Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: simk on January 03, 2023, 09:12:07 am

Title: simk's bows
Post by: simk on January 03, 2023, 09:12:07 am
Happy New Year everybody!

I have decided to make one topic where, from now on, I will put all my bows into.

Starting with two test bows. The test was the new wood. Got some Black Locust, European Hornbeam, Serviceberry as boards. My goal was to find local, easy available bowwood for laminated bows...apart from the boring yew of course  :)

Now started with two hornbeam bellied bows. One a d/r-angular bow made with serviceberry core and one simple longbow with maple core (powerlam from serviceberry). Both have ash backings. Glueup is done with white pva carpenters glue (D3).

Apart of minor flaws they came out pretty well and I think I'm happy with my new wood. The hornbeam does the job on the belly without complaining too much and not taking overly set. The serviceberry ist pretty as a grip and core and I can use it as a belly also, ....as long as drawweight is not too high (did this test last year already). Curious what the Black Locust will do in my laminated bows....I especially am curious if it would work as backing laminate....edge grained. I think it should be pretty good in tension?

Cheers 
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: simk on January 03, 2023, 09:13:08 am
a few
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: simk on January 03, 2023, 09:13:45 am
2more
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: Selfbowman on January 03, 2023, 11:08:49 am
Beautiful work out n the bows!
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: ssrhythm on January 03, 2023, 11:23:01 pm
Sick!..as the once young kids used to say
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: superdav95 on January 03, 2023, 11:55:04 pm
Love em.  Beautiful lines
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: bassman211 on January 04, 2023, 05:54:46 am
Flawless glue lines. E :BBxcellent work.
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: lonbow on January 04, 2023, 07:17:01 am
Those are very nice bows, simk! Beautiful shapes and flawless glue lines.

I'm also very interested in this topic, as I'm also planning to make laminated bows out of European bow woods in the future. I'm also happy to hear that European hornbeam does well as a belly wood, as I own a small forest with lots of European hornbeam in it :)

Even though I haven't built any laminated bows yet, I have some thoughts about black locust:

Bruno Ballweg, a well known bowyer from Germany makes laminated bows with black locust as a corewood.
After hearing about this, I tested and compared the properties of black locust and Osage: both woods were sold as foreshaft materials with a diameter of 11/32 ". I spine tested both kinds of woods. If I remember correct, Osage spined at about 35. Black locust spined significantly higher at about 50. Black locust might not be as good in compression as Osage, but it's much stiffer with the same dimensions. That might be an ideal candidate for a core.

I'm very interested in your findings!

cheers,
lonbow
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: mmattockx on January 04, 2023, 12:18:45 pm
Apart of minor flaws they came out pretty well

Man, your detail work and workmanship is just superlative and the tiller is always spot on.


Mark
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: simk on January 05, 2023, 02:21:44 am
thanks for nice words everybody  :)

lonbow: I know Brunos bow's - they are highlights of craftmanship. way to go....
about the midlam topic: imho its only function is to transfer the forces between back and belly. from that point of view I often wondered about bowyers using tough and heavy woods like cumaru, greenheart and even ipe as a midlam. I really dont think the additional stiffness of a certain midlam material will make any difference at the end of the day. from my point of view the type of midlam has little to no influenece to energy storage and therefore the wood only needs to be light and pretty. maybe I'm totally wrong.

cheers and good luck with your small forest  :) (and dont forget to post more of your bows)
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: bambule on January 05, 2023, 03:08:23 am
Very nice - as ever…
I know a guy who builds Trilam-Bamboobows  - Bamboo-Silk-Bamboo.
Silk as the midlayer online to avoid the torsion of the bamboo. And ist works…

Greetz
Cord
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: Pappy on January 05, 2023, 08:10:59 am
Beautiful work, love seeing your bows.  :)
 Pappy
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: M2A on January 05, 2023, 08:31:46 am
I like your idea of trying to source local wood. Make what you got work for you. You sure know how to tiller, those look great at FD.
Mike
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: mmattockx on January 05, 2023, 11:24:45 am
from my point of view the type of midlam has little to no influenece to energy storage and therefore the wood only needs to be light and pretty. maybe I'm totally wrong.

You're not wrong. The core is doing very little work aside from holding the back and belly together and in shape and just needs to be strong enough to carry those forces. Using a heavy wood for the core is just going to hurt performance with unnecessary limb weight.

I forgot to ask, how do you do the lam glue up on these bows? Do you glue in reflex of any sort? Got any pics of your form(s)?


Mark
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: Selfbowman on January 05, 2023, 04:23:23 pm
thanks for nice words everybody  :)

lonbow: I know Brunos bow's - they are highlights of craftmanship. way to go....
about the midlam topic: imho its only function is to transfer the forces between back and belly. from that point of view I often wondered about bowyers using tough and heavy woods like cumaru, greenheart and even ipe as a midlam. I really dont think the additional stiffness of a certain midlam material will make any difference at the end of the day. from my point of view the type of midlam has little to no influenece to energy storage and therefore the wood only needs to be light and pretty. maybe I'm totally wrong.


I totally agree! What’s in the middle does nothing. So put the light stuff in that spot. 2 humble opinions. 🤠

cheers and good luck with your small forest  :) (and dont forget to post more of your bows)
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: willie on January 05, 2023, 10:08:20 pm
thanks for posting those bows, very nice!
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: Will B on January 06, 2023, 08:22:54 pm
Very nice bows Simon. The full draw is really nice on both. Look forward to more of your work here.
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: JW_Halverson on January 07, 2023, 08:43:28 pm
I THOUGHT THESE LOOKED FAMILIAR!

I had to go check, but I was correct. You had posted these on the board bow building Facebook page the other day!
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: Tuomo on January 08, 2023, 11:28:44 am
Very nice - as ever…
I know a guy who builds Trilam-Bamboobows  - Bamboo-Silk-Bamboo.
Silk as the midlayer online to avoid the torsion of the bamboo. And ist works…

Greetz
Cord

Interesting! Do you have more information about these bamboo-silk-bamboo bows?

Nice bows by the way!
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: simk on January 21, 2023, 07:07:43 am
Hello Again  :)

here are some pics of a white mulberry longbow.  Got this piece of wood from my friend Pinaka Longbows and I must say I like it very much. Its some of the best wood I have ever worked! Light and super responsive, not taking a lot of set. Not to forget that it looks very nice also and the bow came out super light in mass (405 gramms / 14.3 oz).
Very sad this was the one and only piece of that wonderful wood. I just love it and would die for a little more of it.

cheers
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: simk on January 21, 2023, 07:10:54 am
....
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: simk on January 21, 2023, 07:12:03 am
thanks for watching
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: superdav95 on January 21, 2023, 09:55:25 am
Beautiful work man. 
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: simk on January 21, 2023, 11:19:34 am
Thanks Superdav!  :)
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: simk on January 21, 2023, 11:23:06 am
Another bow here. Not sure if it's primitive enough and not sure if I like the colours  ;) kinda hard to do it justice with the camera. This is a very light (32# @ 28") version of my favourite longbow design made of various tropical woods and bamboo. For sure an absolutely pleasant and recreational shooter.
cheers
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: simk on January 21, 2023, 11:29:06 am
...
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: superdav95 on January 21, 2023, 02:55:01 pm
Nice bow!  Nice glue lines too.  I like those Colors
Title: Re: simk's bows
Post by: George Tsoukalas on January 21, 2023, 09:55:10 pm
Beautiful bows! Jawge