First full size glue up was a success.

[Monteria]

First and foremost, thank you to KennyM and Roy from PA for their guidance. And to Tradgang for inspiring me to complete a project originally started many years ago.

After successfully building 2 36" R/D longbows with my own design and Kenny's lams, glass and guidance, I felt confident enough to attempt a full size recurve.

I also sketched out my own form for the recurve. It is 1.5"wide, 54" long, and I was shooting for 50@28. I had actually purchased the lams, glass, and a strip of carbon from Bingham's probably 7 years ago, long before I ever found this site, and they had been sitting in my closet ever since.

With the extra last minute knowledge gained here, and not wanting to eliminate the carbon for fear of not making weight, and a little bit just because I bought it, I chose to stack with the .002" taper at the back, carbon in the middle and parallel on the belly. My thought process was "it may have no effect being pretty much in the middle through most of the working limb, but getting progressively closer to the back may make for responsive tips".

Long story short, and to my amazement, the recurve came out of the oven looking like a winner. Following rough out, and learning that my weight was really close to $$$, it was time to figure out how the heck to tiller it. That is where Roy from PA came in. Thank you again for your guidance.

I have been shooting it for a couple of weeks now. She has a little twang, but no hand shock that I can tell. She is apparently tillered perfectly for 3 under, and shooting .400 spine carbons, 100gr inserts and a 200gr point with authority.

I did learn a couple of lessons here. Mostly take your time, don't get in a hurry, and be patient. But overall, I am thrilled and intend to shoot my first trad deer with it this season.

These are the only pics I took of the youth R/D before giving it to my 5yo nephew. I was shooting for 100% locally native woods, so it is ERC over Mesquite that I harvested and milled.
 
 

I wish that I would have thought about using native wood before purchasing my lamination so many years ago. I ended up using Mesquite for this riser too, and the limbs are Red Elm as you can tell. My next one will be Texas Juniper on Mesquite, with an Acacia (Texas Ebony) accent. I intend to harvest and mill it all myself just to say I did  
 
 
 

[Monteria]

My sister just sent a pic of my nephew and I shooting the little R/D longbow. Tips are ungodly heavy antler, because I know he would bang it around a bunch.

 

[rmorris]

What a great looking bow ! Good job and can't wait to see your future work...  

[scottm]

Awsum!!!  

[kennym]

Thats cool , Steve!! That youth bow looks great braced, bet full draw is great too!!

[D]

Heck yeah that thing is sweet.

[Dan Bonner]

Those are some great bows! Not many folks design their first form. Hats off for doing that and hitting weight first try. I love the native woods idea. I'm in tx too and build a lot with Tx ebony, Osage, and Juniper. Not much looks better than hill country juniper under clear glass with a lot of sapwood showing. Can't wait to see the next one. I'd say you took your own advise about taking your time.... but seven years?

Bonner

[Monteria]

Thanks, Y'all.

Kenny, I am going down to visit the phews in a week or two. I'll see about getting some drawn pics then. But you were right on with the taper, the limbs flow smooth and elegantly through the draw cycle.

Dan, do you have any juniper under clear pics? I have started milling some small logs to learn where abouts the best character (sap/heart swirl) lies, and it appears the best figure comes under obvious exterior folds, twist and knots, just outside of the heartwood. Surprise, I know... It also seems that logs about 6 or 7" across have better character than larger ones. Smaller than 6 or 7" does not produce enough cross section to get any number of lams out of. Too bad that I cant cut down the one propping up my recurve above. I'll just have to find the next straightest out of the several hundred in my yard.

Concerning taking your time, I was referring more to things like cutting string groves. I would encourage anyone interested in trying this jump in both feet first IMMEDIATELY! It has been a very rewarding experience. Even if most of my success was dumb luck  

Steve

[Dan Bonner]

Those are some great bows! Not many folks design their first form. Hats off for doing that and hitting weight first try. I love the native woods idea. I'm in tx too and build a lot with Tx ebony, Osage, and Juniper. Not much looks better than hill country juniper under clear glass with a lot of sapwood showing. Can't wait to see the next one. I'd say you took your own advise about taking your time.... but seven years?

Bonner

[Dan Bonner]

No idea why the double post. Sorry. Anyway Juniper under glass.
 
 

This is an all local woods bow. Cut the TX Ebony and Osage out of logs and the Juniper out of a fence post.
 
 
made it 3 years ago for a Tradganger who cut the Ebony in his yard in McAllen. Got 5 risers out of the logs he traded for this bow.

hope this helps
Bonner

[Monteria]

Wow, that looks great. I was shooting for the more delicate swirls, which are harder to come by, but that may have changed my mind.

I have been eyeing old fence post on my way home from work every day too. I can cut the stuff all day long, but I cant imagine anything more seasoned than a 50 year old corner post  

Steve