Fiberglass rolls

[Justynwithay]

Hello all, I have made a handful of board bows and a couple self bows but now I want to indulge in hybrid bows but I am having trouble finding fiberglass rolls. All I can seem to find on google is bearpaw fiberglass which I see is quite expensive. Are there any other suppliers out there that make such a product. I am in Ontario Canada.

[Hamish]

Fiberglass for bow making is pretty expensive stuff. From what I know it's pretty much Bearpaw rolls, and Gordon's Bo-tuff strips. A friend of mine uses Bearpaw rolls. I haven't done the maths but I imagine its cheaper to buy a roll if you are going to make a lot of bows. If you just want to experiment, then buying cut strips is probably a better option, and you can also buy strips of different thickness.

There might be a cheaper Asian product, that Chinese, and Korean manufacturers use, though I am not aware of a brand.

[Justynwithay]

Thank's Hamish!

[Pat B]

I moved this because of the talk of fiberglass.
 Adding fiberglass to a board bow can overpower the bow causing problems. There are plenty of natural backings to use on wood bows.

[bassman211]

I have built board bows early on with 2 inch wide fiberglass cloth rolls that I bought on Ebay.  Used with tb3  I had failures on bow backs.  Mostly bad tillering on my part I would suspect, but with smooth on for glue up I think it added strength to the bow's back. Fiberglass cloth with tb3 only prevents the bow's back from lifting a splinter. It adds no real strength the bow's back. It still needs to be tillered properly. JME

[mmattockx]

Hello all, I have made a handful of board bows and a couple self bows but now I want to indulge in hybrid bows but I am having trouble finding fiberglass rolls. All I can seem to find on google is bearpaw fiberglass which I see is quite expensive. Are there any other suppliers out there that make such a product. I am in Ontario Canada.

Bearpaw is a unidirectional lamination, it is not just standard weave FG. It is used when making a bow with FG lams on both back and belly, not as a backing. FG cloth makes a poor backing material overall. It is heavy and much stiffer than the wood, which tends to affect the tiller and overpower the belly wood. Can you explain what you mean with a 'hybrid' bow?

Adding fiberglass to a board bow can overpower the bow causing problems. There are plenty of natural backings to use on wood bows.

+1. If backing only to stop splinters lifting or other tension failures then there are much better choices than FG cloth.


Mark