you centre this limb along the curve, at the exact spot.

See that the limbs of the finished bow, first curves from the grip which is away from you, and then lightly curves into the grip which is towards you. See that your limb is placed in the right position.

If you feel it is not right, change it quickly before the wood starts to dry. Now when you see the limb is exactly placed, leave the bow fixed with the board, until the wood is totally dry, for approximately 3 to 4 hours.

Repeat:

Now you will have to repeat the steps 4 and 5 with the second limb of the bow, in exactly the same way. When you complete it, it must look like something which is half of the numeric 8 but has a gentler curve into it.

Now take the file and slice the notches into each end of the bow. This will keep your bow string in the proper place since these are the bow nocks. Now sand the bow smoothly with the sandpaper.

String Your Bow:

Now you have to string the bow. Protect one end of the string with one nock. Now extend this bow string to the second nock and tie it with the thread. Start pulling the string taunt until you see that the bow gets a curve shape.

Now as per your draw length and your draw weight, pull the string as tightly as you want. Now when you get the exact tension that you wanted, tie up the bow string straightaway. And now your recurve bow from scratch is ready to be put to use.

Check out my recent post about single cam vs dual cam bows, it is useful!


Conclusion

Are you now satisfied with the steps of making a recurve bow from scratch? This is a very generic and informative video for everyone who wanted to make a recurve bow from scratch, a little more easily and efficiently.

I hope this tutorial is of great use to you and you have really enjoyed reading and doing it along. I will be pleased to read your positive comments in the feedback if you find this tutorial helpful.

This is one of the easiest and the best effective tutorial describing, how to make a recurve bow from scratch, which ends up looking perfect.

Leave a Comment