2010 Spring Cherry Recurve

[ChristopherO]

This has been a long time in the process.  Having had made a number of board, stave and Bamboo laminated bows I was ready to try my hand at a FG bow.  One reason is that my impatience tends to get me frustrated with the all wood bows and it is rare I get them up to the weight I am looking for due to taking too much wood off in the earlier stages.  And, two, I am shooting the FG bow my Dad purchased from Herters in 1960.  I haven't crafted a wooden bow that I believe will be around that long, just yet, and want a shooter I can use daily without any long term degredation.

I know many of you are very happy with the plans from Binghams and the bows made from those blueprints.  Personally, though, even they are a good starting point,  I wanted something different that what I see they offer.  The Herters bow is a recurve 68" in length and a bit unweildy in the woods.  Not bad but I was looking for something in the 62" range to tote.  What I did last fall was to take some of the elements of the Herters and scale it down, namely the riser portion, and redesign it to fit the shorter over all length.  The treat was to keep the limbs exactly as they are on the Herters, as they are very smooth and zippy.
Putting all this on paper and then transfering it into a form and making the other tools necessary took my the better part of the winter but finally it was completed to the point that satisfied me.
But before I purchased the laminations and glue from Kenny McKinzey I needed someway to sand the fades clean and smooth.  So another project was begun to first build a spindle sander.  

 
With this I could confidently sand the lines necessary to make this worthwhile to put together.

Asking my Dad to assist me before I had to go to work for the night helped assure me this would work:
The Dry Run
 

[ChristopherO]

I have no pictures of the glue up but you all have seen that process before on many execllent build alongs.  
I asked my wife and son to unplug the hot box around 11:00 pm while I was at a second job.  The next morning she informed me that when they openned the garage door the hot box lid was popped off.  I suspected one end of the firehose may give even though it was set in polyeurethane and clamped.  A friend used his machinist lathe to turn the pipe down to fit but it became a bit too small in diameter.  We could only hope it was clamped in the heat long enough to set the glue up well.
The first unveiling:
 

The risers and lam glue lines looked pretty good.
 

[ChristopherO]

My impatient once again got the best of me and I just had to remove the glue buggers.  Not having a working belt sander I took it to the 36 grit spindle sander.  If you've ever though about using an aggressive spindle sander to remove glue may I suggest you stick your head in a hot oven first?  It will save you untold frustration.  Yes, I gouged the limbs too deep in a couple of spots forcing me to sand them down even, taking off more limb width than I had ever planned to do.  So what should be an 1 3/4" wide limb is now an 1 9/16"+ limbed bow.  You are exactly right:  How am I going to get the 55#@28" out of this now?  I didn't.  It is a 44.5# bow at 28".  Not a wash, this dog can still hunt.  It gives me an excuse to make another, doesn't it?!
This has, also, convinced me that I am going to buy a set of blueprints from plansnow.com of an edge sander for my next project.  This is a must for the type of work I want to do.

Anyway, here are a few more pictures of the completed bow for your review:

 
Kenny M suggested for my first bow to use colored lams.  I heeded his advice and choose brown.  It was pretty bland so I added Cherry and Ash riser and tip overlays to give some extra appeal.  Those take a lot of work to finish with any decency.  Hats off to you bowyers that make them look so easy.

 

 

Another shot of the profile:
 

The riser stripe could have had tighter glue lines.  Next time I need to pick up a finer grit drum than 36 grit for this.  It was all Grizzly had at the time.  (My impatience, again)

 


 

The Full Draw shot to finish up this post.  
 

I want to thank Kenny M, Marty (AKA Apex Predator) and the many others who have given their time, expertise and tips in build alongs to help folks like me in this pursuit.
Hope you all enjoyed.

[bjansen]

Very nice!

[formerbutcher]

Nice bow man !

[Robertfishes]

looks good to me, better get started on another ASAP. I bought hose plugs from Binghams, they are slightly concave(hour glass)shaped where the hose clamps go.

[kennym]

Dang nice,my first was no where near that nice! More like a club!

     

[Bone lake]

Nice work, looks good.

[fish n chicks]

Hey ChrisO, I don't know if veteran woodworkers, or bowyers, have told you, but I'll let you in on a little secret, but you can't tell anyone:

Patience is simply NOT one of our traits!! Maybe outside the shop, but once I walk in, it just seems there's never enough hours in a day.

EXCELLENT bow brother. I can only hope my first lammed bow looks close to the quality of yours.

[ARCHER2]

Looks good brother! Good job!

[justin33]

really nice... I prefer a 45#r

[Mike Most]

Its pretty cool to read the posts with all the added story lines, reminds me of myself in some ways. On to #2.....

My first one leaned 1/4 inch the same way,  :eek:   but still kills hogs....     nice to have 4 hands some days.

Mike

[ChristopherO]

Thanks for all the encouraging words, gentlemen.  I hope this can help another person who plans on making their own FG Laminated bow in the future.

[ron w]

WELL DONE  !!!!!!!   Real nice lines.......

[Trux Turning]

Nice looking bow!!