NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1983, No. 43, $3.50 Making ... - Wood Tools

57 Fig. 2: The five parts of a tote Overall length of
bow is in.
Bow
Bore angled
mortises for leg s, .
40
Ease edges with
a spokeshave.
Fig. 3: Bending form
While the bow dries,
hold its shape with twine.
Bend nails to hold legs.
l...
Bow section 4 V2 finished size
at foot end
12
Taper.
16-in.
kerf
for leg
bends
I II
I,
T ., 1
are following the grain. If it goes tic, tic and gives a little at a
time, you're on. When it sounds like a branch breaking, it's
jumping the grain and you need to sttaighten it out.
Make your rough splits X in. oversize in section; you'll be
shaving them down to finished dimensions with the drawknife.
The bow will be steam-bent later, so keep grain direction
in mind. Whether the growth rings are radial or tangential
to the bend is up to you. I prefer a tangential split-it
looks nicer and it makes it easier to follow the grain.
Drawknifmg to size-Now the pleasant work can begin.
Clamp the bow in your horse and shave one face smooth with
the drawknife. Shave with the grain as much as you can and
watch for tearing. You may not be able to read the grain, but
your drawknife will. Downhill, the cut will be deliciously
smooth; uphill, the knife will dig in. Pull in long, even
strokes, sliding the drawknife sideways as you go. If you're
doing it right, the slicing motion will peel off long shavings of
even thickness. On each piece, smooth one face first, then
square up an adjacent edge and shave the opposite face and
edge to yield the finished dimensions. It's the same order of
cuts you'd follow using a jointer, tablesaw and thickness
planer. Keep the rails in a cool, damp spot so that they'll
retain enough moisture to swell the tenons later. Dry the
stretchers and the bow over a woodstove.
Define the handle's shape with graceful, Ys-in. radius scallops
on each side. By using the drawknife with the bevel
down, you can control the depth and the shape of the scallop.
Otherwise, the knife will want to dig in. Starting about 12 in.
from each end of the bow, drawknife a taper toward the handle,
as shown in figure
19
2. Also, hollow the inside (compression
side) of the bow a little, maybe 'li6 in. at the handle
tapering to zero about in. from each end.
Shape the handle to your liking, then ease the edges of the
bow, rails and stretchers with your spokeshave. Finally, with a
I handsaw or bandsaw, rip 16-in. long kerfs at each end of the
bow so that it can be wish boned into the rails after steaming.
My steamer is a stainless steel tube capped at one end, half
filled with water and placed in the firebox of my woodstove.
Any steel pipe or even an old steel drum will work. While the
bow steams, make up the simple bending form shown in figure
3. It should be constructed to overbend the leg splits a
little so that they'll have to be sprung back in to fit into the
rails. This tension will stop the legs from splitting further.
With gloved hands, remove the bow from the steamer and
limber up the bends by forming them over your knee. First
put bends on each side of the handle about 4 in. from the
center. This creates a bow with two "shoulders" rather than
one that's a perfect half-circle. After you've defined the shoulders,
bend the bow like Superman would bend a bar of steel.
Make adjustments where needed-the handle has to look
right, and you can't change the bend when it's in the form.
To keep the wood from splitting as you limber the leg
bends, clamp the top of the kerf in your shaving horse and
flex the legs into a graceful sweep from a point 1'l;; in. below
the end of the kerf. Watch for kinks. A couple of turns of
twine at the end of the kerf will keep the split from advancing
when you release it from the shaving horse. Put the bow
in the form and pull its sides in with a twine wrap.
Assembling the carrier-I assemble the stretchers to the rails
after first whittling %-in. long by ;.{6-in. diameter tenons at