St. Judes BBY build along? IT'S DONE!! Pics included

[wingnut]

Talked to Dave and he has the bow.  Look for some pics soon.

Mike

[Tom Leemans]

I feel for Dave. He's been workin' lots of O.T. like me. Unfortunately, in my case, it ran me down until I ended up sick for 2 weeks. Hope that doesn't happen to Dave. Don't wory folks, it'll get done.
 

[Ray Lyon]

Didn't mean to put pressure on anyone, it's just this is such a cool project and the talent/creativity is incredible.  

[Dave Bulla]

Well, sorry I'm not moving very quickly on this.  Between work and fixing the family car (Kinda a high priority) I'm a bit behind.  

I'm also striving for a good match of leather to the red (bloodwood) lam under the black horn belly.  I've got some latigo that it close but it's oily and the dye is mostly on the surface with lots of tan in the middle.  I've toyed with the idea of using some of my red rit dye to color a piece of leather but I'm scared the dye could bleed out into the yew handle when the super glue hits it and being a soft wood I'm afraid it would really wick in and I couldn't get it out so that's not gonna happen.  Today I remembered picking up a redish colored womans leather coat at a yard sale a year or so ago for my wife and so I dug it out to check the color.  It looks like it will be pretty close to what I want if it doesn't get too dark.  I'll have to cut a piece out and see what it does in a "test".  Think my wife will notice????  HA!  Actually, I bought the coat just to cut it up for handle wraps and such but I'd forgotten about it so I'm not really cutting up my wifes leather dress coat....

It's a beautiful day today and is supposed to get up to about 77 degrees so I think I'll get my little wooden bench and set it in the yard so I can do some work before I head off to work AGAIN.  

Might be a day or two before I get some pics up though.

[Tim Clark]

I may be far off the mark here, but would it be worthwhile to apply, say, shellac, on that area where the leather will lay? If waxless shellac is used, it will bond to any finish and any finish will bond to it, so it wouldn't be such an issue for the man doing the actual bow finish.

Just my two cents. Even if it's worth nothing.

[Dave Bulla]

Well, I've come to the conclusion that it's justnot possible to match the red color of the lam with a piece of leather.  I did about six different test build ups since I last posted on a piece of pine scrap lumber (should be similar to yew in hardness/absorbtion) and nothing even comes close.  It all gets too dark, almost black.  

In the end, I've decided to try to match the brown of the snakewood for the first layer and go with a black for the rest to match the horn.  That will still give a nice accent stripe, won't look overly flashy, and will match two of the four existing colors of the bow.  It's in progress and I hope to have pics up in a day or so with the bow going out in just a couple of days.

Who's next?  I'm gonna need an address....

[DarkeGreen]

This bow may be too sweet when it's finnished. How great would this be to hunt with...it just kicks my butt. Love it!

[wingnut]

Dave,

Here's the batting order for this soon to be great bow and build along.

1) Yew board - Mike/Tim
2) glue up with Tonkin Bamboo Back - Wingnut
3) tiller to 40s flat belly - JD
4) Add horn belly,snakewood underlay and final tiller - John S
5) horn tips with string keeper - Tom
6) Leather L/R arrow rest - Dave Bulla
7) Timo - carp skins
8) finish work - CK
9) Bow sock and string - Dano
10) Self nock arrows - SLR


So Timo's next.  I think you already have the address from the other bow.

Mike

[Shakes.602]

WOW!!  I can Only Dream of Being That Good Someday!! Y'all Do Some  AWSOME WORK!!! The Love of Doing That Kind of a Bow Just Shines Through, doesnt it???  

[Dave Bulla]

Just a heads up.

We made it through the tornado warnings last night by going to the basement....

Been working on the bow and it's about 99% done.  Some real fine sanding and maybe another coat of glue and she'll be ready to head off to Timo.  I'm gonna try to upload the pics to photobucket but I won't put them here until I have the bow done all the way and can show the whole series.  I didn't take as many pictures this time because the proceedure was the same as for the team osage bow but there are enough to see the basic steps.  

The shape of the shelves on this one are different than on the osage bow but the whole bow is a different style....  I really like it a lot!  I wish it would pull to my draw length.

[Timo]

Mike, not sure if you have been checking the other st judes bow or not, but the skins will have to be stopped short of Daves leather work. I had to do a thread wrap at the ends of the skins.

I need to make sure that will be ok on this bow before we put the skins on? And are you sure you want to cover up that perty Tonkin?

[Tom Leemans]

Dave- Glad to hear you're all safe there. We had a scare the other night ourselves.

Yes Timo, the scales will work right in to the whole snakewood, snake head thing. I would say it'd be better that they run to/blend into the tips. (My opinion anyway) I would think you could blend right up to the horn overlays with a brand new sharp razor blade.

I think a brown thread wrap just like the self bow would be fine. That way, we'd still have some bamboo showing in the handle area.

[wingnut]

Timo,

Dave is not putting leather on the back of this bow like the other.  It already has the bamboo bringing it to a rounder back.  Anyway you can bring the skins farther down if you want.

mike

[Dave Bulla]

Okay, time for a couple pictures.

Here is the handle area as I recieved it.  I've added a light pencil line across the sides where the shelves will go.  
 

Here is the first piece of leather.  It's a real thin piece of horse hide.  Very dense but thin and the color will closely match the brown in the handle.  I'm trying to draw the shape of the shelves on it before I cut it out.
 

Here it is cut a bit closer to shape.
 

Here is the first layer glued in place and saturated with a coat of super glue.  Notice the two shelves are connected across the belly.  There will be a very small lip there that makes a great locator.
 

And this is the first layer of dark leather glued on and skived.
 

That is all I have for right now.  I'm trying to make steaks on the grill and pack my lunch while the pics load.  Only got those couple loaded to photobucket so the rest will have to wait until late tonight or tomorrow because it's time to head to work.

[Timo]

Tom and Mike,Gotta good idea of what you're meaning, so it should work fine.I'll wait and see when she gets here. Lookin forward to seein her.

[Dave Bulla]

Okay, got a couple more pics loaded...

Here is another layer of the horse hide.  This cut is the same cut as a piece of cordovan and I believe they call it an "inside split".  Anyway, it starts out about a 1/16th or a little thicker and tapers down to tissue paper thin.  Literally.  It's so thin on the one edge that you can see through it.  This piece is only about .010" to .015" thick so it will make a nice thin line.  The added line will also aid in shaping the shelves since it acts like a contour map line.
   

Here it is glued in place.  It's so thin I didn't really even try to cut it to shape.  Just glued it on and then I'll trim it to fit.  You can see the contact area if you look close because the super glue is seeping through.  Everything else will get trimed off.
   

This one shows the leather trimed, skived and some sanding done.  I took it mainly to show just how scary ugly this can look  to a first timer.  It really takes careful sanding on this yew bow to keep off the wood.  It's a lot softer than osage and doesn't sand equally.  Gotta really be careful to not sand a dished area just off the leather.  I never used anything coarser than 600 grit when actually sanding over the wood.
 

Here's the other side after it's been cleaned up quite a bit.  Still two layers to go and more adjustments to the shape.
 

[Dave Bulla]

By the way Timo, I was thinking about what you mentioned about having to stop the skins short and was wondering if that was because they are not long enough or because you can't hide the splice under the handle wrap?  

Either way, if the skins have to stop short maybe something else could be put in the middle like a piece of snake skin?  Then do the same thing where the two meet with the wraps like you did on the osage bow.  I thought of maybing doing that with the fish skins but being kinda "directional" in appearance, it might not look right.

Or, I could do back overlays but make them go all the way from fade to fade with straight across ends.  If the bow was mine I'd be slapping the overlays on in a heartbeat anyway.

Aw heck, I don't know... just throwing out ideas.  I guess it comes down to either

1:  Trying to splice the skins in the middle. (assuming they are long enough)

2.  Stopping them short and tapering the end; no wrap.

3.  Stopping short and ending in a wrap like the osage bow.

4.  Stopping short with a wrap and something else in the middle like a third piece of skin or a leather overlay.

Anybody else got ideas?

[wingnut]

I think bringing the skins to the center and a nice skive joint would work fine.

Mike

[Luke Vander Vennen]

 

This bow is going to be incredible when it's finished

[Tom Leemans]

Intimidating getting near the bow with tools and sandpaper, isn't it Dave?