Working with what's local

[htschek]

Hi All,
I am new here, been lurking for some time and now getting ready to build my first bow. I have some experience in archery as well as woodwork. My wood working includes some boat work, so forms/jigs/patterns and laminations are nothing new to me.

I want to use materials available to me locally and one thing that I can't get is much hickory. I have some on my land and will lay some away to dry when the snow goes, but for now I have access to oaks, maple galore, birch of a couple kinds, cherry, walnut and a number of exotics brought in to a couple of better lumber places here. The birch, cherry and walnut I will leave for risers and accents at this point. A couple of weeks ago I started just keeping my eye out in the Lowes and the lumber places for good-grained pieces. I also noticed that some here have backed bows with hard maple, which I like because I have access to it and have worked with it before.

So my collection right now includes some "bad" maple veneers from a local cabinet shop that I got for cheap because they had straight grain rather than lots of figure. I also have a very straight, dense red oak board that I stumbled into at Lowes. So I am thinking of doing a tri-lam, two of red oak and back it with maple. I plan to use a reflex/deflex design. I am about a 29-30" draw and would like to hit about 50# with this first bow.

How much reflex/deflex would you recommend? Also, what starting dimensions for the limbs? I am thinking of going about 1.25" wide with 1/8" thick maple, and a 5/16" thick and 3/16" thick pieces of red oak for the belly.

Any tips for working with maple backing?
Thanks,
Henry

[lostarrow]

Just a suggestion ,but starting off simple with a board bow or three with no backing will give you a better feel for what wood can and can't do. When a bow blows ,you will know why.You'll also be glad you didn't waste all of the extra time getting tricky on a piece of wood that really didn't want to be a bow anyway.When it blows or you come in way under your target weight,or develop a hinge,etc.etc. you just go and get another piece and start right away. No waiting on a stave to season and wondering if after all the time drying if it will even make a bow.Start long and wide and work your way down in length and width ,pushing the limits until you hit a wall of what a particular wood will not tolerate.Start simple and unadorned until you know you have a good durable shooter, then tart things up a bit. This is the right place to go with questions. Lots of experience on this site. Read through all the pages of posts ,pic out the ones that interrest you and start learning.Check out the buildalongs as well.We've been mislead into thinking that a bow has to be laminated to be good ,through commercial products, but you will find that you don't need to go to all that trouble to make a bow.
 
Best of luck, Dave.

[blackhawk]

Skip the reflex deflex for now....start with dead straight and learn how to tiller....id even honestly skip the glue up as well...keep it simple for the first few times until you understand the basic rules of tillering and can make a nice even bend hitting hitting your intended draw weight. Behind proper design is tillering and they go hand in hand and are the most important steps in bow building. You can be the best woodworker in the world,and those skills will aid you in rough shaping the wood,but it will not help you much in tillering....its a visual thing that needs to be developed with lots of practice, even if your someone who has a keen eye it still takes time and practice to develop it. Most anyone with even no skills can rough shape a piece of wood,but tillering it is a whole nother ball game. Do your research and homework on how to tiller a bow and focus the most on that. If your using boards then you better know also how to select proper grain...its all about grain grain grain selection.

[burn em up chuck]

           welcome, your on the right track. these guys will get you started right. step by step.

                                                                                      chuck

[htschek]

I guess I should have a little clearer that I am making a couple of practice pieces for tillering practice and to help me get comfortable with whatever tillering rig I build. These are essentially board bows that I am calling practice pieces because if I go off and make 4-5 bowes my wife might crack down. So I have mentally assigned the title of "first bow" to the one I am planning to be the first one I turn into something finished to a high standard. It might be a while before I get to that. Maybe I will get to shoot it in this summer, we will see.

I feel like I have a pretty good handle from other projects on the various procedures needed to make a bow, with the exception of tillering which will be new. Hence, the practice pieces.  So my questions are driven at least partially by looking ahead and also by the fact that I am an engineer and am  thinking about the ways different woods work together. I am the guy who will want to draw things in CAD and do FEA analysis on them to understand how where stresses and strains are the greatest and least and how different lams matter.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I would appreciate a point toward a classic r/d design so I can think about it while doing the practice pieces.
Henry