New project-hackberry

[paulc]

i've started a new bow and am hoping to have you all check my plan.  Stave is 72" currently, I draw around 27-28" give or take.  I am shooting for no less than 50lbs at 27" but would also like to come in over weight rather than under :-)

Limbs currently running 1.75 inches from fade to tips, 5/8ths thick from fade to tip.  My plan was to leave it full width most of the way out...?  Maybe narrow last 12"?  Don't really know yet.  I want to heat treat it before I get very far into tillering.  But there is a descent sized divot in the back so I will have to back the bow-I guess you ought to back any hackberry?  Anyway, I still need to make the rawhide for backing but my question is really about order of steps...

Rough out the basic outline of the limbs first and clean up the back as best I can.
Heat out prop twist and line up tips better?
Then heat treat the belly followed by rawhide backing?
Then go into proper tillering for final weight.  Once I get to weight heat treat again?

Is that about right?  Or is there a better order to go in?  I was concerned about damaging the backing with heat treating but maybe that shouldn't be an issue if I heat treat correctly?

Thanks a bunch for the hand holding!  Paul

[paulc]

Where I stopped yesterday afternoon.  Paul

[Woodely]

Try to have at least a 14" transition from fade end to fade end.  You don't have that.   I would seriously glue a lam on the back.

[DC]

Try to do your untwist tip lineup and heat treat all in one session. If you do your untwist tip lineup first and then come back later to do a heat treat you stand a good chance of losing your tip lineup. I just went though a bunch of that. I think maybe 5-6 heating sessions just going back and forth. If I had managed to do it all in one session it would be a done deal. Trying to figure out how to do it in one go may be tough but it beats 6-8 hours watching a heat gun.

[SLIMBOB]

No need to back the Hack, so long as the back is in good condition.  Hacks weakness is in it's compression, not it's tension.  I didn't see the divot you mentioned, but if the back is dinged up and you need to put rawhide on it then do as DC mentioned.  Get the tips lined up and all the heat treating done in one session.  You lose too much progress otherwise.  Get it bending well before the rawhide is applied.  Not enough for it to come apart, but so far as you can safely go.

[Deerhunter21]

Try to have at least a 14" transition from fade end to fade end.  You don't have that.   I would seriously glue a lam on the back.

woodly, I really can imagine a 14" fade?! could you send a pic?

[TimBo]

He is talking about the middle of the bow, starting at the end of a fade (toward a tip), through the handle, through the other fade.  If you can visualize a three piece takedown, it would be the fat part!

[Deerhunter21]

Ohhhh! I see! makes a lot of sense now!

[PEARL DRUMS]

Try to have at least a 14" transition from fade end to fade end.  You don't have that.   I would seriously glue a lam on the back.

Explain your reasoning?

[PatM]

Still, the fade to fade section doesn't need to be that long. 

[Woodely]

Try to have at least a 14" transition from fade end to fade end.  You don't have that.   I would seriously glue a lam on the back.

woodly, I really can imagine a 14" fade?! could you send a pic?

Yep right here...……..

[PEARL DRUMS]

That's a very atypical handle/fade layout. Not wrong, atypical and not necessary. A 4-5" grip and 1.5-3" fades is adequate 100% of the time.

[PatM]

You can bet the fades on that one are moving quite a bit too.

[paulc]

This is a good discussion on the handle and fades.....I put a tape measure on my blank at lunch it measured right at 12" fade out to fade out....I am guessing the proper length of handle and fades "depends" just like about everything else in primitive bow making:-) 

Thanks all, Paul

[bownarra]

Try to have at least a 14" transition from fade end to fade end.  You don't have that.   I would seriously glue a lam on the back.

Why 14"?    How would you go about gluing a lam onto the back of what you think is an already too short handle section?

PaulC - the one thing I would be mildly concerned about is if you intend keeping the limbs parallel for a decent proportion of their length 5/8ths out of the fades is a wee bit thin. Make sure to go gently floor tillering and getting to brace, the main thing will be getting a good thickness taper early so the fades/inner limbs aren't worked a bit hard early on.