Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Aussie Yeoman on January 26, 2017, 10:02:02 pm
-
Hi all,
Here's one I tillered out yesterday. It's Ironbark with a backing of bamboo, glued on with just over 2 inches of Perry Reflex, and maintains about ½ inch of reflex after unstringing.. The making of this bow was pretty quick: I used the templates for the bowmaking classes I run, so a lot of time was saved in laying out, and much of the tillering was already done. Fifty pounds draw force at 28 inches. Sixty nine inches tip to tip, just a thin hair under 38 mm wide at the widest, and just slightly narrowed at the handle.
In fact the whole process went very quickly, as a result of maths, engineering, templates, good materials and good tools.
Marking and cutting out: c. 15 min
Preparing bamboo: c. 15 min
Glue up: c. 15 min
(Glue time omitted, but in essence it consisted of leaving the ssembly in the car parked in the sun for most of a day. It was easily 60 degrees Celsius in there.)
Post gluing tidy up: c. 20 min
Tillering: 18 minutes
---Yep. Between putting the string on the first time and full draw was 18 minutes, and less than ½ Oz of wood came off.
Sand & wax: 50 min.
Total time (ex. glue set time): circa 2 hrs 20 minutes.
Full draw:
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m98/dg2clarke/archery/20170126%20ironbark%20flatbow/20170126_145617_zpsvyflr6nd.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/dg2clarke/media/archery/20170126%20ironbark%20flatbow/20170126_145617_zpsvyflr6nd.jpg.html)
Experimental overlays - still in beta/prototype phase
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m98/dg2clarke/archery/20170126%20ironbark%20flatbow/20170126_145131_zpsk9zynoer.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/dg2clarke/media/archery/20170126%20ironbark%20flatbow/20170126_145131_zpsk9zynoer.jpg.html)
Ironbark is most usually a rich, dark brown to red. This pale timber still passes muster though.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m98/dg2clarke/archery/20170126%20ironbark%20flatbow/20170126_134515_zpsgvapjrnz.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/dg2clarke/media/archery/20170126%20ironbark%20flatbow/20170126_134515_zpsgvapjrnz.jpg.html)
Cheers,
Dave
-
I really like the overlays! That's a fine weapon.
-
Cool. Wish I could make bows that fast, that's awesome
Is it a pyramid bow?
3 laminations?
-
Thanks Make-N-Break, I'm glad you like it.
Loon, it's just two 'lams': the stave of Ironbark and the backing of bamboo. It's not quite a pyramid. It tapers in width and thickness. It looks ot have circular tiller because the tips are still a little stiff.
How many bows have you made? You get faster with practice.
-
The tiller looks great. I like the overlays. Great job on that bow.
-
I like the way the design keeps most all the wood in the bow working.
btw, the link is broken
-
Link should be fixed now.
-
nice bend, Looks great to me
Hans
-
Very nice looking bow
-
Looks great! Nice bend.
-
That's a fine looking bow, well done Mate
-
Pretty darn good.I like it.Used to make these years ago.I always called them a kit bow.Hitting my draw weight and length right off of the form or with very little wood removal.Takes practice.
-
Great looking tiller.
-
Gah! hurry up and take that off the tiller stick, it's just sitting there at full draw forever! ;D Nice looking bow, I like the overlays and the tiller looks spot on. Nice to see a bow from something different.
-
Beauty
-
Perfect tiller, for a crossbow. ;)
-
Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it.
Funny you mention seeing bows made from something different. At least 50% of my bows are made of Ironbark. I've not yet made a bow of Elm, Hickory, Osage, Black Locust, Ash or the like.
-
It must be nice for the guys in the classes you teach, to be able to jump right into the finer aspects of tillering, without the "by
guess and by God" part of stave reduction commonly used to bring a bow to an acceptable floor tiller.
Do you have some basic rules of thumb or maths to use for figuring tapers, that lets your students get in the ballpark?
A bendy handle with a touch of fades and 2" reflex, is not the easiest design to start with. IMHO.
-
I do have some maths and figures for determining the thicknesses. Quite a bit. Not as much as say Alan Case or Woodbear, but more than the average bowyer.
The students on the course mostly make straight up flat-bellied longbows. Theirs are not reflexed either - they lay their bows up straight. Only the really high draw weight bows tend to ever have a waisted grip (and even then not all the time). So for a first project the bows are not overly difficult.
The templates sure do save a lot of time. The students go straight from bandsaw to long string, then within about 90 minutes they have a decent brace height. We start on a Friday evening, and by mid Sunday arvo they're shooting their new weapons. It's pretty cool to see.