What to do!

[Pat B]

I went to the corner of shame today and pulled out a boo backed hickory I started a couple of years ago. This is the first boo backing I got perfect but I overzealously created a hinge near one of the tips.  Well today, I ground down the hickory backing to about 1/8" thich.
   While cleaning my shop(can you believe that!) I came across 2 pieces of vertical laminated boo. This stuff is made up(laminated) of pieces about 3/16"widex1/4"thick and is in 3' lengths and 2" width.
   How would this laminated boo work as a belly for this boo backed bow? I'm sure I will violate the power fibers when I retiller it. Should I look for other options?     Pat

[snedeker]

I sed that stuff some, never on the belly though, when I was wild and yound and crazy and never got a bow out of it, although it  was me  and not the strips. I bet it would work, although it might be a spongy shooter cause of the lack of oomph in the interior of the boo.  Hey, another option is to use a backing strip of boo for the belly for a hickory sandwich bow.

Dave

[Marc St Louis]

Actually Pat, Bowmonkey(Russell Bartlow) made a bow out of some Bamboo flooring several years ago and it turned out very fast

[tom sawyer]

It makes a quite acceptable bow belly.  The stuff has the mass to be a good bow belly, and it works a lot like wood.  A lot of people are using this bamboo flooring stuff for backed bows, a friend of mine in Alaska has made many nice bows out of it..  I got a piece from Russell a few years ago, made a real nice hickory-backed pyramid out of it.  The bow broke but ony because I used a really skinny design and then stupidly left the bow at 70+lb (the tiller looked great and I didn't want to mess it up).

[MattE]

Pat, I am workng on a bow that that happens to be too short for the design I chose. Needing a few more inches to make it serviceable. I chose to put an extension on the limbs.What I m trying to do is cut a branch with part of the thunk left to make my limbs have a natural back set.My intent is to split the branch so as to have to pieces with exactly the same off set.Glue and sinew is what I am goin to use to attatch the parts to my bow. This might work for you since your problem is close to the tips. It should add a little more cast to the bow as well.This is uncharted territory for me.

[Pat B]

Matt, I had thought about scabbing on another piece of hickory over the hinged area but yesterday I reduced the thickness of the hickory belly to about 1/8" so I need an entire new belly.
 Thanks Marc and Lennie, I'll give this a try. I have used the horizontal boo flooring for a few bows but was disappointed with the performance. I got these 2 pieces(vertical flooring) at the same time as the other but until now didn't know what to do with it. Should I taper these pieces a bit first or will it be OK to taper it after glue up while tillering?
   Dave, I have other boo backing I could use for a belly(I'd have to temper first)but trying to figure out ultimate draw weight is more than my pea brain can handle.
  So, unless someone else has suggestions, I'll go ahead and glue these boo pieces to the belly and retiller.   Pat

[tom sawyer]

You woudn't need to pretiller unless you want to glue it in some reflex.  But it would probably be a good idea to at least taper it some, your probably not going to need too much thickness to make the weight back up on your bow.

[Pat B]

Thanks Lennie, I'll glue it down first then taper as I tiller. I was worried about lifting a power fiber by violating them then stressing them.     Pat

[snedeker]

Go for it Pat.  My comment expressing uncertaintly was from lack of familiarity

[Pat B]

I'm gonna do it. We'll see what happens. Thanks for the help.    Pat

[Hillbilly]

Pat, this thread reminded me-you gave me a strip of bamboo flooring a few years ago that I stuck up in the rafters and promptly forgot about until now. Do you remember whether it was vertical or horizontal boo?

[Pat B]

Steve, It is the horizontal stuff. These 2, 36" pieces are the only vertical stuff I had.  Pat

[Little John]

Pat, just wondering if you considered just using another backing strip? Are you using the boo because you have it or because it might work real good? Good luck.   Ken

[Pat B]

Kenneth, This was another one of my screw ups like "O Yew Guys" that I brought to Colorado with "Elkie". If this one turnes out half as well as O Yew Guys did, I'll be happy.  And this was the best boo for backing  I ever prepared so I don't want to waste that. So I'll add these strips of vertical boo to the belly and see what I come up with.  Heck, If it doesn't work out I'll grind all of this off and make a BBO.   Pat

[Pat B]

Well, I screwed up again when I glued the boo to the belly. I had grinded the hickory to about 1/8" but left it thicker at the handle area. After the boo glue up, I realized that it would be too thick at the handle area and there would be no boo left if I tried to correct it(at the handle) so I ground all of the boo off completely and the hickory at the handle then thinned all of the hickory along the bow. Then I added 2 osage slats, with a bevel joint at the handle and glued it down with TBIII.
   The pics below are of the glue up(boo/hic/osage) and the bow after the clamps were removed. The boo and hickory were glued up in Perry reflex and after I added the osage the reflex remained the same...about 3 1/2". I also narrowed the width a slight bit and may do more if needed.
   Since this is the third time I have tried to make these components a bow the name "Thrice" poped into my head so if she makes a bow, that's her name..."Thrice".
  Here are a few pics...with clamps on, after the clamps removed and the handle area showing all of the layers.   Pat

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