My next bow is a BBI (Bamboo Backed Ipe), which I have been wanting to do since I first started reading about them, and hearing of Rich Saffold's work with them, in CA. It is, of course, a wood lam bow, and since I do not have the facilities, or forms and tools, to do a glue up (and mostly will want to work Osage stave bows after this one), I opted for a glue-up from Mr. Saffold of Richard's Bowyery. As I told Richard, in previous communications, I wanted this bow to start off having the best chance possible, of turning into as good a one, as I turn out to be capable of making it be, since it will probably be my only BBI. I want to say that I am very impressed with the Glue-up he made for me, and his fast service. It is a 68" longbow, 66 3/4" ntn, with darker pieces of Ipe (e-pea) for the riser and tip overlays. The Bamboo backing is a beautiful piece of Black Bamboo (a unique species of bamboo of no two pieces exactly alike, and already camoed patterns - (like my Camo Dog - LOL)
This bow may take awhile for me to do (even if it is almost already a bow ) what with finishing up my Holmegarard, Deer season starting in a week here, Hurricane Hannah (perhaps only Tropical Storm Hannah) )bearing down on us in NC, family matters, etc. but I still intend to keep you posted, as in the past, if you are interested.
Here are some pics of the glue up. All I have done to it so far (other than to admire it's shape etc.) is shape the tips and overlays and file the string nocks. I did this today, so that I will be able to get a long string on it as soon as it is readied for that step.
Side view:
Belly (Ipe):
Back (Black Bamboo) It's a little darker and more speckled than it appears in this pic. I will try to get a more accurate image later:
And a look at the two tips with string grooves:
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As promised earlier, here is a picture that I hope shows the color and unique "pattern" of the Black Bamboo that is the backing on my BBI:
I've been scraping and sanding on the BBI in fits and spurts, as I have had time. I also took a good half or 3/4" off the darker piece of the riser - not really shaping it too much, yet, but just sizing it for more comfort in depth. The bow is responding well to floor tillering, and I now have it on the long string on the tree, and pretty close to ready for the short string. So far, it is continuing to look real even in the curvature of the limbs. I'll have pics of that next week but in the meantime here is it's latest profile (while resting on the keel of my canoe, which is hanging on the outside carport wall - LOL). Just seemed like a good place to get decent light for the "color" shot shown above:
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After some scraping, sanding, and handle reducing I got the BBI glueup bending at floor tiller, enough to be ready for a string, and to get it on my tillering tree. I'm using a little longer string than I have on previous ones due to the nice reflex in the glue-up. It would take a short string now but it would put the string right up along side of the handle. (That handle is also still a little larger/deeper than it will be, just to give me a good base to rest in my cradle.)
On the tree:
When I exercised and then pulled the bow (down to about the 12 inch line), it appeasred to me the right (persumably lower) limb was not bending as much as the left (top) limb, along most of it's inner length:
With that info in mind, I took the bow back inside and did some judicious scraping on the right limb, then back to the tree and exercise. After that, another pull to 12" shows the limbs are bending much more alike now. Now to try to keep them going that way - LOL, as I continue to get it bending more - after at least a night of rest for her (and me):
As I said at the outset, I don't know when this thread/bow will get done (I'll let you know when, OldBow - LOL)
