Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Muskyman on June 17, 2023, 09:41:31 pm
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I’ve been working on a takedown bow and after chasing my ring and putting the sleeves on I started thinking about the style of bow and I’ve never really made anything but a flat bow. So I figured flat bow is what I’d make. Looking at my billet on the back side it’s only about 1 and 1/4 inches wide.
Is that wide enough for a flat bow? Should I rethink what kind of bow I make? Already made some mistakes in my haste to get a bow made and don’t want to compound them. The back marked in red is 1n1/4 wide
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Another picture
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One more
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Looks like fun mike. It looks to me that the red marks are on the belly side for width. If I’m correct you could still be a smidge wider if you want still on the back yet. That said you could still make a great bow at 1.25”. What sort of draw length and weight you hoping for? It looks like you got plenty to work with for hunting weight bow as far I can see. Just make it a slightly thicker narrower style bow limb and taper out to the tips for weight reduction and will be plenty heft for hunting. With it that narrow I’d start with thickness of around .600”-.700” then reduce thickness out to mid limb and hold around .500” or so. Depending on your length of limbs this will vary but if wanting a 50lbs draw hunting bow or close to it it’s would be a good start. You would scrape from there. At a length of 66-68” long bow this should give you plenty of draw weight. Just rough numbers here but don’t be too concerned with its narrow limbs as a deal breaker. Keep us posted.
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Yes it’s the belly of it Dave. And it 1.5 inches on the back. I miss spoke. Not sure what kind of weight I’m looking for. It the small sleeve from 3 rivers. Not sure how I’m going to address the handle. It’s small in my hand. My hand aren’t huge but pretty good size and I like a bigger handle then what I’ll end up with if I just put a leather wrap or possibly beaver tail on it. Not sure about the length of the bow yet. If I recall correctly one limb is 32 and one 34 measuring to the sleeve and it’s 4 inches. So 70 inches total tip to tip if I don’t cut the longer limb down to 32. I just got started so I’m still able to do about anything I need to.
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Did some more work on the bow today. Got it shaped and down to about 5/8 thickness in the limbs
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Looking good so far.
How does the floor tiller look? If good, at 5/8" thick it might be time for temporary nocks and long string to see how it bends.
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The handle is pretty easy to get sorted. I’ve done cork to build up a bit the wrap with leather which works. If you want to use epoxy fg wrap on outer sleeve then shape and contour to your liking then a leather wrap to cover would look real nice too. Looks good your in good shape for dimensions I think.
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Not bending yet Pat. If any just slightly.
Not sure what fg wrap is Dave but I’ll google it.
I post more as I get further along.
Googled it, fiberglass
Thanks Mike
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Not bending yet Pat. If any just slightly.
Not sure what fg wrap is Dave but I’ll google it.
I post more as I get further along.
Googled it, fiberglass
Thanks Mike
Ya should have clarified. Fibreglass for fg. I was saying you could rough up your outer sleeve and tape off rest of upper and lower fade of bow limbs and build up your grip area a bit and then shape and contour with a file or task the way you want before leather wrapping
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I’m assuming this is a ring violation. I’ve been trying to figure flickr out to post better pictures but no luck so far.
If it is a violation what can I do. Rawhide? Or get another billet and see if I can remove the sleeve?
Kinda bummed about it.
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Hard to tell from the pic but if it is a violation you should probably go down to that ring for the back. If your limbs are still 5/8" you should have enough thickness to complete your bow as planned. You can stop the ring removal at the take down sleeve so the sleeve still fits. That area is stiff anyway so it shouldn't be a problem.
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Rings are pretty thick Pat. I might try taking it down to the next ring but I might try and heat the sleeve and see if I can get it off.
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Those rings are fat. Its probably only a luna ring, so you haven't violated a full growth ring. Luna rings can be confusing sometimes. They appear as rings within an actual growth ring. I would leave it alone, and continue as normal.
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You should be able to look at the edge to see if you are actually through a different ring, hard to tell from the picture. :-\
Pappy
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Pappy and Hamish, both thoughts that have went through my head. I’ve even started chasing a ring on another billet. I’m going to try and highlight the side and see if I can tell if I went through the growth ring. If it looks okay I’ll continue with the build like Hamish said. The rings are pretty thick and I just can’t believe I went through it but, I’m prone to doing that kind of stuff.
Seems like every bow I start I end up messing it up somehow. I’m getting better and I do have a few I’m shooting. Either way I’ll keep plugging along.
Thanks Mike
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With rings as thick as you have, then if you went through a whole growth ring, there would be a noticeable deep furrough creating a lowspot.
It doesn't look like that so I bet you are fine.
Very easy to cut through moon rings on thick ringed osage, especially if you've mainly worked only thinner ringed stuff. Done it plenty of times myself. You need to take a different mental approach, and consciously remember how thick it is, and when you see some chalky stuff, that its time to stop working that spot, rather than plow right through. Easier said than done, sometimes.
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It's not as though you have an abrupt perpendicular violation, even if you have worked into the thickness of the ring. I'd just continue as it is. If it breaks during the making or after, you have only lost time by trying--your other option was to start over anyway.
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I figured out the color change. It was simply that I hadn’t taken enough wood off to get to the ring I was chasing. Cleaned the sides up and highlighted it and saw it right away. Thanks for heads up Pappy.
Then I did something really stupid. Was thinning down the last 8-10 inches after I marked it with a compass and started filing away with my Shinto file and then it hit me I’m filing the back of my bow. Luckily I don’t think I made it through the ring. Like I said earlier, I’m always doing something to jack my bow up but this is about as dumb as a guy can get. Anyway I decided to go on with it. I have it on a long string and bending now. Put it away for today and will see if I can finish destroying it tomorrow.
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Bend looking good so far mike.
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Looks good so far, don’t be to hard on yourself, we all make mistakes, I was once cuttings in nocks and realized I was cutting them backwards, and that’s just 1 I have many more stories like that 😉. Pappy
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I’ve already did that to Pappy. I’ll probably invent a new way to do something stupid yet with this bow. I just haven’t thought of it yet. I have been thinking about doing a recurve with this bow. Hopefully I’ll bend it the right direction (lol)
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Muskey, you are making me smile, Lol. I've never unintentionally worked the back of a bow(plenty of time left though). Unless you overworked one small spot, you're still probably fine. There still should be a bow in that stave.
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I can laugh about it now Hamish. Wasn’t doing much laughing when I saw what I was doing 🤬
I’m going to finish making this bow and if it flies into a bunch of pieces I’ll cut the sleeve off and make another piece for the limb that breaks.
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I’ve decided to change my username. I’m thinking maybe the mad destroyer, or maybe the bow barbarian. Something more fitting to my bow making skills.
Yes I pretty much did my bow in today. Trying to bend a recurve into it and it splintered on me. Went in pretty deep. I was using oil and in my mind not heating it to fast. Got about half way through the bend and saw it had splintered so I quit right there.
I think next time I’ll use the method that Waylon used in his how to video, boiling water.
Started a new limb for the one that went south on me. I might just forget the recurve and maybe do a little reflex on it. I’ve had pretty good luck with that. Going to keep trying, I’m prone to being mule headed so we’ll see who wins in the end..
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That sucks mike. Forge ahead and use the mule headed mindset to keep going with it. for recurves I too like Weylin’s method. Also keep your growth rings on the belly to one ring also for the bend. This will help with preventing lifting of splinters. Flipped tips and milder recurves on Osage work pretty good with dry heat if you keep one solid ring on belly side as well and keep the thickness of the tip around 1/2”-5/8” depending on draw weight wanting. Unless going for more extreme recurves this method should work good for most bends. Ive also used little oil during heat and bend on a form. I have no doubt you’ll sort it out.
Dave
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Exactly what it did Dave. Split right where two different rings were.. thanks for the heads up
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I might not be completely out of the game on this bow. Went out to the shed to work on my replacement limb and started looking at the one that splintered on me and filed out the splintered part and it’s still pretty thick.. so I figured what the heck. Got out the reflex form and clamped it down, put some oil on the limbs and heated it. Didn’t heat a lot but I think enough to introduce some reflex. Going to let it sit overnight and see how it turns out. Worried a little about the area of the limb that already had a little recurve in it because it’s been heated twice now. Figured nothing to lose.
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Atta boy mike. Way to keep at it. Keep us posted on it.
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Thinned the limbs down to the thickness of where my limb split. And the reflex seems to be about 2-2 1/2 inches. Still have about 3/8ths thickness in the limbs.. put the long string back on in and it was 35 plus pounds at 15 inches so I should be good to go. Probably start tillering in the next day or two.
Still got a ways to go but, it might survive me yet.
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Nice mike it looks like you may be in good shape then.
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Did some more work on the bow today got it to first brace and then tillered down to 25 inches
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At 19 inches
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Finally tillered to 25
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Nice save, glad to see it all came together for ya. :)
Pappy
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Thanks Pappy. I’ll finish tillering to 30 inches, my draw length. Probably will just finish with sand paper. It’s 36 lbs at 25 inches so I’m guessing 40-45 lbs.
a question I have is can I put tip overlays on it still? I can’t see anything wrong with doing it now. I haven’t shaped the nocks yet, still just kinda squared off on the tips.
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Probably more like low 50’s, I helped with 3 this week end and all picked up between 2 1/2 to 4 lbs per inch. Pappy
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Thanks Pappy. I’ll finish tillering to 30 inches, my draw length. Probably will just finish with sand paper. It’s 36 lbs at 25 inches so I’m guessing 40-45 lbs.
a question I have is can I put tip overlays on it still? I can’t see anything wrong with doing it now. I haven’t shaped the nocks yet, still just kinda squared off on the tips.
Looks good mike. Well done and good save. Keep us posted.
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Ditto, superdave. Good result Musky.
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Finished my Osage takedown bow today. Finally put a handle on it with a little dressing up. I actually thought it wasn’t to bad for my first attempt. Elk hide handle with a few beads and a hair pipe to hold the turkey feathers.
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Another picture
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Lastly
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And of course Pappy was right about the draw weight. Ended up about 54-55 lbs at 30 inches
Seems to shoot hard and fast. Probably my best bow yet.
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Looks sharp mike. Well done.
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Congrats. Looks good all around. Its one thing to get um shooting. But I always find it rewarding to actually get the finishing toutches completed even if it takes too long. Nice handle work on that one.
Mike
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What happened to those recurved tips you spoke of earlier?
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Fair question Jim, probably fear and common sense. I’ll try the recurve on another stave one day. I’ve got some other bows I’ve made and I’m planning on practicing bending them into recurves. Last time I tried it didn’t go well and I figured I’d let this bow be. I’ll make one eventually.
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Nice looking bow. Glad you got to the end and are happy. Recurves are over rated and that's coming form a fella that has bent plenty. They do look great!