Building another bow. What style?

[Woody roberts]

While my first 4 bows came out somewhat less than satisfactory I’m very pleased with my last 2. Anxious to get started on my next one. The piece of wood I have is 1/4” laminated bamboo glued to a 3/16 piece of Ash with a red oak belly. Can you tell I glued up my leftovers?
69” long by 1-3/8” wide. Too narrow for a pyramid at 50 lb so I’m thinking about a D bow in the English style. More or less no handle just a thicker spot in the center.

Thoughts, concerns, warnings, criticism, advise all welcomed.
Thanks, Woody

[Ryan Jacob]

Well, correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t 1/4 inch for a bamboo back kinda thick? Especially for red oak?

[Woody roberts]

I’m not a bowyer but I suspect it is. Thinking about sanding about half of it off. My neighbor has a planer.

How thick would be best?

[willie]

1/4” laminated bamboo

Is this a piece of laminated  bamboo (flooring?), or a piece of bamboo backing cut from a culm?  they might act differently.

[bownarra]

As I said before....poor choice of materials. Bow making is all about a solid foundation which you can build on. As soon as one thing is sub optimal you will struggle. Boo backed red oak is a very poor combo.
Best to learn the basics first. Buy the TRad Bowyers Bible vol1.

[Woody roberts]

Yes, the poor choice of materials was glued up before I knew they were a poor choice.
The boo is small strips glued together. Flooring perhaps. The grain runs edgewise.

While I’m waiting for my home cut staves to dry I need to practice my building skills. I’m recently retired so time spent on a less than optimal bow is not wasted. It’s part of the learning curve. The next time I make it over to Rosewood Products I’ll look for a boo / Ipe combo.

I live pretty close to Bois D arc Mo. Osage is rampant here. I just need to get some dried out. Next year maybe.

[Parnell]

Bring some of those Osage staves down to "floor tiller"...near bow dimensions and let them be for a couple months.  You can speed things up putting them in a hot car/hot box, etc.  You don't have to wait for whole staves to cure, especially starting out.  You are blessed to have all that Osage access...why not?

[sleek]

Screw it. Whats the worst that can happen, you learn not to do it again? Haha, build it and see what happens.

[Woody roberts]

With any school you go to your required to pay a tuition. The school of hard knocks is no different.
I have found that the more tuition you pay the more you learn.

I still need practice on my tillering. I’m not ready to build my dream bow yet. ( whatever that is )

[Hawkdancer]

Have fun, and here you can learn from the other folk's experience  sort of softens the hard knocks.  Breaking wood seems to be inherent to the activity of bow making!  There should be a lot of hickory in your area as well!  Good luck!
Hawkdancer

[Woody roberts]

Ok, I ran a table saw through my 3/16” Ash strip and bot my bamboo and my red oak back. I’ll pick up a piece of Ipe to put the boo on. Probably a Pyramid style.

2” at the fades. 69” long. Like to have 45 lbs plus. How thick should the boo be and how thick should the Ipe be?
Just a ball park guess will be fine.

Ive been wanting to heat treat something. I thing I’ll rough the red oak in and then heat treat. Just for giggles.

Rawhide backed?
Thanks guys, Woody

[bownarra]

Flooring boo is no good for backing bows.
Like I said you can avoid wasting a whole lot of time if you start off with materials that will work.
I've done my time in the 'school of hard knocks' too......but why not follow the basic 'rules' when starting out. I understand what you are saying BUT you ain't going to learn much if your materials don't act like a bow wood....you get me?!?
You don't show somebody how to build a stone wall with fence panels then expect the skills to be transferable when they do have some stone
You can dry a whole load of woods that you will have growing around you in a couple of weeks. Wood does NOT take years to dry if you do things correctly.
Maybe start a thread - 'keen to make a bow - how do I dry split staves quickly'.

[Hawkdancer]

Flooring boo is no good for backing bows.
Like I said you can avoid wasting a whole lot of time if you start off with materials that will work.
I've done my time in the 'school of hard knocks' too......but why not follow the basic 'rules' when starting out. I understand what you are saying BUT you ain't going to learn much if your materials don't act like a bow wood....you get me?!?
You don't show somebody how to build a stone wall with fence panels then expect the skills to be transferable when they do have some stone
You can dry a whole load of woods that you will have growing around you in a couple of weeks. Wood does NOT take years to dry if you do things correctly.
Maybe start a thread - 'keen to make a bow - how do I dry split staves quickly'.

Good idea on that new thread!  I'll read it for sure!  Always be ready to learn something new!  Btw, how do you excerpt a part of a reply for a quote?
Hawkdancer