Starting a new ALB

[Pat B]

A few years back a friend gave me a 72"x2" locust board and hickory backing. It been sitting in the utility room until today. I decided to build an American Longbow. I cut the locust and backing strip to 68" long. The locust is 11/16" thick, the hickory backing strip is just over 1/8" thick. I cut both to 1 9/16" wide and the bow limbs will have a straight tapered width to the tips. The handle riser is Eastern red cedar with a 4" handle and 4" fades.
I will have to get some glue for this glue-up. I do have Urac but as you can guess it is out of date by now and even though it's been in the refrigerator I dare not use it.
Here are a few pics of the beginning...

[Will B]

Looking forward to following this build.

[Pat B]

 I found a little lateral warp in the stave so I thought I'd try to straighten it with heat. I clamped it to a old, real, pine 2x4 with a thin spacer at the center line holding it to the form and clamped the end to the 2x4 then heated both sides along the limb. I'll give it a few hours at least and see if it straightened. Any slight lateral bend that may remain I'll deal with once I get the back profile cut out and pre-tillered to an even bending state. At that point there will be less wood to move for the correction.
 a few more pics...

[Pat B]

After the last session I didn't get any movement to straighten the lateral bend so I added a thicker spacer and tried again. This time it got her in pretty good alignment. Then it was time to glue the handle riser to the belly. I used TBIII for this...


...then started the tillering of the belly to get a good, even bend before glue up. At floor tiller it looked like she was bending pretty good so I placed her of the form to see just how good. The blocks on the form are 3 1/4" high where the tips rest. Then I draw the handle area down to see how the side view looks in reflex. I still need a little evening up on each limb...

[George Tsoukalas]

Pat, I am looking forward to this build along. Jawge

[Pat B]

 Thanks George. It's been fun getting back into it. 

[George Tsoukalas]

Pat, I need to get something going too but... Jawge

[superdav95]

Thanks for posting this build pat.  It looks like cool build.  I’ll be watching too

[Pat B]

I know what you mean, Jawge.
Thanks, Dave. So far it going good. 

[Pat B]

Did a little more this morning. Started reducing the limbs more concentrating on the flat areas. Then I put her on the form, bending towards the belly and used Eric Krewson's Gizmo to mark the flat spots so I know where to remove wood. At this point I'm only using a scraper so it goes a lot slower but makes it less likely I screw up. Doing just a little each day also helps to keep me from screwing up.
 You can barely see the pencil marks in these pics. Too much glare to see it on here well.

[Pappy]

Looking good Pat.
 Pappy

[Pat B]

Thanks, Pappy.   Have you recuperated yet from your trip to Colorado? 

[Pappy]

Pretty much, now playing catch up around home and farm. 😉 Pappy

[bradsmith2010]

looks great,, the fastest way to get there is slowly,,

[Pat B]

Brad, I'm becoming a student of that theory.