Help appreciated with 1st BBI; please

[Red Dwarf]

I am trying my hand at a BBI longbow/flatbow. Specs. are 63 1/2" NTN, 1 3/16" at fades straight taper to 1/2" nocks. I am trying for 48# @ 28".
What do you think?
To me the bottom limb (on the left) looks stiff out of the dip area with a weak spot around mid limb.


I haven't pulled it past the 31# @ 15" from a 3" brace ht. yet.

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[Jesse]

What is the shape unbraced?   Looking at the last pic it looks good nothing major. A little scrapin in the fades and outer limbs. Should be a great bow

[mullet]

 I have to agree with Jesse. Keep doing what you are doing. But now go slow, it's "crunch" time.

[Red Dwarf]

Great question Jesse, sorry for not including the info on the 1st post!
It has 1" of Perry reflex when unbraced for awhile, 1/2" reflex straight after being drawn to 15"

Am I safe to pull further?

Red Dwarf

[Auggie]

Yep,agree with jesse,but gotta ask,are all the red patches covering up all the arrow holes?!

[Red Dwarf]

Auggie lol

The top patches are darts, the bracket for the board is on my tiller backboard but yes, I have to admit that some of the bottom ones have cost me an arrow or two, but a few are from pucks shot by my son that missed the net!
That is what a basement is for isn't it?

Should I also increase the brace height at this point?

RD

[Jesse]

I think your safe to increase the brace. If the same spots still need work then get them smoothed out and pull a little past the last spot you were at a bunch of times to see if it worked. I hear to not pull past your intended draw weight but I try to be extra safe and only pull the draw weight at full draw. Kinda sneak up on it as they say.

[Rich Saffold]

Bow looks real good, and advice here is great. This is where I make sure the tool marks are sanded out since its just removing very fine belly wood shaving curls from now on.


Rich

[Red Dwarf]

Thanks guys for the help so far. I tend to get a little nervous at this point as a few have gone bang at this stage in the past!

I have never worked with bamboo before; how do I prepare the back surface for finishing, and should I do that work as part of the tillering process?

Red Dwarf

[sailordad]

scrape off the waxy rine on the back of the boo,just dont go too deep youll dig into the power fibers.
under the waxy rine you will see a nice,almost butter like,yelow color of the boo.
stain doesnt work real well,but leather dye works dang good,just make sure its the dye thats alcohol based and not water based.
i have never used the boo as part of tillering,you are only taking off the rine of the boo and not actuall boo material so the affect on tilering is null.

good luck,like others have said looking good just go slow when ya think your going slow enough with it,slow it down some more. ipe can come in all of a sudden
on ya,if you aint going slow enough you will come in light,i know of what i speak took me three times to figure that one out.

ipe bows are awesomely fast shooting bows,light weight and just look cool as all get too.


                                                                                      tim

[Jesse]

what is the surface like now? rind still on? Some leave it like that but its hard to stain. I scrape the rind off and sand it really smooth like glass rounding the edges a bit. Careful not to go to deep.just remove the rind and thats it. its a bit of work around the nodes but get it ood so you dont lift a splinter later.I dont think you need to worry to much about it exploding on you if you glued it up well you will have a hard time breaking it without trying. If I recall Robustus on this site just leaves the rind on and he makes a killer bow.

[Jesse]

Sailor Dad beat me to it.  What he said

[Red Dwarf]

Well, I did some more scraping and I thought things were looking good so I raised brace ht to 4 1/4" and slowly increased the drawlength, exercising about a dozen times at each inch increase in draw length until I reached my intended weight of 48#.
When I unbraced the bow I was disappointed to see that it has started to take set ot mid limb on each limb. Midlimb to midlimb shows about 1/4" of reflex and midlimb to tip shows about 1/4" deflex.
What did I do wrong and how should I proceed?
Here are pics at 4 1/4" brace and pulling 48# @ 23"

Red Dwarf

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[dragonman]

Hi, Ive worked with bamboo for a few years and for what it's worth I don't generally remove the rind(dont know if you've done it yet). My reasoning is that we all take a lot of trouble to waterfproof and protect the backs of our bows, so why remove natures perfect protection? The only downside is (as already mentioned) it is difficult (but not impossible )to stain.Bamboo looks better with the rind off but lasts longer with it on.
As for your bow it doesnt look to me like you've done anything wrong , it's nearly unavoidable that boo backed bows will take some set, as long as it is not too much. looks like your doing ok, to me , go really , really slow from now on. Good luck.

didn't catch what the wood was???

[Red Dwarf]

Dragonman

It is bamboo backed Ipe with the handle area built up with a piece of Elm I had laying around.
I like your reasoning on the rind being a natural sealer, somthing to ponder on.


RD