Board bow question

[Aaron H]

So I'm waiting for some of my osage to season and I decided to give a board bow a try.  I picked up a nice red oak 1x2 with really nice straight rings.  I was wanting a stiff handled bow, so I glued on some padauk for a riser to form my handle, roughed out the bow, and started tillering. Everything was going fine until I pulled it back probably 20-22" and my riser popped off.  I used titebond 1 wood glue and let it dry probably a week or so. Obviously my bow is bending a little bit in the handle, enough to separate the riser from the belly.  So this is what I'm thinking, if I re-glue it back on with some titebond 3, drill some holes through the handle part way into the oak, then stake it with some dowels. I think this will prevent the handle from coming off again. Any thoughts? Has anyone here done this before? Where's Jawge at for this ?

[Pat B]

Its not the glue. It is because the bow is bending in the handle area. You can make a multi lam riser with thin lams and it should flex enough to stay glued down.

[Aaron H]

I understand that the glue itself won't prevent this from happening again, but I was thinking that the dowels staked through the handle and into the oak would be enough to fix this.

[Pat B]

Maybe yes, maybe no. 

[George Tsoukalas]

Do make sure the extra handle piece and the stave itself mate nicely.

Get the fades as shaped as much as possible before gluing.

Pin it with dowels. Drill from the belly side. Just don't drill through to the bow. Put one dowel in each of the fades and 2 or 3 in the handle itself. Wind several turns of masking tape around the drill bit as a stop. Remember the fade area is not as thick.

Then so a wrap of thread set in epoxy around the 4 inch (?) handle. You can put your hande covering over that.

Jawge

[Pago]

I have to ask, did you size the glue joint? I.e. slather the mating joints with glue, wait until it soaks in and then recoat and clamp the two pieces together. This will yield a joint where the wood will fail before the glue joint.

[DarkSoul]

That wouldn't help, Pago. If the handle pops off, it bends. Period. It's not the application of the glue.

I wouldn't rely on a few dowels. Instead, I would build up the handle in layers. Apply as many thin laminations of max 1/8" thick as it takes to build up the handle to a sufficient thickness.

[Aaron H]

Thanks everyone, and yes I did make sure that the two mating surfaces were flush to each other.
 I think I will try to pin it on this board.  If that doesn't work, then I will strip it all back down and do some thin laminations like Pat B. and DarkSoul suggested.

Jawge, can you clarify this a little bit more for me,

Then so a wrap of thread set in epoxy around the 4 inch (?) handle. You can put your hande covering over that.

? 
I'm not sure I'm picking up what you're putting down.

[dbb]

I vote for the thin laminations!
If your handle area bends or flexes at all you will have problems sooner or later.
The other way is to build your handle up with cork or leather and let it flex.

[Aaron H]

Yea, I was thinking about a leather handle too. If all else fails, that is what I will end up doing.

[Pat B]

How long is the bow and how long is your handle riser?
 Your handle riser needs to be above the plane of the bow's belly like this to prevent the riser from popping off as the bow is flexed. This lemonwood "board" was 3/4" thick like most lumber and the hickory backing makes it different from what you are doing but if you can keep the riser above the plane of the belly it should stay put when the bow is flexed.

[arachnid]

I did several bows with lamination riser. I works great and you can combin different woods to make it look good.

[Aaron H]

The bow is 66" ntn, and the riser is 7" long to the tapers, 4" at full thickness.  I am still in the beginning stages of tillering, so the plane of the belly is still pretty close to the parallel with the bottom of the riser.  But I do understand what you are saying.  The problem might lie in that, and the fact that I already roughed out the handle as well.  So it is a little narrower there, which is causing it to flex some. 

[Pat B]

I always leave my handle area full width at least until first brace so I can see how the string tracks. If the string is off to one side you can get it closer to center by reducing wood from the off side. I leave tips wide too for the same reason. By doing this you get your limbs bending well before shaping the handle and tips.
 I haven't made a red oak bow in quite a few years but I had better luck working with wider boards. The 1x2(actually 3/4"x1 3/4") I used always came out pretty flimsy. I don't know if it was me or the narrower board. 

[lesken2011]

The handle popped off one of my early bows. I elected to leave off the hard handle and build the handle up with leather for comfort. It turned out to be one of my best shooting bows since it barely bent at full draw. Since then I have made several bendy handle bows built up with leather, rawhide, and cork. They are much less stressful designs since the bend is spread over the entire bow rather than being limited to the limbs only.