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The side facing the target acts like a compression strap, squeezing all the timber in the bow, so bow wood needs to be both elastic to bend and able to stretch and able to resist huge compression without damage. To be able to stretch without being ripped apart the side facing the target needs to...

Owch, how?

Have posted a thread on arbtalk

Any wany edge? Guess not on re-reading the op, any quarter sawn? I need to make an elm cross bow lath, might get away with laminating one if I can't get what I need for a self-bow

I plan on making a replica of an 11th century crossbow. The original was 120cm long, 4cm wide and thick and used an elm or wych elm branch (probably) or sapling. I am having trouble sourcing any elm, can anyone suggest a supplier. I would rather not pay for a board as a stem or branch is best...

Tricky project but very rewarding. I like to get the feel for the carving by drawing lots of rubbish little sketches. studying lots of imagesof real animals and work by other makers. On a practical level, watch the grain alignment on legs and tail and just go for it.

Thanks for that, its mostly leaking at a set of corner joints with some perforations near by. I'll try some metal filler and putting mastic into the joints and see where I amfrom there.

Totally hijacking the thread, sorry, the original (cast iron ?) gutters on my mid-terrace are leaking badly, I was going to replace them but is there any alternative I can try first?

Ok, so having removed the bark and rasped off the sapwood, are there any remedies I can apply that won't stain the wood and won't damage me as I will eventually be hand-carving the wood so contact insecticides are a bit of a no-no. I was wondering about coffee or vinegar or salt solution but I...

Sorry for my poor description; the tree was felled last Autumn, I collected it today and just started roughing it out.

I have a 4 inch diameter prunus (plum) stem, 5 ft in length. When I stripped off the bark I found the cambium and sapwood has been almost entirely eaten by borers, though they have left most of the heartwood alone What should I do beyond removing the affected timber?

You're very kind, thank you. The blade is a bog standard Swedish carving knife I bought because I love them, I've had 3, but I've misplaced 2 of them over the years. It has a 2 inch blade and is very battered but then it is used every day.

Sheath took about 30 hours to carve. Apple finished with tinted Danish oil. Ojime bead took another few hours. The netsuke I carved a few years back, ojime and netsuke are carved from the same fallow deer antler. The glue line is a bit disappointing but something weird happened when I split the...

Anything spirit based or oil based will be ok. I seal the carving with something like white spirit thinned varnish or Danish oil, that means the wood end grain won't soak up a differing amount of finish and darken. Once sealed I use Danish oil or boiled linseed tinted with artists oil as the...

Best carpenter I ever worked with had a mantra I've always tried to live up to, "there is no done fast, there is only done right"

I need to take this carving several shades darker to "lose" the glue line. How would you go about doing that? Stains, tinting varnish, tinting oil, coloured waxes or ??

I need to twist a string and re-do some of the binding, but basically done. 45lb crossbow, ash lath, mulberry stock and tickler with antler inlays. The stirrup is a freebie from my village blacksmith, so even though its a little too large, I'm not complaining!

I've never measured the quantities, I've added it to water to get the consistency and quantity I need, I have used it really runny (like double cream) for some purposes - I guess veneering might need that sort of consistency?

Your not wrong, it is about the same as a kids archery bow, but I based it on the limit for re-enactment, and on something manageable for plinking fun without a spanning device. You can't put a figure on medieval draw weights as there are 3 or 4 materials (composite, steel, yew and yew/sinew)...

Nope, 45lb pull, mostly destined to be a man-cave wall hanging. Didn't know tru-oil was available in the UK