Glass both sides board bow ??

[bambam]

OK--this won't sound very primitive but I'm working up to it and have some nice serviceberry staves drying in the basement. First bow making try was a red oak board bow with rawhide backing that is a good shooter but came out at 37 lb. instead of 47 lb. because of rookie mistakes. Current project is a hard maple board bow in the H Hill style as I found a maple board with perfect grain. It is 70 in. ntn and floor tillered at about 60 lb. I am waiting on a shipment of .030 fiberglass for backing. The question is after it is final tillered with the glass backing at about 48 lb. how much will adding the .030 glass to the belly increase the draw??? Not too concerned about getting the belly flat enough as am good with hand tools.

[BOWMAN53]

your asking the wrong crowd lol

[PEARL DRUMS]

Rule #3

Topics and posts should be related to primitive archery in some way. If you want to discuss other topics in life there are plenty of other places on the internet you can go. This place is about primitive archery. Discussions on the use of post-industrial materials (yes that means FG) is discouraged here.

[DarkSoul]

By default, the folks here at Primitive (get it...? Primitive?) Archer will respond to you that you don't need glass. It you have a perfectly grained piece of maple, then why would you add glass to it?

If you insist on getting a proper answer, you should go to Trad Gang forums. Lots of glass guys there.

[PatM]

Glassing a bow is really not good practice for later making a selfbow.

[scp]

At most I would go for fiberglass cloth backing after heat treating the belly. If you are allowed to used modern glues, you should be allowed to use modern fabrics. But the fiberglass you are talking about belongs to the laminated bow.

[bambam]

Pearl Drums--Thanks for setting a rookie straight on what is OK here and what is not. The current project is going to be glass but as mentioned I am for certain going primitive when my staves dry.  Totally disagree with PatM. All bow making skills are transferable just like my wood carving skills transfer to bowmaking.

[PatM]

No, that's really not true. If it was all the laminated masters would be able to quickly take up selfbows as they wished.  Few actually do so.
 Nor do woodcarving skills necessarily translate to bowmaking.  If they did you certainly wouldn't be using a laminated bow as a stepping stone to bridge the gap between wood carving and a selfbow.

[Pat B]

Some glass bowyers, a few years ago, tried making wood bows with glass backs and some with back and belly. It didn't take them long to realize it wasn't gonna work so they dropped the idea.

[okie64]

If you insist on putting glass on a perfectly grained maple board then you will have to tiller it down below what you want your finished weight to be and then add glass on back and belly. If you try adding glass on the back only and then tillering the glass will crush the belly and create a lot of set. Most wood is already stronger in tension than compression so theres really no need to add a glass backing. Im no glass expert thats just been my little bit of experience with it.

[mikekeswick]

If you insist on putting glass on a perfectly grained maple board then you will have to tiller it down below what you want your finished weight to be and then add glass on back and belly. If you try adding glass on the back only and then tillering the glass will crush the belly and create a lot of set. Most wood is already stronger in tension than compression so theres really no need to add a glass backing. Im no glass expert thats just been my little bit of experience with it.

+1
If you are going to make a glass bow - make a glass bow from the start.

[Pappy]

Don't have a clue, but it don't need to be in the real bow section.
 Pappy

[autologus]

I think adding glass to perfectly grained Maple is a travesty.  Maple makes a fine self bow, bubby has a great build along and he uses a maple board in it.

Grady

[bambam]

The first bow had rawhide which worked just fine but looked messy so figured I'd try glass but will save that for another project. Linen sounds like it would look messy too. Off to a fabric store with wife in morning. Maybe I can find some heavy black silk.

[Crogacht]

Why not just leave it unbacked? Does it have some issue or are you trying to achieve something outside the limits of the wood etc? Just wondering why you're so set on backing it with something.