Ipe hunting bow

[Eagle Eye Eli]

Well guys,

I did as i was told and it worked <scraped it> (see draw weight ?).  So now I want to start making a hunting bow for me out of Ipe.  The board measures 60"L X 1 1/4" W X 2" thick.  The growth rings run really good along the 1 1/4 side making it about 1 1/4" wide.  I'll leave the handle thick until i start to floor tiller then I'll asked you guys about a handle design.  I'm  shooting for 45-50# @ 28.  The ? is should i back it, i have access to hickory, fiberglass cloth, and heavy brown wrapping paper.   

Eli.

[Pat B]

Eli, Hickory backed ipe makes an excellent hunting bow. You could take it down to 3/4" to 1" thick the full length, mark out a 4" handle area(I prefer it centered), 1 1/2" fades and taper it to 1/2" tips. Tiller it so the limbs bend into the fades and leave the last 4" or so of the tips stiff(keep them thick and reduce the width later on in the process). Floor tiller it to about 4" of bend and Perry reflex the bow at glue up to about 3". After that you can add a small piece of wood to the back and belly of the handle and shape it into a bulbous type handle.
  By taking the board down to that thickness you will have 2 staves to work with.      Pat

[Eagle Eye Eli]

   Cool.

[markinengland]

eli,
Thing to bear in mind with Ipe is that if you make the bow so it looks like a man's bow and even the God's will struggle to pull it.
Make the bow look like a ladies bow and you just may be able to pull it.
Bamboo is  a very good match as a backing but hickory is god as well.
i.5 inches at the fdes will mean that the Ipe will end up very thin if the bow is to be pullable. Bear in mind that the backing will add 10lbs or so draw weight, each inch of perry reflex will also add 10lbs draw weight. So  backing and three inches of reflex would mean that the belly would need to pull like a bow 40lbs lighter at brace height. there is a point at which you need a belly stave of minus draw weight unless you are aiming for a long way over 40lbs!
I have a relfex deflex bow that is quite skinny at about1.25 inches, Ipe very thin, bamboo backed and it pulls 70lbs at 28 inches. 1.25 or even an inch would give you what you want.
Mark in England

[DirtyDan]

I totally agree with Mark.  I made a bamboo-backed Ipe with a Perry reflex and it is one of my fastest bows.  Good luck with it.

Dan

[adb]

Definitely back it with hickory. Don't make it too wide at the fades. Ipe excels with narrow width. Ipe and hickory/bamboo is an awesome combo, one of my favourutes.

Hey, Mark... what's with the sexist comments? My wife weighs 125lbs, and can pull a 50# bow if she wants. A bow is a bow... in anyone's hands. She's insulted when someone hands her a "ladies" bow. I believe she has cause.

[mullet]

 The last bamboo backed Ipe I made was 7/8" at the fades and pulled 60#. It was 70" NtoN.

[loco cacahuate]

I've read that with Ipe, a little bit of reflex goes a long ways. How much is too much?

[grantmac]

I tend to have stability problems with Ipe and reflex. It because it can be so thin and also because the belly is so strong. I couldn't personally advise more than 2" of reflex.
        Cheers,
              Grant

[rkeltner]

i made a hickory backed ipe that came out at 54lbs. and weighs a wonderfully light 15 oz. everyone who shoots it is amazed that has as much draw as it does! hickory/ipe is definately a good combo!!!

[markinengland]

I agree that 2 inches of relfex is probably enough.
A bow I started once was long and very thin but I put in 5 or more inches of reflex. It was really hard to tiller, very unstable and pulled 120lb to get the tips 3 inches behind the handle! What looks like a little wood really does go a long long way with a relfexed Ipe/Hickory or Ipe/Bamboo bow.
My feeling is that Ipe does better as fairly narrow fairly deep bows. Where the Ipe gets thin and wide it can fail if the grain isn't great. My reflex deflex bow ended up with thin Ipe and I had failures along the grain where the limb was most stressed. Cured with binding but I think it shows that the bow could have been thinner, deeper and more mildly deflexed and reflex and probably performed better.
ADB. Pleased to hear that your wife can pulls a 50lb bow if she wants to. An Ipe 50lb bow will be a lot more slender than most other bows of the same draw weight. To put it another way, a non gender sensetive way, what looks like a childs bow, a small slender bow can in fact be of suprisingly heavy draw weight. Is this ageist now?
Best of luck with your bow Eli. I think you will like it a lot when you have finished it.
Mark in England

[Eagle Eye Eli]

OK, guys first ?.  what's a Perry reflex and how do you go about doing it.  2nd ? Since the board is 2" thick i need to reduce it down to 3/4" inches keeping the back flat right?  Now then what kind of glue should i use, I currently have TBII and TBIII?.  

[grantmac]

Run that board through a tablesaw and you should get enough for 3 bows out of it. Perry reflex is where you glue-in the reflex and the glue-line holds the shape. Generally you want the belly floor-tillered evenly before you glue it up, then all you do is put block under the tips to get the shape right. A search on here will give you all you need to know. I have used TBII in the past but I'm currently using a two-part urea glue similar to URAC 185. For a first try you will do fine with either of the TB glues, pick the one with the longest working time.
       Cheers,
                Grant

[markinengland]

Eli,
A lot of people have had good results with TB3.
I like using resorcinol because of the longer open time.
For most bows a slat 1.25 (1.5 inches wide by 3/4 deep would be more than big enough. I am not sure it matters at all which way round the grain is.
Mark in England