I'm new to the forum and have been trying to make my own bow for about a year now. Every one of them cracks eventually. So I tried something new. I searched the forum and didn't find anything mentioned, but I might have missed it.
I do other woodwork and one of the finishes I use is Famowood Glaze Coat. It's a two part epoxy finish, high gloss, that takes 24 hours to cure. And you are supposed to pour it onto your piece. And so naturally some overflows onto the news paper you spread beneath the project. I noticed that if it was a thin coat on the paper it was flexible, but I thick coat would break.
So I made a simple, straight forward longbow out of white oak and backed it with 2 strips of hickory, side by side (I didn't have one wide enough). I used the glaze coat to adhere the backing to the bow. After that set up, I brushed on a thin coat overall of the glaze coat.
So far it is doing fine. I left it strung, and after a couple of days one end of the backing came loose. I used regular epoxy to glue it back, but if it comes off again or on the other end, I'll remove the backing, sand it down and reglue it with TB3. But so far the glaze coat is acting like a coat of fiberglass.
The bow is 70" long and 45# at 28". Any comments or feedback welcome. I'll post some pics when I figure out how to do that.
