Building a Kid's Self Bow

I love to make kid's bows.  They are easy to make and make use of small or flawed pieces of wood that won't make a full-size adult bow.  Don't get me wrong, you should be just as thoughful about making a nice bow for a kid as you normally would but design can be seriously overbuilt since they often shoot very light arrows at short ranges and kids aren't nearly as worried about performance as adults are. 
Specs
I make all my kid's bows about the same way.
48-52" in length
1" wide for maybe half the limb tapering to 1/2" tips.
20#@20"

This design fits just about any kid since even smaller kids can pull 12-14" and about 12-15#.  The bow grows with the kids since the bigger they get, the farther they can pull, the higher weight they can handle.  They are overbuilt enough to go all the way to 24" which puts the weight in the low 30#'s.  I always use osage since it's about the only wood I use anyway.  I'm sure quality hickory could handle the same design in the same way.  Other woods may need to be wider.  The wider they are though, the thinner they usually end up, and the harder to tiller in my opinion.  They are also more prone to damage and breakage.  Kids are tough on bows.  Just watch 'em at a shoot sometime :)


Start with a stave.  I like to trim them up a little before chasing the ring.  This one's a beauty.  Maybe a bit of a curveball thrown in.  We can fix that!


Here's the ring all chased out.

Then we lay out our bow.  Stay with the grain but don't be too afraid to straighten things out a bit as long as your angles aren't too acute.

Cut it out.  Staying on the line makes it easier later on but if you are new to a bandsaw, give yourself a little margin of error.  It is absolutely critical that you stay square with the back so turn the stave as you cut to make sure that is always done.

All cut out to profile.

Now we need to thin it down some.  I scribe a line 3/8" from the back.  This will make it really close to floor tiller.  You also have to angle this cut so you have a ridge down the center of the belly.

Belly thinned down.

Now to the heatgun to correct that curve and add a little reflex.  I use the same caul as my adult bows so there won't be much reflex added.

All clamped and cooling, clamps correcting the curve as well as the natural deflex of this stave.

And the result.  Ready to tiller.  Tillering is done the same as an adult bow.  I usually get it to floor tiller and then correct the obvious flaws.  I string them pretty quick and then pretty much follow the same techniques as in my "Tillering 101" tutorial.

And here's the result.  A sweet little bow ready for plenty of action.


I made this one's handle kind of contoured.  Very nice to hold and shoot.

I left a little bit of snake in it just for character.

I try never to miss an opportunity to show off one of my kids.  This is Lainey, my 5 year old.