Do-it-yourself hazel onion

06.06.2023 | Construction

In this article I will try to tell you how to make a bow out of wood with your own hands. The material for the bow was the Hazel. The selected trunk is knotty, crooked, but it is almost impossible to find a straight hazel.

You will need:

Swiss knife;
Barrel from Hazel;
Kevlar cord for bowstring;
Pencil (for lack of a pencil, I marked with charcoal).

We begin the process of making onions with our own hands by rough drying the wood. How it is done: the barrel is thrust into a metal pipe, which is dug into the floor of the bayonet of a shovel, and above the pipe, directly on the ground, we make fires using charcoal for barbecue. We bring one end of the pipe to fresh air so that moisture comes out. All this languishes for about 5-6 hours. After the specified time, the barrel is completely dried and ready for further manipulations.

With a knife we create the desired shape.

We pull the string.

Then the bow was fired.

As a result, I subjected it to a hard alteration from a survival bow into a primitive bow, like a German one, for which it was marked under the hilt. For the bowstring, endings from scraps of some dense wood were glued onto cyanoacrylate gel.

After that, the rough processing of the handle for decorative winding took place.

The whole evening had to adjust the bandages.
The process of work: under the bandages, markings in increments of 5 cm. I pasted the electrical tape on those places that will not be bandaged. The trick is to stick the duct tape with the adhesive layer on top, which will avoid re-polishing the body of the bow, because. nothing sticks to the wood. After that, PVA -> winding the cord -> firing with a burner to remove excess hairs from the winding -> work with the handle.

With which, by the way, everything turned out quite difficult. First I wound the skin, but the bow looked a bit eclectic because of this. Therefore, he removed the skin and wound a cotton cord. It took 10 meters, how much was in one coil, as if it was specially calculated.

After completing the winding, he did something important. Namely, he diluted the PVA with water (the ratio is 50x50) and, without removing the electrical tape, smeared the bandages with this mixture, along with the handle. Cemented, so to speak, additionally.

A small photo report:

I removed the tape until the glue hardened, left the onion to dry overnight, and in the morning I painted it with a synthetic and smelly stain, a shade of "Mahogany". Everything, now the bow is ready.

The handle is designed so that there is a difference between the top and bottom. Visually, the shoulders seem to overlap each other. The bow from the back has a natural circle, from which it is cut with a simple knife. From the side of the abdomen - D-shaped section. A simple matter, accessible to everyone, not requiring a special tool, despite the slight tension force.

The image shows a section.

This is how you can make a bow with your own hands. Of course, you are interested in the parameters of the product. After all the trimming and bandaging, the bow came out at 12.7 kg at a stretch of 70 cm. Biting and strong, despite the small tension force. This is the peculiar magic of longbows.