simk's bows

[simk]

Happy New Year everybody!

I have decided to make one topic where, from now on, I will put all my bows into.

Starting with two test bows. The test was the new wood. Got some Black Locust, European Hornbeam, Serviceberry as boards. My goal was to find local, easy available bowwood for laminated bows...apart from the boring yew of course 

Now started with two hornbeam bellied bows. One a d/r-angular bow made with serviceberry core and one simple longbow with maple core (powerlam from serviceberry). Both have ash backings. Glueup is done with white pva carpenters glue (D3).

Apart of minor flaws they came out pretty well and I think I'm happy with my new wood. The hornbeam does the job on the belly without complaining too much and not taking overly set. The serviceberry ist pretty as a grip and core and I can use it as a belly also, ....as long as drawweight is not too high (did this test last year already). Curious what the Black Locust will do in my laminated bows....I especially am curious if it would work as backing laminate....edge grained. I think it should be pretty good in tension?

Cheers 

[simk]

a few

[simk]

2more

[Selfbowman]

Beautiful work out n the bows!

[ssrhythm]

Sick!..as the once young kids used to say

[superdav95]

Love em.  Beautiful lines

[bassman211]

Flawless glue lines. E :BBxcellent work.

[lonbow]

Those are very nice bows, simk! Beautiful shapes and flawless glue lines.

I'm also very interested in this topic, as I'm also planning to make laminated bows out of European bow woods in the future. I'm also happy to hear that European hornbeam does well as a belly wood, as I own a small forest with lots of European hornbeam in it

Even though I haven't built any laminated bows yet, I have some thoughts about black locust:

Bruno Ballweg, a well known bowyer from Germany makes laminated bows with black locust as a corewood.
After hearing about this, I tested and compared the properties of black locust and Osage: both woods were sold as foreshaft materials with a diameter of 11/32 ". I spine tested both kinds of woods. If I remember correct, Osage spined at about 35. Black locust spined significantly higher at about 50. Black locust might not be as good in compression as Osage, but it's much stiffer with the same dimensions. That might be an ideal candidate for a core.

I'm very interested in your findings!

cheers,
lonbow

[mmattockx]

Apart of minor flaws they came out pretty well

Man, your detail work and workmanship is just superlative and the tiller is always spot on.


Mark

[simk]

thanks for nice words everybody 

lonbow: I know Brunos bow's - they are highlights of craftmanship. way to go....
about the midlam topic: imho its only function is to transfer the forces between back and belly. from that point of view I often wondered about bowyers using tough and heavy woods like cumaru, greenheart and even ipe as a midlam. I really dont think the additional stiffness of a certain midlam material will make any difference at the end of the day. from my point of view the type of midlam has little to no influenece to energy storage and therefore the wood only needs to be light and pretty. maybe I'm totally wrong.

cheers and good luck with your small forest  (and dont forget to post more of your bows)

[bambule]

Very nice - as ever…
I know a guy who builds Trilam-Bamboobows  - Bamboo-Silk-Bamboo.
Silk as the midlayer online to avoid the torsion of the bamboo. And ist works…

Greetz
Cord

[Pappy]

Beautiful work, love seeing your bows. 
 Pappy

[M2A]

I like your idea of trying to source local wood. Make what you got work for you. You sure know how to tiller, those look great at FD.
Mike

[mmattockx]

from my point of view the type of midlam has little to no influenece to energy storage and therefore the wood only needs to be light and pretty. maybe I'm totally wrong.

You're not wrong. The core is doing very little work aside from holding the back and belly together and in shape and just needs to be strong enough to carry those forces. Using a heavy wood for the core is just going to hurt performance with unnecessary limb weight.

I forgot to ask, how do you do the lam glue up on these bows? Do you glue in reflex of any sort? Got any pics of your form(s)?


Mark

[Selfbowman]

thanks for nice words everybody 

lonbow: I know Brunos bow's - they are highlights of craftmanship. way to go....
about the midlam topic: imho its only function is to transfer the forces between back and belly. from that point of view I often wondered about bowyers using tough and heavy woods like cumaru, greenheart and even ipe as a midlam. I really dont think the additional stiffness of a certain midlam material will make any difference at the end of the day. from my point of view the type of midlam has little to no influenece to energy storage and therefore the wood only needs to be light and pretty. maybe I'm totally wrong.


I totally agree! What’s in the middle does nothing. So put the light stuff in that spot. 2 humble opinions. 🤠

cheers and good luck with your small forest  (and dont forget to post more of your bows)