Building the Vine Maple Bow - Finished

[Joec123able]

I'm excited to see the finished bow, awesome thread.

[Aaron H]

Very cool Gordon,  those needle files look really nice

[E. Jensen]

Great walkthrough! 

I'm curious about using the tensionwood as the back.  Would a bow with the back made from opposite wood (the "compression" side) behave differently?  This fascinates me because normally reactionwood is considered inferior wood, as well as juvenile wood.  However both are used heavily in bow building, seemingly without negative consequences.

My other question is, do you have any problems using the sharpy on the wood?  Does it soak in?

[TolkienFan]

Gordon, this is great for a beginner like me.  Can't thank you enough for this!  I know it takes forever to post all these photos with such clear explanations and we all really appreciate it.

[Blayne]

Very awesome!

[burn em up chuck]

    very cool, wish there more like this.

                                chuck

[portlandfire]

It's not as if we are anxious or anything like that.  What's the holdup??  Sorry about that; it's just that this is so informative and I am impatient to see the next step. Great detail and info.  Thanks so much.

[Gordon]

Jensen, I think using reaction wood like vine maple for structural applications would be problematic. The wood would be prone to warping and blowing out joints. But it works well for bows if you can tame it. I have made some vine maple bows from the compression side and they are much easier to tiller, but they don't seem as lively - in all cases I ended up heat treating the belly to give them a little more oomph - but don't try that with high tension vine maple! Yes, the sharpie does seep into the wood a bit, but scraps off easily. I don't normally use a sharpie for marking but did so to make it easier to see in the photos.

Dbar, I normally use a tiller tree and long string, but that is just not practical when dealing with this much reflex.

No worries Dave, I'll post another installment this week.

Thank you all for the nice comments!

[Sockrablur]

Great build Gordon! Thanks for taking the time to give so much explanation and do all the photo... it's fun to follow along.

[DC]

Do you use this method to keep it from flipping over on the tree?

[Gordon]

Do you use this method to keep it from flipping over on the tree?

DC, yes that is exactly right.

[alwayslookin]

Great build Gordon all those staves in the back ground have me drooling all over my phone.

[DC]

Do you use this method to keep it from flipping over on the tree?

DC, yes that is exactly right.

I'll use this next time. The last Doug Maple I did had 6 or 8 inches of reflex. I had more clamps and glued on pieces than you could count. this looks way better

[Gordon]

Today I am going to shape the handle. I like a bulbous handle style because it feels comfortable in my hand when shooting and it is easy to make. I begin by reducing the width of the handle area to 1 1/4 inches while also making sure that the sides are square. I make the handle depth 1 1/2".





I'm going to give the handle a slight swell. I mark the ends of the handle on both sides of the bow. I make my handles 4 inches in length. Then using a coping saw I make 1/8 inch deep cuts on the line and about 1/16 inch on each side.

[Gordon]

I chisel out the cuts to make groves where the narrowest part of the handle will be.





Using the rounded side of a rasp and the groves as my guide I scoop out the narrow ends of the handle. I do this on each side until the width at each end is 1 inch.