begginner builder

[Double A]

 
 
 

[Double A]

Do any of those answer the question?

[ColonelSandersLite]

The back of the bow is the other side   .  You know, the side away from user.  That's where the most stress goes.

[Double A]

I understand, though you needed to look at riser side to Answe question about the fades

[Double A]

i have easy access to reasonably priced lumber, if i wanted to make something to back the bow, like hickory, can i use my power planer to thickness it down?  how think would it ultimately need to be?  If i backed it with Hickory (does walnut work for this?) or similar, would i then have to reduce the thickness of the limb wood?  is that a drawknife time thing or gradual sanding?

[macbow]

If you wanted to put a hickory backing, 1/16 to 1/8 max thickness. And this would add overall pull weight.

On red oak  if you have a drum sander it is good to "tiller" reduce the limb thickness. Floor tillering should come first.
Draw knife will also work but is difficult with red oak.

If,the bow hits weight and tiller, backing with rawhide would keep the back together and not add much pull weight.

[Double A]

ok cool, thanks for that, i have a ridgid spindle sander that should work great for this.  can i cut an 1/8th" sliver of wood with my table saw?
is that a no on the walnut as a backing?

[ColonelSandersLite]

Yeah, don't use walnut for a backing.  Some say it makes a good belly wood, but backing I don't think anybody is recommending it as a backing.

Re Hickory thickness, bearing in mind that this is a kids weight bow, I would say 1/16" max.  Hickory is very strong in tension and if the proportion of hickory to red oak is too high, it'll crush the red oak like a beer can.  If the grain is good enough on the oak, it would honestly probably be better to go for a non-working backing like rawhide for a kids weight bow.

And yeah, seen where other people have ripped hickory backing from board stock on a table saw.  Just be aware that the grain on a piece of backing wood needs to be impeccable.  No knots and very very straight grain.

Check these out, they'll probably help.
   
 

[Double A]

thanks alot for all the help.  i'll try to take some better pics of the back of the bow when i get home tonight.  like you guys said, it seems like its going to come out heavy already, i'll see when i recut the tapers in the width to a narrower limb tip.  kinda stuck on the handle, just have it roughed in, any rules i should be conscious not to break on handle carving?

[Double A]

 
 

[razorback]

Best thing to do is leave the handle as a solid block until the bow is tillered. This accomplishes two things, first it gives you a solid flat base to rest the bow on the tiller tree and secondly it saves you a bunch of work if the bow doesn't make it. For a good description of the handle fading into the limb check out Sam Harpers  www.poorfolksbows.com  web site.
I've made a bunch of kids bows out of red oak and have had good success with them. Paper is a good backing to help hold it together. I use drywall tape.

[Double A]

I see what you mean, it's gonna be a pain.

[Double A]

Hey I have some old fiberglass cloth, could I use that to back the bow?  I used resin with it before, don't have any left.  Is there anything inexpensive to wet that out with?

[macbow]

Titebond 2 or 3 will work great,with any cloth type backing.
Cloth like old jeans or camo cloths itc soaked with the glue and then wiped clean works well.

Cloth type backings are not bullet proof but keeps the back from being too dangerous if it breaks.

To give you a idea the oak board bows I made were 1/4 inch thick with glued on handles. Some even had a little grain run out, hard. Not to have some.

I would over draw them as a safety check. About 1 out of 4 broke.

[ColonelSandersLite]

From what I can tell by photos (there's no substitute for examining in person) that board looks pretty good to me.

Given that it's a kids weight bow and the grain is pretty good, I would recommend that you go for something that won't really add substantially to the draw weight just as insurance.  I can't say how applying fiberglass cloth with titebond would go, but properly using fiberglass cloth with the epoxy would add substantially to the draw weight I think.

Personally, I would go for either cloth (linen or silk), or paper.  If you want protection from injury in the event of the bow breaking, put a layer of drywall tape underneath there.

On my first bow, I went with the drywall tape under linen style.  I cracked its back on the tillering tree right near the end.  I hoped against hope that the distinctive popping sound was just the tillering tree settling or a twist coming out of the pull line or something like that.  It turned out that it wasn't, but even so, with a cracked back, I managed to finish the (bad) tiller and shoot it for about a half an hour before a distinctive white line really showed in the backing and I wrote it off as completely unsafe to shoot.  If I hadn't backed the bow at all, I'm sure it would have just shattered right on the tillering tree.  That I shot it for a half hour with a broken back should serve as a testament to how safe that setup can really be.

[Double A]

Thanks for the feedback and advice.  Are you referring to the fiberglass cross hatched drywall tape or the simple paper kind?  I like the idea of backing it with fabric

[ColonelSandersLite]

The glass stuff.  Yeah, it's ugly, and that's why I hide it under cloth.

[fujimo]

silk works great too- its my second choice after rawhide. glass and resin will overpower the belly, on red oak, i would think- most seem to use the drywall glass weave tape and TB glue-
linen would be awesome too- and a smoother finish

[Double A]

ahh thats a good idea to hide the tape with fabric.  My mom is a fabric hoarding quilter lady so she has a strip of camo fabric for me.  i'll go with that.  will i need to thin the limbs down at all to compensate or will i have to do that anyway as part of normal tillering?

[macbow]

The cloth will have little,effect on pull weight.
I would do the tillering first sand everything down then add the cloth.
I do a thin layer of Titebond on the bow back. Then coat the cloth really well and after applying smooth it out towards the edges to work out any air bubbles.
The camo cloth really works well.