Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Arrowind on April 26, 2014, 07:48:27 pm
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Here is a bow I made for a young man who just earned his Eagle Scout.
I will be giving it to him tomorrow evening at his court of honor.
Hope he likes it.
Maple
66" ttt
40# @ 28"
Black Walnut Tip Overlays
Leather wrapped handle
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That's flippin' superb. What a clean bow! Nice trapping on the back as well - don't seem to see it very often, this should serve as an excellent example to those curious about trapping a bow's back.
Well done mate.
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Very nice elegant bow! Someones going to flip :D
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Man he's gonna love that bow. Anybody would love that bow. I love that bow! Very nice!
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I have never seen a "trapped " back bow. beautiful bow, great job.
I would pay to see the expression on the young fella's face when he sees this!!!!!!!
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Perfect bow, perfect tiller and the perfect gift for an eagle scout, very nice Arrowwind.
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Woe! I want to earn my Eagle Scout! That's a really nice bow 8) Your work is immaculate...
Don
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NICE!!!! 8)
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Beautiful bow in every aspect. Very nice Sir.
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Thanks guys!
@ WillS Thanks man. I've been trapping the backs of most of the bows I've been making recently even if it's just a little bit mainly to reduce mass and I just think it looks cool. Thanks again.
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Arrowind, I don't understand what "trapping" means. This is a very nice bow and I like the way you shaped the tips. I think the young man will love and treasure it!
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Very very well done! I'm sure he will be honored and will cherish it for a long time to come! I personally know what it takes to achieve the rank of Eagle! I received 2 eagle feathers at my Court of Honor! Well done again, you should be proud! Patrick
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Awesome story and beautiful work ;D
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Another beautiful bow as usual. I like the tooling on the handle. How do you tie the stitching off on the front of the handle and hide the knot at the bottom?
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Very nice bow! Excellent all around.
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Arrowind, I don't understand what "trapping" means. This is a very nice bow and I like the way you shaped the tips. I think the young man will love and treasure it!
Swatch - First of all. THANKS for your kind comments!
Trapping is a term used when shaping the back to resemble a trapezoid shape. (cross section). "Trap"-ezoid. This is basically beveling the edges.
Usually if you have tension strong wood and want to ease the pressure on the belly or especially if you have backed a softer compression wood with a very tension strong backing such as bamboo, hickory, white oak, etc trapping can help reduce the danger of fretting.
It is also used to reduce mass over all and therefore improve performance. It's a fine balance because too much trapping can be well....too much and cause the back to fail. I'm not an expert by any means but I hope this helps to explain "trapping" and some of the reasons one might consider it. Others on this site can easily go into far more detail. Also if you read the mass principle section in TBB4 I think it mentions something about trapping.
Oh and... I just think it looks cool too. Thanks again!
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Another beautiful bow as usual. I like the tooling on the handle. How do you tie the stitching off on the front of the handle and hide the knot at the bottom?
ajooter - Thanks! - think about serving a string and finishing off the serving. If you take a loop of string and lay it down then serve over it several times leaving the loop end hanging out in the direction you are serving and the tail end to the other side. You cut the string you are using to serve the bow string and thread the tail through your loop then pull the tails of the loop to bring that end string through and under that last bit that you served. Then cut off the extra. Kinda wordy I guess. It's hard to explain with out pics but I used the same technique when finishing off the stitching on the handle. The stitching starts at the top with no knot but in the middle of the string used to do the stitching. The one knot used is at the bottom and pulled under the handle wrap as described.... I hope that makes sense. ???
Thanks again!
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THANK YOU EVERYONE!
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Darned nice bow, I like the color scheme all the way down to the string too.
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beautiful bow and top shelf attention to detail and finish as usual from you.
hmmm i need to improve on that part myself ::)
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Great looking bow! A fine piece of Craftsmanship.
Congratulations to the young fellow who earned it .
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That is great!!!! Pass on a great big congratulations from a fellow eagle scout....very fine job on the bow ;)
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Thanks again guys!
Soy - lebhuntfish - nice to hear from some other Eagle Scouts! I can't claim to be one as I never finished my project. (long story about immaturity)
I have been a scout leader for many years however..... ??? Yeah sometimes I wonder why they keep asking me to keep doing this (not being and Eagle myself) but it's fun and I love the camp outs and high adventure stuff!
I gave the boy his bow tonight and I have to say I was a little unprepared for the emotions. :'( I don't think I have ever felt so proud and so good to give away a bow. I've known this kid for several years and he is not a very expressive guy but he came up to me after the court of honor and gave me a big hug and said thank you. Later his dad did the same thing. Word's can't express it. I just love being able to give a gift like that. It's worth every hour and minute you spend sanding and scraping and tillering and etc etc....
Though one guy asked...."So are you going to make a bow for ALL your Eagle Scouts?..." What have I started...? I'm sure I will. It was just too fun to do. ;D
THANKS again everyone for all the kind words!
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Awesome bow and a magnificent gesture.
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That's awesome Arrowind, I too enjoy the boyscouts very much. I have just recently put in at my local council for a scout master position. Maybe I will make a bow for an eagle scout one day. Hopefully when i'm better at it. Congrats and well done again. Patrick
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Hrhodes- thanks!
Lebhuntfish - Awesome! Boys need a lot more positive influences in their lives these days. Nice to hear you are giving back. A true Eagle! It was actually working with boy scouts that got me into making bows. we were planning what we were going to do one year and one of the boys said. "lets's make our own bows!" so I had to learn how to do it. It's been a wonderfully addicting hobby! Thanks again.
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That's cool Arrowind, it's funny I'm just starting to make bows here recently. But my first bow was made at scout camp when I was 15. That's what got me started recently, I ran across it at my folks house one day when I was helping dad in the shed. Patrick
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Good on ya man. That looks like a great bow with great purpose. I love seeing great acts of generosity on this site. Makes me proud to feel a part of something so kind. Great job on that bow man.
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That's cool Arrowind, it's funny I'm just starting to make bows here recently. But my first bow was made at scout camp when I was 15. That's what got me started recently, I ran across it at my folks house one day when I was helping dad in the shed. Patrick
That's a cool story. When we started making bows for scouts I was the Varsity Scout leader. (ages 14-16). Now I am the Venture Scout Leader (16-18). I hope some of these guys will want to build a few more bows down the road too.
Earlier this week we made blow guns.
Got scout camp coming up in June. Should be fun.
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IdahoMatt - thanks dude!
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Wow Arrowind, that's cool! I never thought about making blow dart guns! May have to try that with my new troop. Oh yeah, found out yesterday, that I'm the new scout master for the troop I grew up in! Patrick
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Fitting reward for a special achievement, nice job.
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Hi Arrowind- Very nice bow! Absolut craftsmanship!
Yesterday I found a nice maple board with some fine grain and want to make a bow from
it (my first unbacked, and the first time I`m working with maple) and I have 3 questions, if you may:
1) Is maple stronger in tension then compresion? Is that why you traped the back? (Besides looks). Should I trap my bow`s back?
2) How did you reflexed the tips? steam?
3) Can you give me the dimentions? Width, Thickness, Taper etc..
Thanks a lot... that is one lucky eagle scout...
Dor
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That is a great "award" for an Eagle. Very nice bow. I wish I'd have got one like that when I earned my Eagle, forty so odd years ago. Great work. God Bless
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PeteC, you're right; probably an "award" rather than a bounty or incentive. ;D
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Wicked job,cool story!i really like that style of handle also!
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Wow Arrowind, that's cool! I never thought about making blow dart guns! May have to try that with my new troop. Oh yeah, found out yesterday, that I'm the new scout master for the troop I grew up in! Patrick
That's awesome! Congrats. I'm sure you'll do great! yeah the blow guns are fun and super easy to make. Take some half inch pvc pipe or similar pipe 4-5' long give or take doesn't matter too much. Take some long thin nails. Yes nails. cut a small square of paper 4" x 4" give or take. wrap the paper square around the top end of the nail in a cone shape then wrap scotch tape around to hold it on. Put the dart in the pipe. cut the excess paper off with some scissors and your ready to shoot. ;) They are fun and you can stick those nails in a wooden target, tree trunk, misbehaving scout :o ...no problem... It's actually a little surprising how well they work! have fun brother!
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Thanks everyone!
Hrothgar - yeah in this case the boy was surprised and didn't know it was at end of the Eagle trail. so we could call it an "award". I think if all the younger scouts that were there are motivated to get their eagle in hopes of receiving a bow it will be an "bounty or incentive." :laugh:
It's all semantics really but....I guess if it helps them get their eagle it's definitely worth it. I am not ashamed to bribe'em. I'll make'em a bow. :P
Could keep me busy for a while...there's so many of them. ???
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Hi Arrowind- Very nice bow! Absolut craftsmanship!
Yesterday I found a nice maple board with some fine grain and want to make a bow from
it (my first unbacked, and the first time I`m working with maple) and I have 3 questions, if you may:
1) Is maple stronger in tension then compresion? Is that why you traped the back? (Besides looks). Should I trap my bow`s back?
2) How did you reflexed the tips? steam?
3) Can you give me the dimentions? Width, Thickness, Taper etc..
Thanks a lot... that is one lucky eagle scout...
Dor
Thanks Dor! I appreciate your comments!
1) I think all or most woods are stronger in tension than compression. It's just that with some woods the difference in that relationship is more drastic. Maple is tension strong meaning it tends to be one of those woods that is very strong in tension.
You HAVE to consider the kind of maple you are using. There are many varieties and not all are the best choice for a bow.
I've been using "sugar maple" which is also known as "rock maple" or "hard maple." Others use "vine maple" and LOVE it. These are both very good examples of "good maple" for bows. There was something about this in a thread not too long ago.
Anyway - I trapped the back and usually do mainly to reduce mass. Less weight on the limbs means a faster better performing bow. That is the main reason i did it with this one and why I do with others. The fact that it looks cool to my eyes is an added benefit.
honestly I would not suggest it if you haven't made a few bows. it's one more thing to have to get right. not saying you can't do it but I am saying that you don't HAVE to do it to get a decent shooter. It's another variable you have to contend with. just round the edges of the back a little so they are not really sharp angles. That will also help in not lifting splinters.
2) I used a combination but ultimately it was steam. I only reflexed the tips very mildly but used a technique that I'm really starting to like. I think Marc St Louis was the guy who came up with it. I clamped the bow down to my form. I took a wet cloth laid it on the tips about that last 6" covered it with tin foil and used a heat gun on high to heat it up. I was able to bend the tips quite easily all though very mildly after about 10 minutes of heat. Not sure exactly how it works but the tin foil holds all the steam in and I think it works well to distribute the heat evenly less heat is lost so it works fast. It works great.
3) I think this one was 66" total length 1 3/4" wide at the fades tapering to 1.5" after about 18-20" then tapering to 3/8" at the tips. It's almost pyramid like. I usually keep the taper even and adjust if need be when I tiller and if your limbs taper in width it works pretty good. Not sure how thick the limbs are.
Anyway I would suggest 2" at the fades and just do a straight width taper to .5" at the tips or smaller what ever you want. This would be a classic pyramid design and works very well. your thickness taper would be even from fades to tips unless you wanted the last - 6-7" a little stiffer then you would leave that portion just a little thicker so as not to bend as much.
I hope that helps. Thanks again for your comments!
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That's one classy bow and a fine gesture.
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Thanks Dvshunter!
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Not only is this a awesome gesture in honor of this young man that is simply a beautiful bow. Thank you for sharing!
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honestly I would not suggest it if you haven't made a few bows. it's one more thing to have to get right. not saying you can't do it but I am saying that you don't HAVE to do it to get a decent shooter. It's another variable you have to contend with. just round the edges of the back a little so they are not really sharp angles. That will also help in not lifting splinters.
Thanks a lot Arrowind.
I have made bows before, I just never worked with maple (its hard maple) and thought it`ll be a good chance to
make an unbacked bow (I usually backmy bows with paper) and to try traping the back.
Your info really helped me.
BTW, I really like the nocks on that bow and want to try it myself.
I`ll try to mimic it through the pictures but are there any tips you can give me on
how to make it?
Dor
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Beautifully shaped, perfect tiller! Dream bow.
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Very classy! A worthy bow to be awarded for such high achievement! Josh
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paoliguy, diliviu, Gun Doc, Thanks!
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honestly I would not suggest it if you haven't made a few bows. it's one more thing to have to get right. not saying you can't do it but I am saying that you don't HAVE to do it to get a decent shooter. It's another variable you have to contend with. just round the edges of the back a little so they are not really sharp angles. That will also help in not lifting splinters.
Thanks a lot Arrowind.
I have made bows before, I just never worked with maple (its hard maple) and thought it`ll be a good chance to
make an unbacked bow (I usually backmy bows with paper) and to try traping the back.
Your info really helped me.
BTW, I really like the nocks on that bow and want to try it myself.
I`ll try to mimic it through the pictures but are there any tips you can give me on
how to make it?
Dor
Cool! Trap away dude. You don't need permission that's for sure. Just be sure to make it even on both sides and make sure the back is super smooth before you start tillering. If the grain is straight and the limbs wide enough and long enough you should be able to make it unbacked.
As for the tips. I started wide got them down to just over half an inch - tillered to low brace to check string alignment. Once I got the string centered I continued tillering. for shaping the tips I just got a rectangular shaped piece of black walnut cut it across diagonally to make two identical wedge shaped pieces. I glued them on - then drew the shape I wanted with a pencil and cut them out. I then used my rat tail file to re-cut the knocks and my sander to shape further. Once I had that done I narrowed the tips just above were the string sets to end up with more of a pin knock. ??? Not sure if that makes any sense or answers your questions but that's about how I did it. Once I did all that I narrowed the tips down to right around 3/8" or just a little over. sand until smooth. :D
I hope that helps.
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Been,out and just seen this one,sweet,that is beautiful and I am sure he loved it.Congrats to him and also you for a fine bow. :) :)
Pappy
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Hey Pappy, Thanks!
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Very good. The Eagle scout will love it.
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Thanks Zorrun!