joining two limbs to make a bow

[Tradslinger]

last fall, a friend at church gave me some Osage that he had. It had been cut 20 years ago or longer and was out on the ground. The longest piece was 50" and I gathered up what he had. Several are so twisted and had so many knots that I have just set them aside. But I managed to split 4 or 5 pieces that could make a limb. up to this point, all I had made(in the last 20 years) were board bows. I took two pieces and over lapped the handle at the sides and dowelled with glue them together. I ended up sanding the back flat and backing this one with bamboo from behind the house. This was all a learning thing and I got in a hurry and ended up with about a 32 pound bow. But I learned a lot. So I have enough to make a better bow but was wanting to make a better joint. I had looked at the two piece sleeve set up that is sold by 3Rivers but I can't justify $60 for it. Plus, I have no need for a take down. So, I am planning on finding a steel tube, 1 1/4" to 1 9/16" in diameter and reshaping it to be like a handle, about 4" long. Then I mean to epoxy the ends of the limbs butted up inside the sleeve. Afterwards, the handle can be wrapped. Once solid, I can go ahead and make a bow. While this may be old hat to some of you, past brain damage has made new things a bit challenging and so it can take me a little while to get things straight in my head now. Where I once could see it clearly in my head, is murky water but I keep pecking away at it no matter how slow. Anyways, in my mind, this should work just fine, just requires fitting correctly in the sleeve.

[PatM]

Easier to do a glass  or carbon sleeve.  That eliminated the finicky fitting process.

[Eric Krewson]

Sleeves are tricky to install, why not make a proper splice which is foolproof and stable.

All you have to do is draw a centerline on your billets, draw your splice out on a piece of paper and glue  the pattern aligned with your center line on your billets with Elmer's school glue then cut it out. I make my splice pattern 1 1/4" wide because I make bulbous handle bows, this gives me extra wood for handle shaping.

By the way, dowels are useless in a splice and provide no advantage for keeping it together.

The splice pictures are of me adding a new limb to replace broken limb on an existing bow.







I miss-cut my billets and had to move this splice up a bit to get some extra length in my top limb but you get the idea. This is not the same bow as in the pictures above.

[bassman]

If your 32lb bow is long enough you could shorten it ,and pick up some draw weight. Never built a bow with a piece of pipe, but you can use a simple V splice to join the 2 pieces with AD40 smooth on ,and cut a handle for it fades included ,and glue together. I have made successful splice joints  on bows that way that are still working just fine.

[PatM]

I missed the part where you said you don't need a take-down.   Just go with a simpler splice as bassman says and then maybe work your way up to the slightly more complicated ones Eric mentions.

[bassman]

I posted while Eric was posting. Eric's  joint is the right way, but I was trying to make it simple for him, so that he could get a successful bow.

[HH~]

Seen plenty of nice take down with stainless sleeves. They work fine.

HH~

[Tradslinger]

those splices look very nice but right now more complicated than my brain or eyes can handle. it is hard to cut precise when you can't hardly see the line. I have macular degeneration to some degree, get shots in my left eye which just recently received a cornea transplant. the past brain trauma causes me grief in complicated things anymore. I am very electronically challenged, took me probably forty tries to ever get registered on this site. I was in electronics and built my own stuff and tools etc before the brain trauma. I programmed big CNC machines (and worked on them) for custom machine work on aluminum racing heads for Brodix for 18 years. So I am trying to do this as simple as I can, I still know how to fit a gunstock for a free floating barrel so the sleeve sounded like a way to go. the first one at 32lb was after shortening it. I considered heat treating the belly but didn't know if the bamboo joint would hold up. I had used TightBond 3. I do totally appreciate all input as I trudge ahead. Jerry

[mutt]

Don't feel bad Jerry it took me several tries  to answer those sign up questions right and jump thru the hoops to get on this site too but it's worth it.
As for the bow splicing go with the tube round peg in a round hole. Gonna try the same thing myself soon. Also clay Hayes has a video of wrapping/molding fiberglass around two halves of a bow that looks pretty doable. Good luck and keep us posted

[bownarra]

The issue with using a tube/sleeve is that you need to round the staves back quite a lot. Unless it is flattened. It's doable but it does weaken this area if the tube isn't shaped correctly.
The best and simplest way would be to chase a ring then shape your billets ends/ fades with reference to a centerline that follows the crown.
Then make absolutely certain you have the moisture content right down in the wood. If the m.c. is high when you do all this time will pass and the wood will dry, as it dries it shrinks and you will end up with a 'wobbly' bow.....
Make sure when final shaping the ends to put a slight reverse taper and roughen the sides/belly for the glass to bite into.
Then align the billets end to end and wrap the joint with fibeglass tape soaked in car repair glass resin.
File sand it all smooth after.

It is always possible to grind it all off and start again too if something goes wrong

[Tradslinger]

well, I am getting more options to chew on, each has their own pluss's. I was looking at making the tube flatter on the back side, sort of like D shaped to keep the limbs in line and maybe be stronger. similar to the sleeves used by Clay from 3Rivers for the take down.