Main Discussion Area > HowTo's and Build-a-longs
osage board bows: 2 at once
radius:
Few days later.
I decided to make one bow a pyramid shape, and the lucky winner was...the thicker bow, with shorter fades. This is not the one with the wane problem I had to belt sand away.
Here is the amount I had to take away, and my edge sander...
After trimming these lines away on both limbs, I put the long string. It hung to 7 inches. I pulled it to 12. Even tiller. Well, pretty even, anyway.
Took it to the scale: 50 # at 12 inches with the long string.
Since then I've taken it to 15 inches with the long string, using the block method to keep the curve even. When I get it so that I can pull it 10 inches from where the long string hangs, I will----gasp---affix a short string, at long last.
radius:
Now it's been several days since posting to this buildalong, because i've been busy with my firehawks. But today i found some time to work on the tiller of this pyramid BBO, and i've got it braced at 4.5 inches. From there, I can draw it to 23"...70# at 23... the tiller isn't dead-on, i need to remove some wood from the first 8 or 10 inches out of the fades...but i'll get 70# at 28" no problem, and that's what I was shooting for to begin with.
Look at this photo. I wanted to use a reduced handle area. I'm one of those guys, who when I see that everybody does something the same way all the time, I like to question it. I try new things. But now that i'm there and got it braced, i don't like it and i see why people make 4 inch handles with 2 inch fades each way. It's not too late. I'm going to start working on the handle next session, before tillering, so that I can get the thing comfortable and see where the arrow's going to pass. I've chosen my lower limb already. I tend to do that fairly early on...not before tillering, but when tillering in the early stages...
Does anybody else use short handles like this? What have you found? Thanks.
radius:
HI,
Well, I finally got one of them tillered to 28"...75# before final sand and tune-up. This is the pyramid style bow. I'll get some fulldraw photos in soon.
Here's a picture of the bow at about 4.5" brace height. You can see the short, lumpy handle. El Destructo: you can see my bathroom scale, piece of plywood, and tillering stick on the bathroom floor! This picture's for you, amigo!
The bow took about 1.25" set. That's not too bad. They weren't reflexed at all: just epoxied the bamboo flat onto the osage. I have scraped the skin off the bamboo, and sanded it to 150...smooth as a baby's bum except the nodes...i plan to simply coat the bow with tung oil...
the bamboo has some spalting...see that dark line? What do you guys think of that? Is it a weakness or just a discoloration?
Tomorrow after work [see, Keenan: not TOO badly addicted to bowmaking: I still go in to work ... 'course I'm thinking about bowmaking all day long] I will shape the handle, cut in a shelf...start the final sanding process...
And then on to the next one!
This post is about 2 BBO's side by side. The second one is shaped like a Meare Heath bow: I'll tidy up its lines, tiller it to 75# also, and compare the way the 2 bows shoot.
radius:
o btw...
I started a big renovation the other day: taking out a thousand window from a derelict department store that's being converted to condominiums. All the window stools are maple. Oh yeah, maple baby, and just over 6 feet long. And yeah, they are coming out. I see a lot of free maple backing strips in my near future! Now I know what i can use to back my yew laminate bows... Alright!
radius:
Looks like people are prepping their bamboo backed bows this way for tips. I'll be putting rosewood on here, probably tomorrow.
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