1st Recurve- Buildalong

[bjansen]

Hello all, I took some pictures along the way this week so I thought I would post a short build a long for my first recurve.  

This turned out better than I ever thought and shoots better than any other I have made to date.

[bjansen]

I am using the Bingham 60" 1.75" limb design.  First thing to do was build the form. I used 3 laminations of 5/8 plywood, which came out to exactly 1.75 inchs when glued up.  Cut on the bandsaw, sanded, reverse tapers installed then formica on top.  Paste wax on the entire thing, then a coat of car wax.  

This worked really well.  Here is a pic of thec completed form.  

 

[bjansen]

For the riser, I used 3 pieces of maple, 4 pieces of walnut which I decreased in thickness 20% of so each time. I used .040 white glass, and one tapered maple lam (.110 - .002) and one walnut lam (.065 parallel).  I glued up the riser using smooth, sanded to desired shape and glued e/t up.  It was my first time using smooth on (used to use bow-grip 100)...smooth on worked great.  

   

Here is a pic of the bow when it came out of the form.

 

[bjansen]

Next, I cut the limbs to length and installed the overlays

 

[bjansen]

Now check for tiller

 

[bjansen]

Cut the shelf

 

[bjansen]

Start to cut the riser to shape

 

[bjansen]

Tip overlays.  I used .030 laminated maple, .60 zebra and .40 white glass
 

[bjansen]

Kept sanding

 

 

[bjansen]

Strung it up.  I increased the brace height to 6.25 (shown below it is at 5.5 or so)  Shoots great.  


   

 

[bjansen]

Here is a pic after sanding with 100 grit (and some mineral spirits to check for misses).  Also i traced my top 3 fingers and sanded the contours (idea I saw on the fine bows of Holmeadetraditionalbows).

   

I sanded finish sanded the bow and put on a coat of True Oil. I was hesitant to use True Oil due to its yellow tint which I thought would look bad on the white glass, but I cannot tell currently.  

True Oil is working much better than my Magna Lac.  Here it shines:

 

[bjansen]

After another 5-6 coats and a string and shelf, I will post some more pics of the bow fully complete and strung, and full draw. I am estimatign the weight will come out to around 52 lbs or so.  

Also a couple more pics of bows from the last couple months:


This 66" mild R/D was the bow I built over the last couple weeks.  I have 4 coats of true oil on it now.  I should be able to finish it tomorrow.   The form is in the background (which is similar to a critter getter...if you ever saw one of those).  This bow also shoots really well.    

     

   

Here is a 66" straight longbow.  It has a bamboo, osage and maple core, black .50 glass and a lacewood riser. It came out to be about 60 lbs.  

 

[Apex Predator]

Your a busy beaver!  Nice looking bows, and thanks a bunch for sharing.

[4runr]

Very nice!

[elk ninja]

[kennym]

Fine job!! Better check your temp,think you are gettin the sickness called bow building!!  

[bjansen]

Thank you!..and oh yes, I have the sickness!

[crooked river]

Nice lay-ups in that handle...