Pyramid Bow Questions

[mmattockx]

This is  why I say that  once you make a pyramid bow, you may see little reason to ever make  anything else. I  have seldom made another style in at least 20 years.

I can understand that, the simplicity and ease of tillering are appealing. I like recurves, too, though. Ever made a recurve pyramid bow? High-Desert posted one last March with flipped tips that piqued my interest on that idea.

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,65382


Mark

[mmattockx]

This is  why I say that  once you make a pyramid bow, you may see little reason to ever make  anything else. I  have seldom made another style in at least 20 years.

One more question comes to mind - how do you get down to an even thickness for the full limb length on a pyramid bow? I am stuck with board bows for the foreseeable future and getting from 3/4" thick down to 1/2" or 7/16" is a lot of wood removal.


Mark

[willie]

 Hi Mark, To my mind, Pyramids seem well suited to board bows, as a good table saw gets you almost there.  However steaming recurves into boards will be a bit more problematic than steaming staves, but Marc has a technique I like.

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php?topic=62668.15

The crown on staves makes getting a pyramid profile hard to rough out, but on the other hand I have seen tips "recurved" by both gluing on an exaggerated tip overlays, and by v splicing

Have you seen? http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,35312.0.html

[scp]

One more question comes to mind - how do you get down to an even thickness for the full limb length on a pyramid bow? I am stuck with board bows for the foreseeable future and getting from 3/4" thick down to 1/2" or 7/16" is a lot of wood removal.
Mark

It takes minutes with a band saw or a planer. I often use a block plane, but finish with a good goose-neck scraper. Long even strokes. Nice exercise with the last. Do try to wear a mask, please.

[mmattockx]

Hi Mark, To my mind, Pyramids seem well suited to board bows, as a good table saw gets you almost there. 

Yeah, I'm not complaining about the boards as the price isn't bad and I have access to maple, red oak and hickory locally. They do fit into the pyramid bow design very well and I do have a table saw.

Have you seen? http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,35312.0.html

I hadn't read that before. Hadn't thought about using the table saw to remove thickness like that but it would work better for that than my bandsaw, which doesn't like to cut really straight lines in thicker material. That may be the winner for the next bow.


Mark

[scp]

I hadn't read that before. Hadn't thought about using the table saw to remove thickness like that but it would work better for that than my bandsaw, which doesn't like to cut really straight lines in thicker material. That may be the winner for the next bow.
Mark

When I use a bandsaw to reduce the thickness of the bow from the belly, I first cut out the wood at a 45 degree angle from the side, from both side of the belly. Then I cut the belly almost, but not quite, to the intended thickness. After that I use a block plane, Farrier's rasp, or scraper. Good luck.

[willie]

I have had good luck cutting square sections off the edge of boards and flipping them 90 and regluing. I made some stock for backings this way that became  "quartersawn" out of of a flatsawn board. Do you have hard maple available? in the US, maple species are graded hard and soft. Of course the hard is more difficult to find, but is commonly the desirable sugar maple often found in Canada. I suspect that it might get mixed up some, and a dense maple board is likely to produce a good performer even if it came from the soft pile.

Hadn't thought about using the table saw to remove thickness like that

I suppose if one derived a thickness that was reasonable, one could always tiller for weight by removing wood from the sides if the bow was too heavy or shortening (piking) the limbs to raise weight if the bow was coming in light.

[mmattockx]

Do you have hard maple available? in the US, maple species are graded hard and soft. Of course the hard is more difficult to find, but is commonly the desirable sugar maple often found in Canada.

The mollegabet bow I am finishing up is from a maple board I got at the semi-local Home Despot. The big box stores aren't so sophisticated as to know what species of maple it is, but I will say this stuff is stupid hard to work. If it is the soft maple I don't ever want to try using the hard maple.

I suppose if one derived a thickness that was reasonable, one could always tiller for weight by removing wood from the sides if the bow was too heavy or shortening (piking) the limbs to raise weight if the bow was coming in light.

I don't ever expect to get so lucky as to hit the thickness that close on the first try, but I want to get reasonably close (on the thick side) with power tools and then just work it from there with hand tools.


Mark