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Author Topic: Trade bow opinions wanted  (Read 2106 times)

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Offline jthompson1995

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  • Parkville, MD
Trade bow opinions wanted
« on: March 02, 2011, 10:00:27 am »
OK, so I found out who I'll be sending a bow to and want to get started but I had some questions.

Looking at what I have available, I was thinking of a tri-lam with hard maple back, bamboo flooring core and yew belly glued up with 2-2.5 inches of reflex, planning on 1 3/8" wide limbs. This would be my first tri-lam.

The maple backing strip has perfectly straight grain and the bamboo is the carbonized vertical strip type. The yew is low elevation, low density local yew that developed a few too many cracks in the sapwood but is big enough to saw some heartwood slats from. I was figuring to glue the backing and core together on a reflex form , then add a riser and overlay the yew slats up the riser fades.

Questions:

Does this sound like a good combination?
Should I glue them all in one step, instead of two?
How thick should the lams be when glued up? I was thinking 1/8" maple, 1/8" bamboo flooring, 1/2" yew.
Should I taper the bamboo flooring?
Should I fore-go the bamboo flooring altogether?
Would a bamboo backing be better?

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks in advance for any and all advice/opinions.
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Offline bubby

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Re: Trade bow opinions wanted
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2011, 04:32:08 pm »
I usually go a little thicker on my backing, just enough to sand it down and still get 1/8", dont know about the flooring as I've never used it, and ya can't go wrong with yew can ya, Bub
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Offline Elktracker

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  • Josh
Re: Trade bow opinions wanted
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2011, 06:09:24 pm »
John Strunk has some nice boo backed bamboo flooring bows I saw the other day at his shop, I want to try one :) Sorry cant help on the other questions.

Josh
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Offline jthompson1995

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  • Posts: 282
  • Parkville, MD
Re: Trade bow opinions wanted
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2011, 10:01:44 pm »
Thanks for the feedback.

I got the idea for this bow from some other bows I saw on this site and a couple other sites.

Gordon made a Bamboo backed, bamboo flooring core, yew belly tri-lam from a blank he made with John Strunk. I wondered if maple would be an acceptable alternative to the bamboo backing since I have maple but would need to acquire bamboo for backing. I also saw some maple backed yew two-lams that looked nice. I thought I might be able to boost the performance with the flooring core. I'm just concerned with the maple not being strong enough with the flooring core, hence the question about tapering the core.

The flooring I have is only 3/16" thick so I don't think it would be thick enough for the full belly. I can go a little thicker on the backing but I'm fortunate to have a thickness sander so I hardly need to touch the backing strip after gluing up the bow.

Quote from: bubby on March 02, 2011, 04:32:08 pm
. . . ya can't go wrong with yew can ya, Bub

I'm hoping so, this'll be my first yew. Good thing I've got a bunch, and it was free.
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A man who works with his hands is a laborer, a man who works with his hands and his mind is a craftsman, but a man who works with his hands, his mind and his heart is an artist. - Louis Nizer (1902-1994)
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