Starting Some Longbows

[tom sawyer]

Finally got the inspiration.  Pulled a few chased staves off the pile and sawed them up.  Spent an evening on each blank, rasping each belly down to more or less floor tiller and heat straightening.  They are all three looking pretty darned close at this point.  I need to make a new bow bench and then I'll get back to work.

http://s96.photobucket.com/user/62tomsawyer/library/Triplets?sort=6&page=1

Vitals:  67" tip/tip, 4" bulbous handle/2" fades, 1.5" to midlimb tapering to 0.5" tips, 3" of reflex.  I may flip the tips a little more, not for a static or working recurve just a little more of a recurve look.

[tom sawyer]

I would mention that I am making one bow for a charity auction, another for a friend and the third has no home yet.  Assuming all three make it that is.

[JW_Halverson]

Good plan always has a backup in the plan.

[riverrat]

going good so far. looking forward to seeing full draw pics. Tony p.s. on all 3, they will all make it .

[Pat B]

Glad to see you back at it Lennie.

[George Tsoukalas]

Staves look good, Lennie. Welcome back! Jawge

[Aaron H]

3 great starts

[gifford]

That's darn near 'mass production' lennie; nice going. The weather here has been so nice I can't bring myself to head to the shop and finish up a couple I'm working on.

[Pappy]

Sounds great, good to have you back at it Lennie. Missed ya around here. 
 Pappy

[Hrothgar]

Looking good....the statue isn't bad either

[tom sawyer]

Actually been working on these in the last few days.  Tillered one, got a little happy with the rasp and only ended up with 48lb@28".  This is for an auction so I think it'll be a good weight.  Last night I chased a ring on the second blank, the guy this is for asked me to flip the tips a little so I set up a little caul for this.  I stuck each tip in, put a clamp on the other end and it was fun to heat the tip and watch the bow bend down as it became limber.  Ended up with about a 30 degree angle on the last 2.5", not quite as round of a bend as I hoped but they match.  I'll try to tiller it this evening, I'm going to leave the tips static.

Feels good to make shavings again.  I have a nice setup in the garage now, with the new bow bench and a good bright light above.

[tom sawyer]

My "caul" was actually the inside piece of a ukulele caul that I made when the boy and I made a uke.  I did most of the wood work, he cut the frets, strung and tuned.  Not everybody has a uke with a hedge neck.

[lebhuntfish]

Looking good Lennie! Glad to see you back around!

Hey did that "George Washington" bow ever get to shooting? I was curious about that one.
Patrick

[Onebowonder]

<snip> I have a nice setup in the garage now, with the new bow bench and a good bright light above.

The importance of this "having a place" cannot be overstated.  I was blessed with some new (new-to-me anyway) tools this last year that have taken up the smallish bit of working space I used to have in the garage.    Probably time to throw away and re-arrange some stuff...

Really like your caul for bending tips on there Lenny.  I have a luthier friend that provided me a few much like it that were cut out from a guitar body template he built.  Waste Not / Want Not! 

OneBow

[tom sawyer]

No, that is still a blank.  I noticed the rawhide lifted in a couple spots, I need to inject some hide glue before I finish it.

I have dug out several blanks and have them in a "tiller pile" now that I'm in the mood to work again.