Maple-Backed Buckthorn D/R

[Marc St Louis]

Lovely bow.  Well done

Buckthorn steam and dry-heat bends extremely well and for backed bows I dry-heat bend the billet/limbs before gluing up to give me a couple inches reflex after they are spliced together

[Greg DeJanes]

Yes! Very interesting piece of work and design. Faasst too. Yea you can be proud of that bow. I Royally announce from today forward you be bowyer!

Greg

[upstatenybowyer]

Lol, okay Greg I will heed your decree. 

Thank you Marc. I will most certainly dry-heat bend the next set of billets before the splice. Additionally, I forgot to give you credit for the handle design. I hope you don't mind I copied one you posted a picture of. 

Thanks helmet!

[Marc St Louis]

Thank you Marc. I will most certainly dry-heat bend the next set of billets before the splice. Additionally, I forgot to give you credit for the handle design. I hope you don't mind I copied one you posted a picture of. 

You just have to pay special attention not to introduce any twist as you reflex the billets, or at least very little.  It makes gluing the backing down easier as well since you don't have to fight with it as much as you are adding more reflex.  One more benefit is that I find the bow keeps more reflex doing it that way

P.S. I find the looks of Buckthorn quite appealing.  It's a lovely wood.

[DC]

Do you glue in any reflex at all, Marc?

[Marc St Louis]

Roughly 50% of the reflex is glued in

[upstatenybowyer]

Marc, (or anyone else) how do you go about gluing in the reflex? Caul? Reverse brace?

[DC]

I use a caul. I've got about five of them. All you need is a 2x4 or 2x6 and a band saw. Takes 10min tops

[Marc St Louis]

A caul with rubber bands.  Been using this one for almost 20 years.  It's simple but works for me

[DC]

Marc, do you just use strategically placed blocks to controll the shape? I think i see one in the middle of the limb.

[Bayou Ben]

Nice Upstate!...Nice profile and I like your finish work.  That's why I love these designs, so sweet to shoot and always good performance. 
My setup is similar to Marc's, various wood blocks for d/r and center post.  I use clamps instead of rubber bands though (a lot of them)

[upstatenybowyer]

Wow, great to see that pic Marc. Much appreciated. 

Thanks DC, I think I've got 10 minutes to spare. 

Thank you Ben, and thanks for all your insight. 

[DC]

If i want a full bow caul I draw the shape I want on one half. Then cut it neatly on the bandsaw. Then I use the piece I cut off as a pattern to mark out the second half.

[upstatenybowyer]

If i want a full bow caul I draw the shape I want on one half. Then cut it neatly on the bandsaw. Then I use the piece I cut off as a pattern to mark out the second half.

That's what I do. The problem I've recently run into is when I've got a shorter bow with sharp static bends at the tips. The caul isn't cut to fit them. I guess I could make a separate caul that does, but I was thinking of going with one more like Marc's with the bow backside up.

[DC]

Yeah, that looks kinda good