2020 Bow Trade - Sign up closed

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I had a couple black locust bows show me the issue with the string not being n lines up through the handle. As you draw the angle becomes less severe and you end up drawing essentially straight from the back of the bow. But at the initial stage of the draw you are essentially making the limbs start bending at an angle that’s not square with the back. This puts extra stress on the corner of the belly that the string is of towards. The black locust shows the uneven stress by fretting up one side of the belly. They shot fine but 1/4 of the limb was fretted along the side. I had a couple do this and decided to make the string line up through the handle. If I can’t get the tips to line up by carving I will pull in the limbs as much as possible while heat treating, heat bend the handle to get it closer, and fine tune when I narrow the tips. Though on more elastic woods you probably won’t even notice this em even limb stress.

Kyle

[hoosierf]

String alignment is over rated. I have made them where the string was completely to the side of the handle. Works fine.

I agree.

DH put the center of the bow between two same size blocks of wood about 3 inches past each fade.  Put the high side up and the belly facing you. Heat that section on the belly only and use a clamp to bend it a little further than straight. Let it sit like that for atleast a day...longer is better. When it’s pulled from the form it’s guaranteed to be much closer.

[Deerhunter21]

ok, man i think this will actually work well. i feel its bending too much out of the fades but the straight edge says otherwise. ill still loosen up the outsides a little. ill work on the string alignment too. the limb is twisting too so i need to take some out of the strong side. i will defineitally need to pike (might be able to fix the string alignment here by carving more) it but if i can get this bow shooting there would be a lot less stress for me. oh and ill need to make a string for it.

[loefflerchuck]

I shoot off my hand. I wear a biking glove to protect it from the arrow wrap.

[sleek]

ok, man i think this will actually work well. i feel its bending too much out of the fades but the straight edge says otherwise. ill still loosen up the outsides a little. ill work on the string alignment too. the limb is twisting too so i need to take some out of the strong side. i will defineitally need to pike (might be able to fix the string alignment here by carving more) it but if i can get this bow shooting there would be a lot less stress for me. oh and ill need to make a string for it.

If you pike it, the inner limbs will bend more than they already do. By time you tiller it out to fix that, the bow will be even less in draw weight than it was before piking. Your best bet is to use heat to treat the inner area that bends too much and then make any tiller adjustments. That way you don't loose any draw weight.

[Mafort]

Well I have the sinew backed hackberry all treated and ready to go. I just gotta tiller it’s out to the draw weight and length. If that doesn’t work I’ve got a hickory backed Osage bow that I am also working on right now. I think I’ll put snake skins on the back of that. My gluing technique wasn’t the best and I’ve got glue all over the hickory backing.

[TimothyR]

Got a little work done on one of my trade plans.
It is red bud 64" T2T. 1 1/4" at the fades. Trying to get the floor tiller right. Its mostly sapwood from a sapling. I've had it for about 2 years. Nice character In it.  Hopefully it will make it. I've never used red bud before.

[bushboy]

My plan A...Osage recurve ..
.busted..the piece of Osage I bought was full of crack and fatal delamination of the growth rings.the back was perfect and broke with very little effort ...

[dylanholderman]

Timothy that will look great if it survives 

Bushboy that’s a shame, happens to the best of us.

I might be roughing out attempt no 3 this weekend, I thinned the tips on my second attempt to much and have a hinge started but I’m still pretty high in draw weight so I might be able to recover.

[bushboy]

Well,here's planB....elm molly style self bow...this piece of wood is very stiff and has alot of yellow,pink and green hues to the grain.

[M2A]

Well, where to start...I messed up that 58" locust bow I was shooting in. wasn't the wood or the tiller it was just 5 seconds of not thinking. As I had already been taking a closer look at my original Plan B(64" bl) I finished the tiller out and have been shooting it in over the last week.

The growth rings in this piece give the back of the bow some ridges and valleys and that's why I put it down before, it was not going to make what I had in mind well. But I started looking at it from a different perspective and thought I had a chance of  making something nice. Its 1 5/16 at the handle and 3/4" at the nocks.

here it was a few months ago
IMG_3553 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr

this is what I got now.. 

IMG_3618 (2) by Mike Allridge, on Flickr
IMG_3610 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr

I have a piece of osage that is ready to continue on and a bl handle bow that I'm still roughing out. But for the next few days I hope to be working on some of the finishing up of this one.

I have a plan for the most part. I do not want to limit myself but I have been enjoying the challenge of working with as many natural products as I can.  Below are some of the items I have to work with. 
IMG_3623 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr

[burchett.donald]

 Class A bend Mike...Nice unbraced profile shows you took great care...

[TimothyR]

Made some good progress today. got the red bud and black locust bending enough for the gizmo. And I have a bamboo purple heart with osage and maple riser with maple power lane cleaned up and ready for tiller.

[dylanholderman]

got some more work done tonight once the sun went down and it actually cooled of for a change 

its back to full brace and full draw just tweaking the tiller as i get it shot in.

it looks like i have a flat spot on the left limb while drawn and at brace but unstrung that spot looks almost like a small deflex  so we'll see what it does.

[Swampman]

Well, if any of you have looked at the calendar lately, the shipping deadline is exactly 3 months away.  Hopefully you are all well on your way on your bow projects and things are progressing nicely.

If you are struggling and feel you won't be able to complete a bow, please get in touch with me.  The sooner I would know this, the better.

Also, please remember to post your progress on here.

Thanks, Mike.