160lb Laminate bow finished - Update page 3

[Ian.]

Material as in wood? Its Maple belly, Ipe Core Hickory. The brace height is about 5.5"

[markinengland]

Pulling your own weight? In my case that is a constantly moving target! I must train more or eat less, or is that the other way round!

Seriously, great acheivement. A serious bow and you make pulling it look easy!

[Ian.]

Update

This bow was taken apart due to a knot in the Hickory backing that and the fact it started to take set made me decide to have another go with it. The current state of this bow is that it is now in 3 parts, I am going to replace the Hickory backing and glue the bow back together with reflex. The end result I hope will be a good distance, though I do not expect the bow to last.

Pictures of follow.

[Justin Snyder]

If it has taken set and you try to glue in reflex it will probably take even more set. I never undo a bow. I give it away or push it to failure. You can learn so much more from failures than you can from success.

[ol dog]

Nice bow. I could pull tthat about 10 inches.

[adb]

If it has taken set and you try to glue in reflex it will probably take even more set. I never undo a bow. I give it away or push it to failure. You can learn so much more from failures than you can from success.

Justin's right... once the wood has taken set as a result of crushed cells, it's virtually impossible to reverse it. I don't take bows apart either. Give it away, shoot it, sell it... whatever.

[Ian.]

Oh I don't think the bow would have lasted but I don't think there is harm in trying. The result of this bow was a quick glue failure, nothing left to salvage. I also don't believe in giving bows like this away, the warbow community is pretty small everyone knows everyone, if I gave a bow away that wasn't any good then it would look pretty bad.

 

[gigmaster]

160 pounds??!!! Who's gonna shoot it?? King Kong???

I would love to see a video of this bow being shot. That would be totally awesome! 160 pounds should rival the power of some firearms, certainly a muzzle-loader.

I wish I could shoot a 160 lb. bow. That would be a thrill. The heaviest I can shoot is around 100 pounds (but bear in mind, I am 53 years old).

Sorry to hear about the set. But every failure is a learning experience. Try again. I'd love to see this thing shoot.

Just out of curiosity, are you shooting wood arrows? Where do you find shafts spined for 160 lbs.?

Outstanding job.

[Ian.]

Look at the rest of the thread, I posted a video of the bow being shot. The best this bow ever did was 260 with a standard I have a fair few on the go still that should be pretty good.

And yes always wood, with heavy bows its less about spine and more about weight, I shoot arrows that are 52-70 grams and they seem to go fine.

[MrWarSpoon]

I also don't believe in giving bows like this away, the warbow community is pretty small everyone knows everyone, if I gave a bow away that wasn't any good then it would look pretty bad.

 

True story and it definatly speaks to your integrity. I would feel absolutly awful if I gave away a compromised bow and someone ended up getting hurt due to a catastrophic failure. Any bow you produce and sell or give away is basically a buisness card and nobody wants do deal with a buisness with a shotty record Meh, live and learn I guess.

[Christian Soldier]

Awesome! Eventually I'll get around to making one of those long war bows.

[Ian.]

Get to it, but remember they don't have to be especially 'long'.


MrWarSpoon - Very true I tend to sell the best wood and keep the 2nd quality stuff for myself, and just generally put more effect in bows for other people. The nicest bow I have was one that was sold but ended being too heavy for the chap that requested it.

[Tom Leemans]

If you folks would like to view a great series on making a laminated ELB, go to the tube site and search for "How a Bickerstaffe bow is born". Pip put together a great video.

[adb]

Yes, there's already a post on this video.