White Oak backed Ipe, An update and a repair.

[LittleBen]

Here's one I just finished. This one's for me. It was inspired by a bow Chackworth posted a while back    http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=009968  

Anyway, the bow is about 60" tip to tip, 1.375" wide at the fades, tapering to 3/8" tips. Bow draws roughly 40# @ 25". Hasn't been shot yet, so we'll see how the speed is, but I think it'll be fine with very light tips.

The riser is Shedua - white oak - shedua - curly maple - shedua - white oak - shedua. Plain maple riser overlay.

Limbs are  white oak backing(.120" parallel), maple core (.120 .0025"/" taper), ipe belly (.0025"/" taper). Tip overlays are water buffalo horn. (I love that stuff)

I really like how the bow turned out. I did screw up one thing. The riser was supposed to have a nice curly maple I-Beam show in the sight window. Unfortunately the piece of curly maple had really nice figure on one end and a discolored portion on the other. Didnt pay enough attention and accidentally got the maple upside down so the sight window shows this weird orange-pink maple with very little figure ... Well live and learn I guess.

The back was stained to match the color of the shedua in the riser.
   
   
   
   
   
   

Very impressed with white oak for backing ... plus it was pretty cheap to go buy some white oak and have it resawn to 5/16" thickness. Then I grind it on my lam grinder. I think it came out to like $4 a backing strip or less. Alot less if you can do the resawing yourself.

[scottm]

Wow!Looks great!

[takefive]

Sweet looking bow  

[talkingcabbage]

That's nice! So its all wood, no glass? Very cool. Did you have to fine tiller it after glue up?

[LittleBen]

All wood, no glass. Yes I had to tiller but very little. I used super tiller to choose the stack thickness so the weight was close and the taper was nearly perfect ( luck). I just evened the limbs out and did some minor touch ups for tip alignment mainly. Hour tops to tiller it. For anyone curious the total limb thickness is .415 at the fades and .290 at the tips. Top limb is 3/4" longer so the thickness on bottom limb is slightly less than listed above.

[LESKEN2011]

You sure did a fine job on that one. I had one laid out very similar to that, but with a little more bend in the ipe to start with so the dish wouldn't cut it. I'd love to see a full draw pic.

[LittleBen]

I'll put up a full draw once I can get Dana to snap the photo or figure out how to use the timer on my camera

[Roy from Pa]

I guess it's Ok:)

[Igor]

Sharp!

Love the tips....thanks for sharing!


><>>
Glenn

[LittleBen]

One of these days I'll make an osage bow Roy. Until then I understand your skepticism.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Ben how do you suppose that riser is going to stay put without fades in the core section? Be careful with it.

[LittleBen]

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean PD. I think the photo may be a bit deceiving. The riser is sandwiched in between the white oak backing strip and the maple core/ipe belly. White oak in front, then riser, then maple then ipe. Think of it like a really thick power lam.

[John Scifres]

Ben,

You seriously haven't shot it?  It's not a bow until you shoot it.

Don't get me wrong because I think it's cool and you obviously worked hard and did a nice job on the finish and such.  But dude, I hope it shoots for you.  I really do.

[vanillabear?]

[LittleBen]

John, No I seriously haven't shot it. Unfortunately I live in an Apt in the city so shooting is a planned event for me.

I agree though, its just a wall hanger until some arrows go through it.

It's just such a pain to get to the range I find it easier to build than shoot. Hopefully one of these days I'll get out of the city far enough to shoot at my home.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Ben Im just wondering what you think will keep those over and under lays (your riser) from popping off at full draw. Most bows all have fades off the core. Yours is parallel through meaning nothing but the glue joint is stopping the handle from bending. That only works for so long until something comes unscrewed. See what I mean? You can shoot all you want in an apartment. Shoot at a few paces just so you can see if the woodworking project can become a bow.

[macbow]

Ben can't tell you the number of times I shot bows in my,apartment,when I was in school.
Don't think I'd be,able to wait.

Good looking wood bow hope it's a shooter.

[LittleBen]

PD, The forward portion of the riser is sandwiched between the limb laminations.

In order from back to belly: maple overlay, white oak backing strip, Riser (thick power lam), maple, ipe, second riser block.

It's made just like this bow ... Again the picture is just deceiving, the maple handle overlay on the back makes it look in the picture liek the riser is just glued onto the backing. It is not. The riser is sandwiched between the limb laminations.
 http://www.dryadbows.com/instock/images/SS18instk.jpg

I think I'm going to visit canopybow this week and the bow (woodworking project) will get some arrows through it.

[John Scifres]

When  first started making bows, I lived in a tiny Cape Cod style house on a postage stamp yard.  I could shoot in the yard if I shot towards the house but I got sick of shooting my vinyl siding (I was a really bad shot    )

So I made a 15 foot "range" in the upper/attic level of my house until I shot several holes through the knotty pine.  Got real scared of shooting through the window so I stopped.

So I guess I know what you mean.  Good luck!

[Roy from Pa]

I'm not a recurve expert Pearly, but what about the longer riser extension on the back side of the riser? It extends out past the belly side of the riser end?