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Tapering a Osage slat question
razorbak:
Ok I’ve had the worst luck known to bow building in my last dz attempts none have survived due to various circumstances to long to list I’m getting ready to glue up a z splice Osage bamboo backed bow my 13th attempt of making a worthy hunting bow for this season. I have been pouring thru all these threads for months watching countless beyond videos on board/ 3lam/stave bow building reading thru countless old issues of PA that I accumulated over the years watching old DVDs re reading all volumes of the “bible “ especially volume 4 I thought everything was going good on bow #12 I had received the best looking hickory slats and successfully z spliced and glued up a hickory backing while adding a couple inches of reflex. I pre shaped the profile on both prior to glue up. I added nock overlays and blended every thing from fades to taper ing of the limbs knocked the edges off on all corners I even went and taped up the backing so I don’t knock it around while doing the initial floor tillering and stayed away from power tools using only my files and scrapers and while floor tillering the backing about 12” on one end cracked and the hickory fibers lifted so I stop immediately and tried to scrape gently and sand it until it was gone going down 1/16” and took more off the belly wood and in process of floor tillering again it snap more fibers and grain and the belly just compressed like a hinge so I tried to trap the back even more and that worked for 2 minutes then it just splintered so scrap that so the big question I have now is I also purchased Osage slats that was really questionable with knots and weird grain run off but I didn’t want to deal with 3 rivers again so I z spliced and fitted the slats together and profiled the shape and I did that on my last bamboo backing that I had from 20 years ago that was still in great shape I thinned the backing and tapered it as flat as I can and stopped there as I don’t know where I heard read or saw that I should taper the core so that’s where I’m stuck do I taper on the back or belly before I glue it up ? I got a 12” power lam that I was going to use in this as well and I do have another piece of hickory backing should I glue that up as well? I just don’t want to blow up another bow as it’s getting quite expensive and I don’t live anywhere close to Osage and I have no luck in getting good Osage but that’s another story I have built a few bows in the past from boards to staves that was successful and have given them away 20 years ago and now this is all I want to do and hunt with so basically I have zero experience compared to you guys
mmattockx:
Good lord, that is pretty much unreadable without some punctuation and paragraphs.
Mark
superdav95:
Razorbak, It can be very frustrating to use questionable wood for laminate bow builds. I realize getting good laminate material can be a challenge and can get expensive. I personally don’t make hickory backed bow builds. I’ve made some decent ones that turned out pretty well but not any improvement over a self bow. If using a hickory board for a backing slat, it’s very important to get grain that is as straight as possible and to a single ring on your back. I’m sure others will chime in here too. In my opinion boo slats are better. As far as boo slats I make my own from large mosso poles. I’ve ordered some decent slats from various places with mixed results. I usually get about 1/3 or more of them in a batch that is not suitable for my liking for laminate bows. For me the boo slat is the most imported part of the build to get right and get choosy on a boo backed laminate. This is my experience anyway. I’ve used less then ideal belly wood for laminate builds and turned out good bows because of a good solid boo backing slat. There really is a whole conversation or thread alone that can be dedicated to choosing good boo for backing bow builds. Just to name a few… mode placement, proper taper, width, thickness and crown, and retained moisture. To me the bigger discussion is the boo slats used instead of the belly lam. Don’t get me wrong the belly wood is also important. Here’s another observation I’ve made with boo backings. Tapering evenly and taking measurements every couple inches to make sure tapers are even on both limbs. I usually taper my slats thickness of .125” at handle section out to around .0900” at the tips. This depends on crown of the boo used. High crown can still work but generally you’ll end up with a narrower bow build. A lot of factors come into play. I try to use the largest poles I can find which gives me the flattest crown boo slat. Boo backs can easily overpower the belly wood and cause frets or compression fractures. In my opinion this has more to do with slats being too thick and not being tapered properly. Some guys trap the boo backing to help with this. I try to avoid too much of this. Obviously choosing good dense belly wood has the makings of a better bow. Grain orientation is important too. Lots of threads on here about that. We really should have a thread started on good boo slat prep and selection. I kind of went off on a tangent here and may not have answered your question directly but hopefully gave you something that might help you out.
razorbak:
Sorry about the non paragraphs lol
Texting from a phone is hard sometimes
I totally get the bamboo issue have had that problem in the past but this last piece of bamboo is pretty good I got little more than 1/8 in middle tapering out to less than 1/8” gonna sand some more. Should I taper on the Osage slat like on the back or the belly?
superdav95:
I would depending on style of bow and layout. For a pyramid bow style I would keep belly lam pretty even and then tiller as needed. For their builds I do pre taper the belly lam as well as the boo slat. Getting them measured evenly helps in tillering. The boo adds a lot of draw weight fyi.
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