Benedikt's buildalong of a black locust bow with sapwood

[Benedikt]

So heres the translation of my buildalong

It is just like an English lessons+ for me, but much more fun
And i also hope that i finally can conducive something useful to this community 

First, choosing a nice stave from my supply:

Difficult.... 

After a while, a found a nice piece of wood:

Little bit sneaky and not complete dry yet.
The ringcount is acceptable:

First step: Removing the bark with the drawknife:

After that, removing the bast with a piece of horn:

Nice looking piece of wood


To be continued....

[JW_Halverson]

Never thought of scraping with horn.  Great way to get the cambium off without accidental cuts in the back of the growth ring you wish to save. 

[burn em up chuck]

  agreed very cool use of horn

                       chuck

[IdahoMatt]

Very cool idea to use the horn.

[soy]

Nice stash

[lebhuntfish]

Looking good so far! I would just hate to have that much wood laying around!

[Aaron H]

Great idea using the horn.  I'll put that one away in the 'ol memory bank

[Benedikt]

Yeah, the horn is very useful, I've got the idea from an other bowmaker. 

The next step: Sealing the back with wood glue, because the sapwood shrinks more than the heartwood, and without sealing, it would crack.

After the wood glue has dried, i reduce the stave to the final bowlenght(66")

Sealing the ends again:

Then drawing on the centerline:

The next step is cutting out a 2" wide Stave. That's too much for the Tips and the handle of course, but this way I'll have a bit scope if the stave distorts.(the folding rule is cm)


After this, cutting out everything with the drawknife:

To be continued...

[Benedikt]

At the next, reducing the thickness of the limbs to accelerate the drying process:

After this, it looked this way:

Afterwards, the stave dried round about a month.
a few splinters appeared while drying, but I just sealed them with wood glued too, so they can't enlarge.
To be continued...

[Benedikt]

After the drying process was finished, the work on this bo went on.
 
Firts of all, I've checked if the centerline is still straight:

It was
Then, drawing on the data like this like this:
Handle: 1 1/5" over the middle, 2 4/5" over the middle, and 1" wide
Fadeout: 1 3/5 " wide
middle of the limbs: 1 1/5" wide
tips: 3/10 " wide

It should looks like this

At knots and waves in the wood, alway follow the grain:

Then cutting everything out again. The rough with the drawknife, the subtleties with the spokeshave.
At big waves I take the rasp:

Then smoothing everything with the scraper:

Next step: carving out the handle:
First sawing in:

Then cutting away:

And then rasp down the leftover:






To be continued