Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Del the cat on November 04, 2012, 12:57:13 pm
-
I expect someone has done this before, but maybe not documented it.
I'd been wanting to try it for ages, I'm doing a longbow and there are a fair few nots to plug.
An ordinary plug looks a bit obvious with straight grain going across it, so I used a small branch of Yew to make a plug from the heart wood with it's natural circular grain. The plug looks just like the original not, but it is clean and solid, where the original had a black powdery layer all round it, so it wasn't solid with the parent wood.
I cleaned up the area around it to show it off... the bow is still a long way from finished.
The pic shows the plug and the small branch it was filed from.
Sorry if this is already well known trick :-[
The knot goes in towards the sapwood an makes it bulge, but had almost grown over leaving just a tiny hole showing. I cleaned out the hole to sound wood and loaded it with yew dust/epoxy mix, so that when I pushed in the plug it filled any voids and oozed out of the small hole in the sapwood.
Del
-
Even if it is well known you just taught it to all us new Bowerys
-
Its new to me.-)....awsome trick
Cheers
-
good idea....very smart..
-
Nicely done Del, that looks like it belongs there. Makes sense to me but probably would not have thought of it myself, cool beans.
Greg
-
The technique also allows for the awsome opportunity to repair a knot, within a knot, within a knot;-)
Cheers
-
I didn't know this. I never repair these things but it is good to know. Thank you Del! :)
-
An amazingly obvious solution....once someone has shown it to me! My hindsight certainly does not need glasses.
Another added benefit: it's more aesthetically pleasing than the straight grain plugs, too.
-
I've been building bows for a long time and never thought of that! Man that looks good! Thanks for sharing that with the rest of us. I'm sure I'll try it next time I have a loose knot! Dale
-
Ryan Yoon, a very talented young bowyer, made some tapered osage plugs to patch the knot holes in a cedar bow that he made at Mojam this summer. The contrast looked pretty cool...
Del's version looks great too, you have to look pretty close to see that it's a patch.
Nice job!
-
An amazingly obvious solution....once someone has shown it to me! My hindsight certainly does not need glasses.
Another added benefit: it's more aesthetically pleasing than the straight grain plugs, too.
It's the aesthetics that I was really after as some of my bows have so many plugs they look like my grandmothers patchwork quilt ;D
I love those simple obvious things that make you wonder why you never tried it before.
Del
-
This is a very smart solution. I have a yew stave that maybee need things in that way. Very clean and aesthetically. :D
-
super idea! that looks very natural. I would be careful when the hole/plug goes that deep (into sapwood). IMO a plug can handle pressure forces, but not tension forces.
thanks for sharing the idea
simson
-
super idea! that looks very natural. I would be careful when the hole/plug goes that deep (into sapwood). IMO a plug can handle pressure forces, but not tension forces.
thanks for sharing the idea
simson
Yes indeed, I was careful not to remove any of the sapwood.
Del
-
Great idea. Guess i was never smart enough to think of sticking a knot into a knothole. :-\
-
Dang! Before I actually read what you wrote I was scrolling to find a Knot that was filled... couldn't find it!
I'd be chuffed ta bits to make a plug look that good!
Mark