R/D glass longbow blank. .BUILD ALONG. .Finished bow PICS . . Dryad Bows

[insttech1]

Mike thanks for the info!

And as for that "power tools" and taking an hour...geesh...it takes me an hour just to look at the stave and figure out where to make the first sanding stroke...LOL!!

Take Care,
Marc

[pintail_drake2004]

very nice, cant wait to see it finished

[Greg Owen]

Would this be a good project for a newbie? I want to build a bow someday.

[tmccall]

This should be good!  I'm standing by...

[wingnut]

Ok,  Here we go.  This bow is almost done before we get started.  All we really have to do is the tips and the handle / sight window.

Lets start with the tips being that's the pics I have ready.

As you can see in this pic the string groves are almost there.  We cut them to check tiller and weight but put the overlays on top and now it won't hold a string so it's a blank not a bow.

 

The first step is to taper the belly side of the tip from just outside the string grove to the end of the bow.

 

 

[wingnut]

Now we are going to trap the belly of the tips section for the last 6" or so to prep for our transition to a round tip profile.

 

 

[wingnut]

Now we are ready to shape our tip overlays.  First take the bow and put it in a vise to hold it steady.  Using a strip of 36 grit belting about 1" wide (flexible rasp) and a shoe shine technique we will round the overlay section of the tip.

 

It's easy to follow progress on the blank because you have two colors to balance.

 

It should look like the above pic after this step.

[wingnut]

Now it's time to shape our tip to a bullet.  We like a sanding block with course grit to do this work.

 

When done it should look like this and be balanced

 

[tmccall]

Awesome!  Keep on...

[wingnut]

Now using your chainsaw file or rat tail file cut in the top string grove following the one in the bow.

 

When completed it should look like this:

 

[wingnut]

Turn the bow over and shape the under side of the tip by removing the ridges with the sanding block.

 

Use the flexible rasp to blend the rectangular profile to a round.

 

Finally use the file to complete the string grooves.

 

 

[wingnut]

Now we need to blend the front of the overlay into the limb.  We use a rather large sander for this, but a rasp will do the trick.

 

The finished tip should look something like this
 

 

Now flip the bow and do it the same on the other end.

[wingnut]

We'll do the handle tomorrow.

Mike

[Bob Barnes]

Great Job Mike !  This new idea may be one that will keep you way too busy...     I just finished my bow oven today but this might be a way to get myself a pattern...  

Bob

[tmccall]

Excellent...  Looking forward to tomorrow's installation!

[Shaun]

Good stuff there Mike and Jason. I hope these become real popular and you get to spend the profits hunting. Looking forward to the rest of the story.

[Ray]

Real nice of you Mike to take the time to share your knowledge.- Ray/mamba

[Sant-Ravenhill]

Thanks much for sharing!

[Ol Man]

Mike,

When will the blanks be available??  Looks great to me so far.

[wingnut]

Doug,

you can order your blanks now!!  Each blank is built to order.  We tooks some orders yesterday.  We will be building them in the next week or so.

Mike