68" hickory backed lemonwood ALB

[Pat B]

A few years ago James Parker gave me a lemonwood stave(board). I decided I would build a traditional American Longbow similar to the ones poplar during the 1930's and 1940's when lemonwood was a popular bow wood. Being that the lemonwood is in board form I thought a hickory backing(also traditional) was I order. I'm using an old piece of osage for the handle riser. Here are  few pics od the process...
This is a dry lay-up to insure everything matched up...
 

 I decided to glue the riser to the belly first. I'm using Urac for all the glue-up work...
 

 Once that was done and the glue cured out in my hot box I cleaned up the belly/riser and sanded the glue surface of the belly on the belt sander. I did the same with the hickory backing strip. Next, (a tip from a friend) I drilled two 1/8" holes through the backing strip at the center of the handle and slightly into the belly and inserted 1/8" hardwood dowels for alignment pins.
 

I then buttered both glue surfaces with Urac and put them together using the alignment pics to help hold everything in place. I also added clamps to the tips.
 

 

[Pat B]

My clamping system is bicycle tire tubes wrapped tightly around the glue-up. I then placed it on the form with the tips up on blocks then drew the handle area down with a large "C" clamp to the base, adding about 3/4" of glued in reflex. I also added small clamps at the ends of the riser to prevent any problems while drawing it into reflex.
 

 

  Then into the hot box for a few hours. I lay the aluminum foil over the glue-up to prevent any hot spots from the 100w light bulbs. She cooked for a little over 2 hours at about 110deg then I turned off the hot box and let the glue-up sit over night to cool.
 

 

  This morning I cleaned the glue-up on the belt sander and soon I'll begin the tillering process.

[Minnesota Bill]

Pat
This looks great.  Like the thought of making it into that style of bow.  Does lemonwood have to follow the grain?  Where these bows always backed?
I will be watching this one.

Bill

[Pat B]

Most tropical woods don't have noticeable yearly growth rings because the growing season is constant. Being that this was a sawn out stave I decided to back it. I don't think it is necessary to back lemonwood. Lots of unbacked lemonwood bows during their hay day.

[Bob at Work]

another cool one Pat...shouldn't take as long as the sinew backed osage...  
thanks for sharing.

[takefive]

Looking good, Pat.  Can't wait to see it all finished    

[Pat B]

Here she is out of the oven.
 

unwrapped
 

 

 After she came out of the form she retained about 1/4" of the glued in reflex. I have now cleaned up the sides rounded the back edges and hand sanded the backing. More pics tomorrow.

[LittleBen]

coooooooool. Don't see much lemonwood action on here so I'm all eyes open for this one.

[bigbob2]

Watching with interest.

[jsweka]

Originally posted by bigbob2:
Watching with interest.

Me too!!!!

[Pat B]

I've got the sides cleaned of excess glue and reduced the stave to the bow profile lines on the belt sander. I then blended the riser into the belly.
 

 

I started reducing the limb thickness, a little at a time until I get some tip movement while floor tillering. I scribe a line down both sides of each limb and reduce the limb thickness to that line, starting along the edges of the belly on both sides of each limb then take the center down.
Here is how I scribe the line along the limb edge...
 

  For those that have problems with handle risers popping off when the bow is flexed here is how I keep it from happening. I start with the full thickness of the board(generally about 3/4") and add the riser. As the limbs are reduced and the riser blended into the limbs the riser now sits above the plane of the limbs and the handle area won't bend and the riser remains intact. You can see it in this pic...
 

...and more so in this pic...
 

[red hill]

Looks good, pat. And thanks for that explanation for handles popping off. Last summer I ditched a bow for that very reason. Now I know why it happened.  

[scars]

Got my popcorn    Looks great Pat.

[Blaino]

I'm in.....

[ron w]

Looking good......neat stuff!

[ron w]

   

[Pat B]

Hopefully more this weekend.

[MacRae]

NICE!  Once I made a hickory backed Ipe...I was SOLD on non-glass laminated bows...

[bjansen]

Great work Pat.

[scars]

Pat,
I was looking at your glue up picture when I realized that not only are you using a rare wood for this day and age. but that you are using urac, a discontinued glue replaced by unibond.

I also noticed that urac appears to be more fluid than unibond. It looks like it flows more like warm hide glue then unibonds thick kayro syrup. I was wondering what ratio you mixed and how does it compare to unibond 800?