Reflex/Deflex Questions

[tommy36]

Hello everyone,
it has been a while sense i have been on here. long story short moved to England left all my bows in the states and now i have the itch again. I am planning on building a reflex/ Deflex style bow, Hardwood is hard to come by here but i have a nice grained Piece of Oak. What can i back Oak with for a good shooting bow. second i will not be able to build a heat box, but i have seen plenty of builds without one, can i use titebond 3 for the glue up? if not whats the best kind of epoxy. and lastly whats the thickness of the oak that i should shoot for? any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Pat B]

Hickory(hard to come by in England), maple and elm will make a good backing for a red oak bow. I have made quite a few...but none were R/D style. You can use TBIII for glue-up.
 England has quite a large archery community. They don't hunt there but do target shoot and have organized shoots too.
 If you'll check out the War Bow section on Primitive Archer you may find wood bow builders in your area of England.

[tommy36]

Hey thanks pat,
I have noticed there is some shoots and i have met a few people who shoot, i need to find a place to shoot. maple and elm though i will keep a look out for them. the hobby shop on the air force base i work for has a decent selection of wood i will see if they have elm or maple.

[Pat B]

Both of those woods will make great bow, even better than red oak.

[tommy36]

could i back oak with bamboo? like the slats you can get from 3rivers?

[macbow]

If you can order from 3 Rivers then recently they had a decent price on some Osage.

My choice would be Osage backed with bamboo.

You could back the oak but the combination isn't the best. The bamboo will be stronger than the oak is in compression so the back might need to be trapped some.

[Pat B]

I agree with Macbow. Either osage make a good belly wood for boo baking.

[tommy36]

Thanks for the input guys, i think i will order the osage and some bamboo and then i will save this oak that i have for another long bow i guess.

[tommy36]

Could i back The osage with hickory instead?

[mikkekeswick]

I'm in England and can tell you places to get good wood, I must have been to just about all the good suppliers. You can also get a lot of stuff mail order. Where are you based?
TB3 is fine as long as you can get perfect mating surfaces. Cascamite is also a good good that is easily available. As is resourcinol.

[Pat B]

Hickory makes a very good backing for osage. I like it better than boo because it is way more reliable.

[tommy36]

Okay guys so i think i am going to do a oak backed with maple because i found some maple on base. My questions is thickness should i do half inch oak on the belly and 1/8th in maple for the backing? does that sound about right or is that going to be way to thick for the belly

[macbow]

Of coarse depends on target pull weight.
Nort sure on how thick on the oak. The maple at 1/8 sounds good.
If you start with the 1/2 inch oak it's just a matter of removing belly till it will floor tiller.

[mikkekeswick]

Maple backed maple would be better than mbo. Oak isn't very good at all in compression.

[tommy36]

okay so i hear a lot of negative about the oak. so I now have a 3/8th inch thick piece of maple. i can get walnut, more maple, i think cherry should i just buy more wood and use the 3/8th inch piece i have as the belly and back it with something.?

[tommy36]

or could i use the maple that i have and back that with oak? would that be any better

[fujimo]

x2 what mike says- maple backed maple would be good

[Nezwin]

Depending on what type of Oak you've got, you should be able to use that as a backing. Read somewhere in TBB that White Oak is the equal of Hickory as a backing, English Oak isn't a whole lot different. Could even make a selfbow, save the Maple for a MBM D/R.