Main Discussion Area > HowTo's and Build-a-longs

BL molle buildalong: FINISHED!

<< < (2/4) > >>

huisme:
Since I'm doing blended knocks some of this will be left on. It isn't particularly important to get exact dimensions during the initial ring chase since it will probably be adjusted and finished with the rasp and scraper later.


One ring at a time I remove two rings just under the tip of the bow. I don't start peeling down the lever and limb until I'm under both rings, but once I am I do not cut all the way through the last ring of early wood. You should try to use the crunchy early wood to get the edge under the hard late wood and lift it off, more like peeling than cutting.


It's difficult to come off a slope like this without cutting the back a little, but since I was using very short strokes to remove tiny amounts at a time I've gone no deeper than my scraper and sandpaper will go later.


As a matter of fact, this is right after a couple of scrapes.


I continue down the back of the bow toward the handle and uncover one of the other reasons I'm chasing two rings: WORM!!!! It only goes through the early wood, and its point of entrance isn't on this bow anymore (it was right beside a lever), so it's nothign to worry about now.


Here I've done a very light scraping around my rings, which are about ten inches from the handle. The peaks are the easiest places to get the draw knife under and get a good peel going for a couple of inches, after which there will be new peaks to go at.


The best closeups I could get hopefully shows the crunchy, rough-textured early wood going under the dense, smooth late wood. The exposed late wood you see was not cut at all, it was lightly scraped. This final layer of wood should be untouched for as long as possible.


I usually try to go up and down the whole bow without doing any scraping or otherwise making contact with the final ring. This allows me to really baby the last bit of early wood off the surface and have the best possible back for my bow.


I only go to the handle from each direction. I've had issues with weird tear-outs in the past, and going to the middle of the bow was what fixed it. Don't know if it's proper practice, but it's what I do.


Just above the handle is the only pin knot I feel the need to be aware of. The grain was, on the outer rings, very interrupted by this thing, and so it needs to be kept mostly intact to avoid grain runoff in the middle of the bow.


I worked right up to it from the nearest tip, and now I flip the stave over and, using very short draws, work toward it from the opposite direction, just pealing the late wood rings away to reveal the early growth around the knot.


Sometimes I scrape with the machete, sometimes with the draw knife. Either way, this is about what it looks like. Try to angle the edge so you're not getting caught on the wood and apply firm pressure while you drag the edge across areas with early wood.


Scrape this-

to get this.


And so we now have a good clean back for our bow. The tips will be shaped with a rasp and scraper from here, giving them good clean surfaces.


The side profile will need to be fixed. I'm going to steam reflex into the upper limb (which I'm holding here) to give the mollegabet a reflex-deflex profile, which will be slightly easier on the inner limbs and otherwise look pretty sweet.


I've had it by the fire, which would have been disastrous if I hadn't sealed the ends and intended to chase rings. As you can see, none of the exposed ends have checks.



What I'll do now is reduce the limbs to that darker ring you see. I'm not sure what weight that'll give me, but it shouldn't be less than sixty pounds if that were the final fade-limb transition.

huisme:
Alright, I neglected to take pics when I roughed the limbs of the build bow so I'm calling in this other molle in the works to demonstrate, mostly for the people of reddit.

It's supposed to come out around fifty pounds at twenty eight inches, I'm going to tiller it to twenty nine, but that's not important since this isn't the build bow ???



I start reducing the belly at the inner fade of either limb. I don't go evenly up and down the limb and reduce it all at once, I peel from the fade down when I get to one inch limb thickness. One inch really isn't necessary, it just gives me plenty of room to refine.




I chase to that ring you see because it was the one inch ring. By chasing this ring I ensure that I will establish the taper with greater control later on, and a chased belly ring has never cracked on me during heat bending.

http://i.imgur.com/ETbFwPZ.jpg

Once I get about half way down the limb I turn the bow over-

- and start the taper from the outer fade being careful to stop at one inch. The outer fade should be reduced as much as possible; it shouldn't have any extra mass on it for decoration, it's right in the middle of the limb and should be light as a feather.

I managed to get the same ring from the outer fade as from the inner so I've chased my ring already. It's not like it's a big hassle or risk as long as the outer limb, the weakest point in the bow, doesn't get weaker than you need for your intended draw weight.



And this is the build molle cleaned up with the rasp.



It's still got a huge handle and log-like levers, but that's a really straightforward rasping. I'll probably photograph my handle forming for reddit.

Fred Arnold:
I'll be following this one closely and thanks for posting the build.

huisme:
Sometimes I wonder why I'm taking so long. Then I look to my left and I just sigh a little...


Right now holding this thing is like holding a splintery brick. It needs to be thinned and formed, and the tool for that job is the rasp.


It will be thinned from both sides with that little knot marking the center, probably. Since the handle is relatively thick there's plenty of wood for a very narrow handle.


In your rasping be sure to consider what kind of resistance the material will offer. When you go with the grain you can be sure you'll cut and remove nice little pieces of wood. If you go against the grain like I did, you'll tear the back off your bow like those bits of skin on the back of your finger.


This is good, going from the back to the belly.


This is bad. Very bad. For bows, that is. If the objective is to peel the back and make splinters, it's perfect.


It doesn't take long to do twenty scrapes at a time until I've got the handle to a comfortable width. The knot is just off center but still in the handle.


The grip is only slightly formed, just the way I like it. It will need refinement to really be comfortable, but for now it's okay.


It was the same old same old rasping from both sides until the whole lever is about as big as my thumb and then taking a little off the belly of the tip to match the slight recurve effect of those extra rings.



I'm marking the nocks to be about the tip of my index finger from the tip of the bow. You can go longer or shorter on the tips past the nock, but there's a happy medium where they're not so long there's too much leverage breaking the nock, and it's not so short there can't be any repairs ever. I do not know this medium, I just go with my fingers.


I remove wood from the extra rings very slowly, being very careful to identify the back of the bow. It's important that the back of the bow not be touched, and that a sliver of the bottom extra ring be intact to keep the string from cutting into the early wood between it and the back.



As you can see this nock is deep enough for my tillering string without going into the second ring. I will use that ring, but there isn't much room and I'd rather finish it when the tips are more narrow.


I know this method really suck for showing you guys, but my tillering stick also sucks and doesn't hold the bow with its reflex and formed handle.


It's hard to see, but the upper/right limb is bending more in the fade and stiff in the middle, where the bottom/left limb is bending evenly except for right out of the fade. It'll be easy to fix, and I might have to do extra scraping just to reduce weight when all is said and done.


It will be a lot easier to show the tiller when I've got this thing braced, so for now I'm going to do light scraping in those stiff spots and go until I get a low brace. I'll see you then!

killir duck:
That's lookin real good.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page