I'm going to pretty much give up on trying to find a juniper limb or trunk that I can lay a straight bow out on that is free of knots. I've got two limbs with some reflex that are not huge, but are plenty big enough, but both have knots where the back needs to be. Doing an advanced search on here for "Juniper," there are quite a few threads that pop up, but I am particularly interested in a build along from many moons ago by Keenan. Unfortunately, that post (as well as others) no longer has pics to go along with the build along.
1. Is there any way that I can access those threads as they were originally posted?
2. Can I lay a juniper bow out by snaking around (fairly significantly) a knot and bringing the limb layout back to center.
I saw where Keenan said that its best to not violate the back growth ring. It makes sense that an unviolated back would be stronger, even with a great sinew job, than would a back with growth rings violated and the same great sinew job. I also know that Keenan recommends a 1/3 sapwood to 2/3 heartwood ratio with sapwood being the back of the bow. I've never tried to work Juniper, so...
3. Any pointers/tips on chasing a juniper sapwood growth ring?
4. Would I work around knots on the back just as I do with osage?
5. Is the process I described above worth the effort/hassle? By that, I mean...Is a decrowned juniper limb that is backed with sinew plenty sound that chasing a ring and sinewing is simply unnecessary work?
If I choose to try to chase a sapwood ring and produce a bow with an unviolated back that would receive three layers of sinew, that bow would have a decent amount of back crown, as I am wanting to make these from a couple of limbs. So...
6. Would the principle of making a hollow limb design work well with Juniper? It seems like it would be a great choice to go hollow-limb, as it would distribute the working tension forces evenly across the width of the entire back of the bow. Am I understanding hollow-limb dynamics correctly here? Since Juniper is so strong in compression, it seems like hollow limb would be a good choice, but since I know little about juniper bows, I just want to know if there is a reason this would be a bad idea?
7. Am I understanding "trapping the back" correctly? Since Juniper is stronger in compression than tension, "trapping" to improve its durability and function would mean making the back width greater than the belly width to "weaken" the belly relative to the back or "strengthen" the back relative to the belly so that the greater compression strength of the belly would not overpower the tension strength of the back...correct? or am I completely off target? If I am thinking straight on this, I can envision a naturally crowned back that transitions fairly sharply into the belly...almost, if not straight in (horizontal to the back if it were flat and not crowned) for maybe 1/4" toward the center of the belly before hitting/tansitioning into the hollow-limb portion that would parallel/follow the crown of the back. (Sorry, this is very difficult to try to explain without illustrations)
Does this sound like a good design, or am envisioning making a bow that will result in great bodily harm?
Thanks for any imput and advice.
