laminate bow and hand tools

[toddster]

I have lately been biten with the bug to build few bows lately, thanks to you all.  It has been some years since built laminated bows and used bandsaw.  I am thinking of trying to laminate a longbow, then use handtools to cut and tiller it out.  I know you all have alot more experiance than me and wanted to know one is it possible, with the fiberglass?  Any recommended tools better than sureform, farriers rasp, planning on leaving draw knife out?  thanks.

[Millhimes]

Those tools will work on the riser,but rasps splinter the glass more than i like.If you add a belt sander for shaping the limbs with some 60 grit you could do it.get a dust mask too,glass dust is nasty--Joe

[kennym]

You can use a rasp, not too aggressive.

On the riser part, always rasp into the wood or the glass will splinter. On limbs, work from center towards tip carefully or will splinter.

The sander will be much nicer tho...

[Echatham]

hmmmm..... just a belt sander and hand tools ehh... i know a fella has a shop like that....    

[Echatham]

would love to see this as a build along

[RAU]

Ive built a few glass long bows using a cheap hand held craftsman belt sander clamped and Ziptied sideways and square to a folding workmate table. Almost all handle work was done with various rasps and files. I cut the site window out with a circular saw wich really looks like hell untill you go back over and blend all the chew marks out into a nice curve with rasps and files but it does work. I just set the blade depth on a piece of scrap 2 X 4 and really go slow.

[Faithful]

I would recommend using a hack saw and coping saw to cut the limbs and sight window out. Those tools will work much better than trying to rasp the limbs down. After you get the bow roughed out, use a flat file on the limb edges to finish them out and rough tiller the bow. You can use a half round file on the sight window. The hack saw and coping saw will in effect work like a bandsaw, just much slower. But it will certainly be faster than attempting to file or rasp out the entire bow. Use a block sander to finish tillering and smoothing the edges.

You can use a rat tail file to cut the nocks.

I should add, you can get a handle for a hack saw blade that does not have the "c" type frame. This would allow you to cut the limbs without dragging the framework through the area you are cutting.

[toddster]

Thanks all, when I get a chance will try and report back.

[MoeM]

I know someone who build a D/R with an anglegrinder... I`d really get nuts!

[LittleBen]

if yo go for an all wood laminate then hand tools are no problem at all!