2 piece self bow ... first try. finished pics pg 11

[broketooth]

this is something ive been working on for about the past 4 months. ive been taking my time but its something ive always wanted was a 2 piece take down long bow. shaping has been slow, but ive been following shawns build-a-long for the same project. this bow has a natural deflex. to me it is in the young stages of floor tiller. i dont want to lose the deflex, but i dont want to much set . i think i need some help.i really dont want to screw this up.the following pics i think are the best i could come up with do give you an idea of what im dealin with. all opinions welcome negative or positive thanks for lookin ruddy

[broketooth]

[broketooth]

[broketooth]

[broketooth]

that pic was a little out of order due to technical diffaculties G]

[broketooth]

im having photobucket issues  be back soon

[Pat B]

From what I see it looks good so far, Ruddy. Can't wait to see the rest!!!

[Eric Krewson]

I am building one of these as well and noticed you did the same thing I did. I trimmed the wood to the smaller internal sleeve without thinking. I have since glued on a little wood for my "mistake" and trimmed the wood to the outer sleeve with the two parts fitted together.

[broketooth]

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[broketooth]

[broketooth]

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[broketooth]

sorry about not rotating the pic. i hope nobody snapped their neck

[broketooth]

mr eric, both halves of the stave have a small 2" brass sleeve that fit inside the steel sleeve.i used 2 part epoxy to glue the brass peices to the stave halves. the mistake that i made is when i was shaping the bow. i think i pinched the sleeve a little to hard in the vice. the limb that is in the steel sleeve now was supposed to be the bottom limb. i also think i went with a more simple design,basic pyramid design 1 1/2" wide@ the fades tapering to 5/8"@ the tips total length is 64"

[DCM]

Some sleeves have two brass components.  The one I built just had one, so the lower limb is glued directly into the steel sleeve.  

My sleeves started out tight, then got too loose so I built it back up with JB weld and re-fit them.  My wood was wet I think, then shrunk when it dried and believe it or not took the brass with it (as it has not separated from the sleeve that I could tell.  It has held up fine, although I ain't looked at the bow in several years.  When they suck up moisture and get tight it can be a real peach to get them apart.  Worse yet, in the very dry winter if too loose they'll kinda click on you early in the draw.

Looks like you are off to a great start.

Why do you not want to loose the deflex?  

It's not as bad as set, but it does nothin for the performance of the bow, at least not in the form that limb has.  Ideally you'd put it on a caul or rig up some apparatus at this point, put some heat to each limb and clamp them into about 2" of nice even reflex.  Then tiller that reflex back out, leaving a nearly straight bow.

[Eric Krewson]

I see, mine had one brass and one metal sleeve so by timming one side to the brass I had a pretty big step down from the steel sleeve to the brass one.

[broketooth]

its been stated by howard hill " all things being equal, a string follow bow will be mor acurate" doesnt a deflex longbow qualify as a string follow bow without taking any set? ruddy

[Eric Krewson]

With most osage bows if you start with 2" of reflex your bow will shoot in to even at best or a little string follow.

If you start with an inch of deflex your bow may have some serious string follow after it is shot in. It depends a lot on wood density, light wood lots of string follow, dense wood, not so much.

My current bow started with 3" of reflex(heated in) before tillering, after thousands of shots it has 1" of string follow now. Shoots real sweet.

[broketooth]

i understand what you're saying mr eric, and i stand corrected. is there any way you can post a pic of the bow your workin on? its cool if you post it on this thread , i mean we're both workin the same project, ruddy

[broketooth]

update... ive been able to work a little bit on this project. for those who know about the little something special i have planned for this bow ssshhhhhh. ive been doing some shaping and more floor tiller work and was just wondering about the looks of my progress positive and negetive comments welcome. lower limb fade total lower limb.