1st bow follow-along

[Calamitus]

This is not to toot my own horn or provide information for those starting out in bow making, but rather to document my efforts at making a functional bow and perhaps show what not to do. With that in mind, I am attempting to make a 68" red oak board bow aiming for anywhere between 40# and 50# @ 28". I couldn't find a long board so I settled for splicing two billets.

Here they are:


And with the riser glued:


I made the separate risers 6" so after they are spliced the finished riser will be 8". The billets are 1.5" x 36".

Now, I am still undecided which splice to use, Z or W. I am using hand tools so any suggestion is welcome.

And finally. I found this piece of wood, from a cabinet shop I believe and would like to find out what it might be. It's very dense/heavy and I will be using it for nock overlays.

[spyder1958]

Looks like Ipe

[Parnell]

Yup, Ipe.

[kevinsmith5]

Why glue the riser on before the splice instead of after? Wouldn't gluing it on over the splice reinforce it?

[Calamitus]

I thought of that at first, but some advice I got/found said to do it this way. My thinking is, gluing the riser first then cutting the splice gives more surface area to the splice. But there might not be much difference :shrug:

I have access to a band saw now, just have to put a new blade on and make sure it still works (it's quite old and worn, was grandfather's. It's a three wheel, 24" throat, monster). Cutting the splice by hand was not practical.

[Calamitus]

Got the splice cut, ended up a bit loose so I boiled and clamped it, will do the glue in a couple of days then time for the layout. Here's the splice and the bandsaw.

[kevinsmith5]

Nice saw

[Knapper]

So far so good!!!

[Calamitus]

Ok, got some more done. Cut the shape, glued on the tips for the reflex, cut the reflex into the tips, and cut the rough profile. Next stop, tillering tree.

[Calamitus]

Bow go boom 

Moving from the long string to short, a limb blew out. Now to find another board, maybe harvest some staves to work on later...

[RyanY]

I'm sorry to hear it didn't work out. If you give us some more information about how the bow was behaving and what the break looks like we could help determine what the cause of failure was.

[JW_Halverson]

AAAARGH!  I was really interested in seeing a spliced board bow build along! 

A true calamity.  Having visited Calamity Jane's grave recently, I am allowed to say that!

[Calamitus]

Here's the damage:
 I know there's a knot there, it didn't go through to the back so I thought it might still work seeing as I would have had to remove a lot of wood from the belly anyhow. But that never came into play, I think there was just some other hidden flaw that couldn't handle the stress. I still have a billet from the original 1x6 that I am planning to use to attempt to replace the broken limb.

Belly side


Pieces

[Calamitus]

Ok, I fixed it I cut the broken limb off, re-cut the splice, and put a new one on. I used a piece of maple for the riser block, gluing it on over the splice this time, which I like a lot better than how I tried it the first time. Now I have it halfway tillered, on a short string, and here are the pics:

Back with splice


Belly


Braced @ 5-1/2"


I think the right limb is a bit flatter than the other and needs some scraping

Unbraced

[Calamitus]

Ok here's the (nearly) finished product

Full draw


Handle, with ipe arrow shelf


Nock. What can I do about the string slipping off when braced? Doesn't seem a problem while drawn, haven't shot an arrow yet, I think it might be trouble when I do so i'd like to get it fixed first.