Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Chuck.e.b on October 10, 2019, 11:40:27 am
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Is there such a thing? About 72 in the span of 1.5” off the top of this juniper limb.
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That's perfect, more is better.
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That's a pretty piece of wood :) :)
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I would recommend backing it with something, otherwise looks purty!
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I recommend de-crowning more than chasing a ring. Another reason why these were often backed. Good looking stave, any twist? Good luck.
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Bamboo goes on that perfectly. Got any Boo?
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If your planned design shorter than 60" or so, sinew works well too! But if you want to use the full 72" or so (give or take), making a longbow backed with bamboo sounds great!
Also hickory and sugar/hard maple make good backings (though bamboo is probably one of the best)
De-crowning the back is a great idea too!
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I recommend de-crowning more than chasing a ring. Another reason why these were often backed. Good looking stave, any twist? Good luck.
What exactly is de-crowning?
Definitely backing. This stave is only about 55” long. I’m going to have to deal with just a tiny amount of twist and some curve. Might become my wife’s bow, lol, my first juniper so a going to walk away with some education at the very least.
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This is where 5 minutes with pen and paper would save a thousand words. But here goes. Decrowing is when you shave down the hump of the back of the bow to a flatish surface. In doing so you violate every ring you come across, but when done properly each ring forms a solid line the length of the back of the stave. If you keep those lines parallel and the same width the whole way you will have an unbroken, decrowned piece of wood that should be capable of withstanding stresses as well as a ring chased stave.
Read a good description of what to look for in a board being selected for a board bow and the same principles apply to decrowning. Ideally it would be a nice straightforward process you could do on a bandsaw, but it doesn't work that way. You may encounter hills and valleys, twisting, and sidways zigs and zags just as you would chasing a ring. Follow them, all the while aiming to keep the same line pattern all the way down the stave.
I'm sure others will give you better descriptions, but that's a start.
Ted
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Make the back look flat like a board. Make certain to follow all the bumps and dips.
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In my opinion, that is way to short to decrown or hard back(boo, hickory, etc). Sinew is really your only viable option for anything over about 22" of draw and that's with the handle working.
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Exactly Josh.
Sinew is the obvious choice on this one.
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How long is it?
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I agree with you guys on the sinew backing, but wouldn't you decrown it as well as you can first?
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I agree with you guys on the sinew backing, but wouldn't you decrown it as well as you can first?
No
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How long is it?
There’s probably 75” of a stave here. Anything above 55” if going to be somewhat snakey though.
I’m a 30” draw and want around 50#. So with backing thinking 60”, what y’all think?
2” limbs at least, short bow design with a handle. Oval or pyramid shape.
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A few pics from each end showing the length of the stave to see how snaky would be helpful. 60" is going to be to short for a 30" draw even with a backing and a working handle. There is an old saying that goes "it doesn't take much Osage to make a bow". The opposite is true for juniper and especially ERC. It takes a lot of ERC to make a bow. The snake is going to make hard backing difficult at best. If you're going to make it stiff handled I would use most of your available length. Sinew backed 30" working limbs plus the length of your handle and fades. Try to keep as much width as you can on the inner limbs either way. If you haven't made many bows, this is going to be a rather ambitious project. Don't get discouraged if it fails. ERC is fickle in the best of conditions and highly variable in it's properties from stave to stave. You never really know how good it is until you give a try.
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A few pics from each end showing the length of the stave to see how snaky would be helpful. 60" is going to be to short for a 30" draw even with a backing and a working handle. There is an old saying that goes "it doesn't take much Osage to make a bow". The opposite is true for juniper and especially ERC. It takes a lot of ERC to make a bow. The snake is going to make hard backing difficult at best. If you're going to make it stiff handled I would use most of your available length. Sinew backed 30" working limbs plus the length of your handle and fades. Try to keep as much width as you can on the inner limbs either way. If you haven't made many bows, this is going to be a rather ambitious project. Don't get discouraged if it fails. ERC is fickle in the best of conditions and highly variable in it's properties from stave to stave. You never really know how good it is until you give a try.
Thanks. This will be my second bow and I’m in for the challenge. So maybe shoot for 64”? I’ll post some pics here soon gotta get the rest of the bark off.
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No, much longer. With a 30" draw that would be too short for a stiff handled Osage bow. The basic guidance for top tier woods like Osage, hickory, yew and others is to make each limb the same length as your draw length at a minimum. With enough experience and bows behind you that can be cheated some, but the bows longevity and performance is the usual price for doing so. That's with your best woods. Junipers are not in that category. To get juniper to handle the same weight and length of draw requires a lot more length, width or preferably both. Even with the proper dimensions the tiller has to be very precise in comparison to the better woods. If you're going to make an unbacked, stiff handled juniper bow that is in the neighborhood of 50#@30" you need to make it longer. Especially since it appears to be that you are limited in width. If you figure 8" to 9" stiff section for handle and fades and about 33" per working limb to compensate for the narrow width, you are going to need every bit of your 75" stave. The juniper bow I just made is 2 3/4" wide at the fades, with 27" long working limbs for a 26" draw. It is right at the very minimum dimensions for what I'm asking of it. You're wanting 4" more draw with half the width I had to work with. You have to make up the difference in length
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After looking at the pic again, it appears you have more width than I first thought. So you could probably get away with 70-72" total length if you go 2 1/2" wide at the fades. That's for a selfbow. For sinew backed, go wider at the fades and you can shorten the limbs another couple inches each. Any shorter and you'll start having string angle issues.
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Thanks josh. I plan on backing it really well with elk backstrap sinew. I also plan on recurving limbs. There’s a bow from a while back on here that I’ve been basing my specs on. It was 54” at 27”. I’ve heard for every inch of draw add 2” to total length of bow. That’s where my 60” for 30” was estimated from.
Gotta check this thing out it’s sweeeeet.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,28081.0.html
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sinew and this ERC go together like peas and carrots... no need to decrown either.. I'd use hide glue as well ... gut
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30" draw if you have a handle you gonna need at least min 64"... IMO... thats is only if you sinew this one too...