Bamboo/Osage Project Follow Along **Complete W/Pics**

[Roy from Pa]

Elmo, don't make me drive out there tonight and lay a whoopen on ya son:) Might even swing by Pearly Boys and Lee's place and smack them around some too:)

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Be sure and smack those two around first so your kinda tired by the time you get here Roybert cause I bruise easy.  

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Hey Roy, remember that oak lam on the back of the handle you mentioned? I said it was nothing more than a sliver, here's a good picture of it and you can also see the edge of my handle splice too.

Right underneath the knife blade you can see a tiny grey sliver, that's what's left of the oak lam. I left a little bit of it on purpose to keep the red oak handle from seperating from pressure of the backing when drawn.

 

 

Here's a nice pic to show how well my glue lines turned out.
 

Some left over glue that I take off with a rasp using the finer flat file part of a 4 in 1 rasp.
Careful to work the bamboo from back to belly!
 
 

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Here it is with the edges all cleaned up and ready to start thinning down the limbs for tillering. Right now it's probably about a 130lb. bow which is just a tad on the heavy side for me.

No matter how hard I try, I just can't ever get the correct angle or just the right picture that I'm looking for with a bow. I have a heck of a time trying to take pictures of bows for whatever reason, so I just take multiple shots hoping that a couple of them will be worth looking at.    

 

 

 

 

[Art B]

That's looking good Chris! Think you're going to like that design. Man, I cringe every time I see one of those 4-way rasp. I haven't used one since I went to a farriers rasp. Now that's a hogging tool!  Art

[okie64]

Lookin good Chris. FYI, that little sliver of oak you left on the back is not really going to serve any purpose. If you're going to use a powerlam to take pressure off the handle it needs to be 1/4" thick in the middle and extend out past your handle 2-4 inches. You've got enough deflex in that bow to take most of the pressure off the handle area anyways.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Thanks Art and Okie. I'm glad you mentioned that Okie cause I was wondering that very thing and looking at it I was scratching my head trying to figure out if there would be enough stress to cause any problems with my handle. So you answered one of my questions without me even having to ask it....Thanks!

[Living_waters]

I dont know, I have seen several people use a tapered piece under handle like that to put some of the stress inside the limb and keep the handle from popping off. I would thing if the fades began in the limb before the handle this would work very good. I don't use the tapered piece and just start the fades in the limbs and have no problems with the handles popping off the taper would just be extra insurance. And we have to remember this is a spliced billet I would have probably done the same.

Chris how long is it? It looks real close to the plans I have from binghams. I haven't made one off of its design yet, looking forward to seeing how its coming.... looking good!
(Hope it is easier to tiller than my perry reflex, I got it to about 20" and it feels really stressed)

[SEMO_HUNTER]

It's going to come out to right at 60" nock to nock. I haven't cut the nock grooves yet, but I will shortly because I'm just about ready to start tillering. Right now I'm just taking off some bulk from the belly to get each limb fairly even, then I'll put the rasp away and switch over to the scraper and palm sander. I need to just kinda get everything evened up on the limb tapers (edges) and the belly even all the way down, nice and flat then round the edges just a little bit and I can put it on the long string and see what I got. It's real close to floor tiller now.

I tend to agree with Okie about the deflex taking some stress off the limbs, especially since I glued that into the design when I stuck the boo on. So it's not like going from a flat back then trying to pull the limbs through the arc from a flat position. It curves reall nice around the handle and fades so hopefully it will be fine. I'm going to find out shortly.

[DVSHUNTER]

looking good semo.

[okie64]

Good Luck Chris. Tillering R/D bows can be a bit tricky so take your time and be patient. I tillered quite a few of them before I really figured out how to get the tips to open up just enough but not too much.

[Roy from Pa]

Looks nice Chris.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Thanks guys.

 

Originally posted by DVSHUNTER:
looking good semo.

Thanks goes to you too Dave, I love this caul design!

Getting ready to put it on the tillering tree now.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Ok, here it is with about 6" of pull on it with the long string. I can tell that the left side is thicker and heavier than the right side.

Gizmo won't work on this design, so where do I start taking meat off first? I don't know what to get bending more first, or just sand it all down even as I go? Comments.....Advice?

When I flex it and let off it appears to be pulling even on each limb, but not bending evenly I'm sure of that since the left limb is heavier? Don't know if that makes sense or not.

I did put my scale on it and pulled to an actual 10" and it pegged at 50# @ 10" so I stopped. Just wanted to make sure I had plenty of weight there to work with and I do......I got lots of weight to work with.

Roy I may need your # if you want to PM it to me.

DVSHunter- Since this is your design, please feel free to chime in here as well. I know you've tillered a bunch of these and yours look great.

Okie- Need your input as well since you seem to be familiar with this design.

Thanks fellas, I just need a starting point here so I know where to get it moving first, mid limb, outer 1/3, inner 1/3, ect.

 

[Art B]

No help here on my part for R/D glue-ups Chris. Looking good thus far though. Helps to run a temporary string from tip to tip at this point to help judge even/uneven tiller.........Art

[ron w]

From where you started to where your at right now.....you done good.  

[macbow]

Chris from my experience stay away from the fades till later.Also don't work the last 6 or 7 inches from the string grooves.
Work the area in between first.A little on each limb.
Soon you can get a short string on it and let that tell you which limb to bring around first.
Ron

[Art B]

Right now, with that long string on, the near fade area is being over-stressed. Once you go to the short string, the profile you're seeing now is going to change somewhat. Greater stress is going to shift to the outer third of your limb. You're probably aware of that but thought I'd mention it anyways.

Just me, but I'd reduce the bow's weight to where I could get a regular string on and then judge profile from there. Folks tend to stay on the long string a little to long sometimes, which, in the end, causes them to come in under weight......Art

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Very good info all, that's kinda what I was thinking about the mid limb. I reduced the left limb to move closer to the right limb, and reduced overall weight of both limbs.

You can see better in this picture that I believe it needs to move more mid limb? I think.

The fade on the right limb almost looks a little hingy to me, but it started out that way because of the Osage backing I used. That area was small to begin with and I haven't really done anything to it besides smooth it out. I'm staying away from that area all together till the limbs start to move in the middle.

Unless somebody else has a different approach? I'll hold off a bit until you all get a chance to look at this pic and I'll go get an unstrung pic for you to compare.

 

Unstrung profile
 

[SEMO_HUNTER]

I took some more off the left mid limb and I left the right one alone.

What's up with the right limb? It looks like it needs something but I'm not sure what.
It looks flat from the fade out to the last 1/3 of the limb, so should I just work on the mid limb of the left side?

Also, I'm still very heavy 50+# @14" and my goal is to hit around 50-55# @28"
So I have a ways to go yet and I haven't pulled it any further than 14" so far.