This is all very interesting. I've never considered making my own bow (I don't even own one).
Is a homemade bow just as safe as a commercial bow? (won't snap when drawn)
How much would it cost to make one?
Thanks,
Steve
Wooden self-bows have to be used at no more than the draw length they were tillered for - go further and breakage is likely, and even if it's not broken the strain will put extreme "set" or permanant deflection into the limbs for sure.
On top of that, some woods get brittle when cold, most get rubbery/easy to permanantly bend when hot. Also, high humidity or extremely dry conditions will affect even well-finished bows to some extent over time - drying out makes the bow pull heavier, sometimes to the point where your normal draw length will be dangerous for the bow's health, while wet will rob you of draw weight.
Well-made bows are far less likely to break for any reason than badly made ones. The first 8 or 10 I made were bad to various degrees (but I liked them anyway).
Fiberglass or other modern materials are definitely more durable in terms of sheer resistance to breakage, and if I could make fiberglass bows as light in the hand, as sweet shooting, and as cheaply I'd make a bunch of those too - and I still might anyway.
I've broken a number of bows while tillering and one of my first ones in actual use, and had a couple well-made gift-bows (given to kids who worked them a little hard) break in use. When they cost a few dollars in materials to make it's not really too big a deal. If you glue a thin piece of rawhide (or glued-up sinew or fiber, or even heavy paper) on the back you can avoid catastrophic breakage pretty much entirely (this is a must for kids' first bows).
Materials can be cheap or free if you cut your own trees or use cheap lumber like Hickory or Hard Maple (although if your time is worth money the time spent searching lumber stacks for the straightest grain might be considered expensive), downright expensive if you buy commercially available staves of Osage Orange or Yew (like $60-100 per bowstave). Tools aren't expensive - maybe a sharp hatchet, a few scrapers, a drawknife, a little block or coffin plane, one fine and one coarse rasp, a few assorted files, an outside caliper, a pocketkife or two - stuff lots of people have anyway. A bandsaw comes in real handy if you have a decent one, but I don't normally use any other power tool. You can make a tillering board out of hardwood scrap, and buy a cheap pull-scale (or borrow the bathroom scale) for checking draw weight.
