Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Easternarcher on March 30, 2007, 12:44:46 pm
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Can boo flooring be successfully used as the primary belly, or is it delegated as core material only?
What if boo flooring WAS used as belly wood with a lam of something over it to trap it? would that help prevent the set I've heard flooring is notorious for?
I got 4 - 6 ft. planks of the stuff and wondered if I could make a decent bow out of it. if it works, I could make as many as 6-8 bows from it...LOL ::)
I'd be using hickory likely for the backing...I assume about 1/8th inch over 5/8" flooring.
How about a tri-lam with the flooring????
I've searched here, but can't find much info on it. ???
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I've made a few hickory backed boo flooring bows and they turned out nice but a bit light(35#-45#). I've done R/D and straight reflex with this combo. Pat
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I don't know that it is notorious for taking set when used as a belly wood. MAybe someone was just having problems finding the right design?
I had the opposite experience as Pat. I made a slender pyramid bow (hickory backed flooring, 1.5" tapering to 3/8") and it was bending nicely at 70lb so I quit tillering. Bad idea, the design was not intended for that weight and one limb blew. My laziness for not taking it down to my intended weight of 50lb. It was shaping up to be a very nice bow too, hadn't taken much set.
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tHESE EXPERIENCES ARE VERY INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE.....WE CAN ALL LEARN FROM THESE TYPES OF POSTS. THANKS FOR POSTING GUYS.
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Lennie, was that horizontal or vertical boo flooring?
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SHOULDA MENTIONED THAT I'M USING VERTICAL CARBONIZED....
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I believe it was vertical, it looked like a quartersawn board (IIIIII). It works quite a bit like regular wood. I understsand the horizontal stuff doesn't work as well. I think the carbonized is supposed to be OK on bellies. There were a couple of guys posting on the Leatherwall who made a lot of these bows.
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I made one about a month ago. It was bamboo backed with a floor bamboo belly. It was 64 inches N to N and came in at 47# at 28. It is a reflex/deflex design and has lost about 2 inchs of reflex after a 100 shots or more. It will be at the NC Traditional shoot in May. Anyone who wants to shoot it can. It is a very smoth bow.
Dick Bernier
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Sorry for the extra photos
Dick
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Verticle grained boo flooring is excellent for belly material, any excessive set may have been due to poor quality flooring. I have had very good luck with a boo flooring belly, maple core and raw boo back.
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hmmmm, I should be able to come up with that combo, 'burger...
Just a thought here, but I was wondering if it might work to use two thin lams of hickory and sandwich the flooring....would be an effictive use of resources? or wasting hickory on the belly???
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The stuff I used was the horizontal. Bows came out thick and took a bit of set.They are hickory backed with Perry reflex. Pat
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BooFloo was what I started with 15 years ago. I still think it's great stuff. A few points we have learned over the years. I made a lot of bows AND a lot of failures with it over my first few years.
Use vertically laminated flooring. It is far more consistent and homogenous. Buy the NON-carmelized stuff, if you can. Originally, I got some bad info that it would be harder than the natural, like when you toast a bamboo belly, but it is carmelized with a high heat/high pressure, water/steam pressure cooking method apparently, and the natural raw stuff is far superior. Or, use what you have. It's fine, just not as stiff, takes more set.
Quality varies widely. Some of it was very heavy and dense, and some varied a lot within the box. It can be pretty heavy, but it does make a bow that feels smooth to draw and damp in the hand at the shot.
It DOES take a lot of set, but that IS also a design issue. Not much more than a lot of softer woods like elm, though. Boofloo is not as stiff as most woods used for bellies, like ipe, massaranduba, and osage, so they often end up thicker as well as wider, and I think this contributes to set. It acts different from regular wood, and seems to not actually fret or compression fracture until WAY over-strained in one small area. It's less likely to fail outright or completely. I have made some BADLY hinged bows, or bows with WAY too much bend in the inner limbs that survived (but they kinda sucked, too). But, it will settle, more than most woods. For this reason, bamboo R/D bows were made a lot over on stickbow.com, where the bow was put into a slightly exaggerated bow form, in two gluing sessions: backing to tapered core, and then belly, or Perry reflexed where the backings were purposely left a bit thicker, like 3/16, and the glue up had a LOT of R/D, expecting to lose a lot of it. But, the set thing ws never really nailed down as to cause, and a lot of guys say they didn't have trouble with it.
Hickory is probably a great match, just like bamboo is, and should make layout a snap. I have also backed it with linen once making bows with the scouts. Just glued up pyramid bow blanks with linen backs in slight reflex and thinned them to draw weight. The epoxy finish with aluminum oxide in it eats tools, so if you can find a way to get your blades up under it, that helps. It usually comes in 5/8" thicknesses, but 1/2" belly lam with a 1/8" backing should be plenty for straight bows and a little less for R/D.
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Springbuck - Thanx much for resurrecting this thread! I just bought a partial box of boo flooring to use this way. Here's hoping it works! :) Even if it don't, I only gave $5 for the box... Now to find a good selection of backing strip materials to play with!
OneBow
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Well, Eric, if ya have a partial box then can make me one too! >:D
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Yeah, five bucks for half a box is awesome. I spent like 52.00 on a full box at ifloors.com once and I still have bits and pieces kicking around. If you have a tablesaw you can turn out a ton of lams.
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Can any of this stuff be used as backing material?