Fisrt tri-lam and takedown opinions

[Mo_coon-catcher]

A buddy of mine is wanting a three piece take down recurve. . I've never messes with a takedown but I don't see it being hard just a little more work once I get past making the limb pockets and fastening system. Since I havnt messed with them before so I'm going to make a pair of them, one for him and one for myself to give me a better chance of getting it figured out. I've got the limb pockets figured out I just gotta do it to see how well it works. I'm not sure what he wants to use for his riser but I want to use laminations on cherry with thin lams of walnut with with pocket bases made of hickory or ash. But my question comes with the laminate materials I want to play with for the limbs, I want to use the woods that I already have and make a tri-lam. I'm wanting to make the bow as light weight as possible. With the materials I have, I'm wanting to try ERC belly, tempered black cherry core, with a sinew backing. With short lengths of hickory or ash on the back and belly sides of the limb pocket area for more crush strength and a power lam of walnut. I'm wanting 40 pound at 27" and he's wanting 45 pounds at 30". For that difference I think I can use the same width and just make his limbs longer. I'm not sure what width to go, I'm feeling that 1 3/8" would be about right. And with the sinew backing I'm thinking about keeping the cedar belly flat and maybe narrow the back a little to make the sinew work more.

Any oppinions on how I should carry out this build? itll probably take a little while to complete this build due to the sinew and glues drying. Thanks for all inputs and opinions. I'll keep updated on the progress.

Kyle

[bowmo]

I wooooould just make him a sleeve take down. I'm biased tho, I do not find 3 piece bows attractive. But, sleeves are also more simple as well.

[Pat B]

I agree with bowmo. I think 3 piece wood takedowns are ugly...but that is just me.

[mikekeswick]

It depends on how well you make them!
1 1/2 inch width minimum. Normal metal sleeves leave you with a handle that you can't adjust the shape on and (for me) they just aren't the right size and they look a bit numb to me.
Go on youtube and google Bigjims takedown. This is THE method for making a takedown, any sized handle, any shape and you can't even tell it's a takedown. You can do all the steps with hand tools if you think about it.

[PEARL DRUMS]

They can be ugly as sin or pretty as an angel in the right hands, in my opinion. I've seen first hand a few that Cody made, I want one. Im not saying hardware bolts and fender washers wont work and aren't just fine, but Id suggest spending the $15 for the brass kit. Just for appearance reasons. Another thing that either makes or breaks the looks of a 3 pc is the riser. Think long and hard about it and be sure the lines flow nice and are long and rounded. Saw cut square risers lightly sanded just don't "cut it". Id highly suggest peeking at Cody's work on here. It will give you perspective, he does everything right.

[blackhawk]

So your making a sinew backed erc with a cherry core? And no need to heat temper that core. Do you have any better choice of materials? Thats a LOT of time invested. Id choose better materials with a better track record if i was gonna try that. Im not saying what you wanna use wont work,its just that they have a "bad reputation" sometimes.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

my buddy is wanting the three piece designs. I think they can look good if done properly, which for me is an experiment. I just feel like making the three price looking good vs ugly is all in the transition from the riser to the limbs. I was thinking for the limb locking of using dowel pin in the rear as a locator and for alignment. And the front I usibg a brass flat stock that slides ip and down on a brass bolt in the middle and has runners on each side out of wood to blend it from the sides and keep it strait while tightening it down. To pretty up the head of the bolt and to make it tool from I plan to make some sort of dial o knob of wood to glue on it. Though a counter sunk bolt that ends up flush with the brass strap might not look bad. I feel like it would be easier to make it and show than to try describing it. That's atleast the plan for mine. If I explained well enough to give a visual, what do you think? If need be I can draw up the design that I'm thinking of. My buddy might have a different idea for his. Which is fine with me, it's give me a second method to try and see which way we prefer. I'll have to check out Cody's stuff and get some inspiration before I get started.

I have some better materials: black locust, hickory, white ash, walnut, and a couple Osage boards with grain swerving in every direction. I just want to play with the cedar and cherry because I have a large pile of both of them, and seem like something that could end up interesting to play with, either explosively or performance wise. If it does fail and I need to start again, which combo would you like to see. I like to experiment and see what will work and what won't.

Kyle