Primitive Looking Glass Bow

[John Scifres]

I am pondering building a glass bow.  But I want it to look more like a wooden selfbow.  Have y'all done or seen something like this?

[snakewood3]

Of multiple lams or a glass backed selfbow ?

[jsweka]

My first glass lam bow looked pretty dang primitive.

I remember seeing a pic somewhere a while back where some professional made one that was "snakey" that looked really cool.  I think it was for an auction sort of thing.  Anybody else remember that bow?

[Sal]

One of my friends did a bow like that, it was in the California style about 50" long, wide and reflexed.  He used clear glass and from afar it looked like a selfbow.  It shot well too.

[karrow]

ive got a friend that does alot of bow building of both kinds. (glass and self bow) ive seen a few glassed backed osage bows that hes made. looks alot like a bbo bbh bow. laminated tip overlays. nothin fancey but diffrent. one ive seen had some sort of a power strip type thing in it. i dont have details. for sure doable

[Shaun]

Ted's Raptor Signature LB is a very straight forward glass bow that shoots closest to a good osage flat bow of any I've tried. It does not look "primitive" but it sure feels like the real thing in the hand.

[Walt Francis]

Ron King of Fox archery made and donated a snakey fiberglass at the PBS convention last March.  It was a beauty!  We sat at the same table at the Saturday night dinner and talked some, but the topic of how he built it never came up.  Looking at the bow it looked like he built a normal 2" longbow and radius the sides in an alternating snakey wavy pattern.  He left (I'm guessing) a continuous strip of glass 3/4" - 1" wide the entire length of the bow until it narrowed at the tips.  It wasn't super snakey like some of the Osage bows many of us make but it looked really good.  It had the advantage of alternating the curves on opposite limbs to help balance the looks and weight distribution.  I should be a good shooter.

I once had glass flatbow by Dick Robertson that was built with 100% osage and clear glass front and back.  It was around 1 3/4"-2" wide and shot really well, most people thought it was a selfbow from farther than 10 feet.  Do not remember the length for sure, think it was around 62"-64".  I bought the bow on the other site before this one was in existence (I'm thinking around 2001), Dick told me he had quit making them around ten years before that.

[7 Lakes]

Are you thinking maybe a Hill Style Longbow with a bit of string follow and no arrow shelf.

I've built a few of this type for archers that participate in Medieval reanactments.  The prettiest was Yew laminations topped with Hickory under glass.  It looked as close to a English Longbow as I could get.  Sorry, no pictures.

[John Scifres]

Thanks all.  

Walt any idea where I can get pics of the snaky bow?

7 Lakes, sorta but without the rampy style dips.  A little more organic is what I am thinking.

If anyone has recommendations on a recipe, I would love to hear it.  I have never built a glass bow.

[7 Lakes]

Maybe glue a 8" grip on after the glue up or at least on top of the belly glass.

I always wondered if that would give problems in the fade.  

I'd love to hear from anyone that's tried it.

[rainman]

I can't find the thread but there were pictures last year of the bow.

[snakewood3]

I THINK Whip had that bow for sale a while back. It is a really neat looking bow.

[eagleone]

I remember that bow- snake wood is correct Whip had it up for sale

[Mark Baker]

John....I seem to remember Dick Robertson also doing a "snaky" fiberglass bow once.  I don't remember how it turned out.   In fact, seems I've seen a couple over the years.  

I think if you started with 2" clear glass, and used osage, yew, or some other recognizeable wood for lams, and simply glued them up, then tillered and shaped as you would a selfbow, you could come up with something quite unique, and pretty easily done.

[2treks]

http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=115517;p=1

[2treks]

That snake bow that Dick Robertson made was reall cool. If I remember right,it had more snake to it than the fox.
My friend made some very nice straight bows with no shelf. He shot them off the knuckle just like a self bow.

[2treks]

TTT

[2treks]

TTT