Robin bamboo build along

[Bakh]

Very very nice work Sam.

[LESKEN2011]

Good step by step tutorial, Sam. Thanks for taking the time. I hope she turns out to be a great shooter for you.

[Mad Max]

sam
I played around with leather grips a little
The leather is always to thick, and it never fits right.
you have to have one of those leather splitter  thinning thingees, and they are not cheep.

the best handle grips i have made is from Elk skin suede but you don't tool it

I kind of gave up on tooled leather grip
This is Elk suede with Acrylic paint brushed on, when I stretched it around it made a crackle finish.

 

[BMN]

Great looking bow Sam. Love your build alongs. Really enjoy your writing style.    

[Sam Harper]

That's really nice, Mark.  I've done a couple with similar lacing, but I always had a difficult time figuring out how to finish them.  This one with the gold lace, I just used a lot of superglue.

 

With this one, I just tucked the ends under the lacing on the back.  It's all one continuous lace.

 

I'm curious how you did yours.

 I'm not quite ready to give up on the tooled leather handle yet.  It's still new to me.  I have to wait until the newness wears off.  I may do another one for this bow.

[Sam Harper]

The one time I didn't hit "preview" first, the picture doesn't show up.

 

[Sam Harper]

Okay, here's my final reflections.  If any of you actually read this, you know that Robin Tan from Singapore sent me this bamboo in exchange for me writing a review and doing a build along, which is why this build along exists.  I've already made a lot of comments about the bamboo, but let me recap.

Robin's bamboo had a smaller diameter than what I usually get from Franks, which resulted in a higher crown, which made it hard to get as thin as I wanted it.

The node spacing on Robin's bamboo is great.  They are very wide, which makes it easier to tiller because there are fewer flat spots.

The rind came off easier with Robin's bamboo, and it seemed harder underneath.

Robin's bamboo is stringier, which I guess means the power fibers are distributed more evenly throughout the thickness.

Robin's bamboo was noticeably harder when I took the rind off.  It was more resistant to indentation.  It was also smoother.

Robin's bamboo smelled funny, not like the hay bamboo usually smells like.

Robin's bamboo had some funny dips near the nodes that made it hard to get the rind off in those places.

Robin's bamboo had some dark colour to it that looked like water damage, but I don't know if it is or not.  It was so dark, I didn't even put a dye on it.  I like the way it looks, though.  It's got personality.

Robin wanted me to say something about the shooting characteristics compared to the bamboo I usually get, so I tried to compare it to a bow I had previously made of roughly the same style.  I really can't say much about it because the bows are not similar enough to share.  My old bow is 55# whereas my Robin bow is 47#.  My old bow is 2" shorter than my Robin bow.  My old bow is more of a longbow/hybrid, whereas my Robin bow is a recurve.  My old bow has longer heavier tip overlays than my Robin bow.

But for what it's worth, I did notice two differences.  My old bow was faster than my Robin bow (probably because it's 7# stronger), but my Robin bow is more quiet than my old bow, and I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's because the tip overlays are lighter.  Maybe it's because the limbs have better balance.  Maybe it's because it's longer.  Maybe because it's slower.  I dunno.

I am pretty happy with my Robin bamboo.  Thanks Robin!

Here is a video I took showing the bow on the tiller tree, then with me shooting it.

 

[LoreVa13]

Awesome build along!

[Mad Max]

Originally posted by Mark Daniel:
sam
I played around with leather grips a little
The leather is always to thick, and it never fits right.
you have to have one of those leather splitter  thinning thingees, and they are not cheep.

the best handle grips i have made is from Elk skin suede but you don't tool it

I kind of gave up on tooled leather grip
This is Elk suede with Acrylic paint brushed on, when I stretched it around it made a crackle finish.

     

this bow was not wide enough at the handle so I added some to it, and had to cover it up.

Like i said I brushed the acrylic paint on the suede , then when I stretched it around, the paint pulled apart,giving that crackle look, but I liked the way it looked.
The lacing was hard to figure out even after I figured it out. If I do it again I will have to figure it out again.
The lacing is one piece.
I would like to do some tooled leather for a grip.
but I think you would need the LEATHER SPLITTER $300.00
I drove 1-1/2 hours to tandy and they don't have leather thin enough for me, and if it's too thin you can't tool it.

just my though

[Sam Harper]

Originally posted by Mark Daniel:
Like i said I brushed the acrylic paint on the suede , then when I stretched it around, the paint pulled apart,giving that crackle look, but I liked the way it looked.

That is a neat little trick.  It looks great.

 

The lacing was hard to figure out even after I figured it out. If I do it again I will have to figure it out again.

If I remember right, J.D. Jones used to do a lot of handles with different kinds of lace wrapped around them.  They were really cool looking.  I wish he would do a tutorial because back when I started making English longbows, I really wanted to learn how to do it but couldn't find any info about it.  I had to kind of figure it out.

I think these are J.D.'s

 

Here's a build along based off of how J.D. used to do his handle wraps.

 http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php?topic=11781.0

[Sam Harper]

Ooo!  Looky what I just found!

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=006437

It would be so much better to see it done in video, though.  I'm slow when it comes to these things.

[Mad Max]

Yea when I wanted to do mine, It was like a secret, From what I read, the guy did not want to give out the Info.

so I wrapped mine about 20 times before I got it.

[bubby]

I did a how to over on P.A. where I put tape on the grip area with tape sticky side out, you get a perfect fit on any shape

[Sam Harper]

bubby, why don't you give us a link?

[bubby]

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,39604.0.html
here it is, wasn't sure about cross link's between sites, surprisingly simple but it work's, if the leather is super heavy you just cut a hair away from the tape

[Sam Harper]

Smart!  That is so simple!  Thanks, bubby!

[Eric Krewson]

Here is another way to get the leather to fit an odd shaped handle. My leather isn't thick, probably 1 or 2 oz. I like to roll the top and bottom edge in for a more finished look.

   http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000052

[Sam Harper]

That's very tidy, Eric.  Thanks!

[Green]

I don't make bows, but I do follow all of y'all's work here on the bench, because you just never know.  This build along of Sam's was particularly interesting because, heck he just has a way with wood and words that's hard to turn away from, and this bamboo sparked my interest as well.

I had the opportunity to visit with Sam briefly this morning, and to look at this bow.  An absolutely beautiful job, and watching over his shoulder on the practice range proved that the end results are well worth all of the details.  Congrats Sam on another fine looking bow!

[Sam Harper]

Thanks Rob.  That was a good shoot this morning!  That was my first time out there.