1st BBO...The building of Halcyon

[Zradix]

I tried a BBI a couple weeks ago and it didn't turn out.

So I decided to give a BBO a try.
One thing I didn't like about my old form is that it had a little flex.

So I built one that wouldn't...
The angle pcs and mid limb pads were some scraps I had laying around from some old projects.

The 2x6x3/16"wall rect tube was a leftover pc of frame/bumper my buddy had from building an off road rig.
He was nice enough to let me have it.

My clamps aren't quite deep enough to put the bow in the middle.
So I need to clamp off to one side.
...the price you pay for free sometimes..lol
That steel doesn't even notice it's being used though, so no worries

     

         

[Zradix]

I ordered a BBO kit.
Wasn't happy with the boo I received, but the seller was a good guy and sent me another pc.
The first one had some pretty deep digs in it and some cracks on the bottom side.

So in the meantime I took the osage down to 1.5" wide .5" thick by 66" long.
I plan on building this bow 66" long.  1.25" wide, 9" handle pc, 12" PL, and continuing the 1.25" width 4" past the PL then tapering to 1/2" tips.

Hoping for a 45-50# @ 28".

Once the new pc of boo came in I drew the outline of the bow on it..
 


And sanded it down to the line
 

[Zradix]

Then I thinned the boo down.
I've only sanded down boo 3 times now.
It seemed like I could never get it truly flat from side to side.
I've been using a pc of 1/2" thick steel for a sanding block too.

This time after sanding, I scraped the boo flat...much better result.

So after sanding the boo down thin I laid it down on the osage and traced out the pattern.
 
 
 

[Zradix]

Then I sanded the osage down to about 1/8" or so from the line.
...don't have a pic of that.

The osage at this point has the general lines of the the finished width taper.

It was still all 1/2" thick though.

Starting from the point where my limbs start to taper I sanded the belly tapering to 3/8" thick at the tips.
 

After sanding I scraped again just to get everything square.
Made quite a pile of pretty yellow shavings..lol
 

Kinda hard to see here but this is the result..
 

[Zradix]

Then I sanded down a piece of walnut for my PL.
Ran a hacksaw blade down everything to rough it up.

And got messy..
 

 

 

 

[Zradix]

Overall I'd say I had a pretty productive night.

Have to admit, I like working with the osage more than the ipe.
The ipe seemed to fight a little more every step..not bad..just the osage seemed easier.

Might just be because this is my second attempt and a hair more experience made it seem easier too though..

One of my favorite things about the osage is the dust didn't bother me at all.

Boo dust irritates my hands.
Ipe dust burns my nose a bit..I do wear a mask.
Ebony burns my nose and eyes a bit more..
But osage seems pretty docile..I like it.

Also it's soooo much easier to see your pencil lines...lol

oh yeah..
I glued up a little riser block yesterday..
I think it should look decent..
   

   

I haven't decided which way I'm going to orient the handle pc.
Could have the osage showing straight out on the belly side or visible from the sides.

I'm leaning towards having the osage show from the sides.

   

[Zradix]

So...
I'll probably be begging for tillering help mon or tues night...   :rolleyes:

[Roy from Pa]

Looking good, John..

[Bowjunkie]

Looks good so far. You did good by not using that piece of damaged bamboo. Good call.

I have a feeling you're going to be thinning that osage quite a bit to hit your target weight. 1/2" tapered to 3/8" is pretty thick for a 45-50# bow. For comparison, I have one here I made with the same profile as yours, the osage is 1/2" at the handle, 3/8" at mid-limb, and 5/16" at the tips. The bow is 1.25" wide, 64" long nock to nock, and draws 70# @ 28".

I have no power lam in this bow, however, it's 8" from flare to flare, with a handle piece glued on that is 14" long, which tapers the dips into working limb thickness 3" past the flares. I make the handle rounded and the belly fully radiused, so that 3" dip area is actually tapering in thickness AND width. This accomplishes strengthening of the handle area and a gradual transition from stiff handle into working limb not unlike the effects of a 'power lam'.

Oh yeah, this bow is trapezoidal in cross section too... so that's even less wood... still a 70 pounder    :eek:

[Echatham]

alright back in the saddle! good luck man!        

[J. Holden]

You're making this look easy.  Can't wai to see the finished product.

-Jeremy  

[Bowjunkie]

The only other advice I would give you at this point is...

You said, "I've only sanded down boo 3 times now. It seemed like I could never get it truly flat from side to side. I've been using a pc of 1/2" thick steel for a sanding block too."

It's very hard to flatten wood or bamboo with a sanding block... or ANY flat hand tool. No matter how hard you try, you invariably roll the tool one way or the other just a tiny bit, and bam, she's no longer flat... which will show in your glue lines along the edge. I used to work hard at making them flat too, tried all different kinds of hand tools, and was never completely happy until I purchased a toothing plane. I LOVE it... one of my most favorite tools. If you're going to make more than a couple backed bows, you may want to look into investing in one. The blade is best when ground and sharpened in a slightly convex shape. It works better to flatten than flat tools do. You can direct your work to specific areas across the width of the piece. And more importantly, when I'm done flattening/thinning it, I run the toothing plane several passes, perfectly parallel with the bamboo, with the apex of the convex blade as exactly down the center as possible, until it won't remove any more material. Then when you clamp the very thin piece of bamboo down, it flattens out, showing perfect glue lines on the edge of the bow every time. In fact it works so well, that sometimes when the bow's done, you can't FIND the glue joint.

Toothing planes aren't cheap, they're a little over a hundred bucks, but worth every penny.

If you're a capable woodworker, Dean Torges shows you how to make your own in his video Hunting The Bamboo Backed Bow. That way, all you have to do is buy the blade.

By the way, I use the toothing plane blade, removed from the plane, to prep glue joints on the handle pieces, all overlays, etc. I also used it, in the plane, to prep the osage's gluing surface until I bought a thickness sander.

I don't know what kind of glue you're using, but if you ever get a toothing plane, you'll need to use a glue with gap filling properties... i.e. epoxy.

I'm looking forward to following along with the rest of this build. Good luck with it!

[Bowjunkie]

Roy, I'm home, but won't be coming down today. I'm going to glue up another BBO.

[Zradix]

Thank you for the tip!

[Echatham]

man that is one heavy duty form you got there.

[Zradix]

kinda over done...but it's what I had available.

I just tacked the angle on with the welder.

I would have liked to go through and drill and tap holes all up and down the base so I could have adjustability.

But I just didn't feel like it.

I can remove the angles in short order with a grinder.

[Zradix]

Took the osage down to the boo last night.
Removed the excess glue.
Taking down the osage took a lot longer than expected..don't know why..just seemed to take forever..lol

But I did get the handle glued on about 2am.

Guess I have tonight off while waiting for glue to harden.
 

 

[Echatham]

thats gonna be pretty.

[Zradix]

Thanks Eric.

I hope so..it has a chance as long as I don't screw it up...lol

[LittleBen]

Is that handle ebony again? I really like the look of that.