Tri-lam first attempt (BANG!!!! then we pay taps...)

[Troy D. Breeding]

It's your fault Roy....

If you hadn't been showing all those good times in your shop and really nice bows I might have never given it much thought.

Anyway, This one ain't going to be quite as fancy as the one's ya'll build. It's been a truck load of years since I built an all wood bow, so this one will be a straight limb. No fancy R/D.

.125" Quarter sawn hickory back, .100" walnut core and quarter sawn osage belly.

1-3/16" across the back, 1-1/2" back to belly, 68" NtN.  Would have made it longer, but when you only have 37" material to work with for the belly wood the "Z" splice has a way of reducing the length. Still should be plenty long.  

     

     

After layout and cutting off the excess with the bandsaw.

     

     

     

After cutting away the excess and sanding smooth I thought it would be limber enough to start floor tillering.

Looks like I guessed wrong. The width was reduced from 1-3/16" at the end of the fades to 3/4" at the tips.

The thickness of the limbs from the end of the fades to the tips is now 7/8" down to 5/8" and it will barely bend when attempting floor tillering.

Looks like I'll need to trim the thickness down alittle more. Only wanting somewhere between 45# to 50# at 28".

[Roy from Pa]

You go ole timer..       Be keeping an eye on ya Troy.. Get er done.. Looks sweet thus far..

[Buemaker]

Good luck with the project, looking good. Bue--

[Troy D. Breeding]

Finally got the limbs thin enough to floor tiller. The tips are now in the 7/16" thickness range. The thickness at the fade outs is about 9/16".

[Archer Dave]

Cool, I will be looking forward to seeing the finished photos.

[Mark Smeltzer]

Cool, I like that one.Keep us posted please.

Mark

[LittleBen]

Looking good Troy! I like the style. Simple, but classic American longbow. Can't wait to see it bending a bit!

[Troy D. Breeding]

After getting the bow to floor tiller, I filed in the string grooves and short braced it. The tiller looked good so I braced it a bit higher. At this point it's braced 6-1/4" back of bow to string.

 

Here is a close up of both limbs. To me it needs to bend a bit more in the mid section of the limbs. What ya'll think? Am I right?

 

 

Been so many years since I made an all wood bow the tillering is tough. Nothing built in like the glass bows.

[Roy from Pa]

That looks ok for a 6 1/4 brace height. It's gonna bend more when ya pull it ole timer... Remember?  

[Troy D. Breeding]

Yes sir, I scraped just a tab more and raised the brace to 7" back of bow to string. Checked the tiller on my hash marks and did a little more tillering to make the outer half of the limbs bend a little better.

I'll upload the new pictures after while. Better half wants me to run to town with her and there ain't no need in trying to get her to think the bow is more important.

[takefive]

Looking good so far    

[Troy D. Breeding]

Here is what it looks like after raising the brace to 7" back of bow to string along with a little more scraping.

   

   

   

Checked the distance from the belly of the bow limbs to the back of the string at all the hash marks right limb to left limb. I marked the hash marks every 2" along the limbs length starting 8" from the center of the riser.

Hash mark:
#1  6-1/4"RL    6-5/32"LL
#2  6-7/16"RL   6-1/32"LL
#3  6" RL       5-27/32"LL
#4  5-3/4"RL    5-19/32"LL
#5  5-7/16"RL   5-1/4"LL
#6  5-1/32"RL   4-27/32"LL
#7  4-9/16"RL   4-3/8"LL
#8  4-1/16"RL   3-7/8"LL
#9  3-15/16"RL  3-9/32"LL
#10 2-13/16"RL  2-5/8"LL
#11 2-1/8"RL    1-15/16"LL

Right limb at this point will be the upper limb and left limb will be the lower.

After being stung for well over 2 hours here is what it looks like.

   

The limb tips are showing a little string follow. That was to be expected.

I took a picture right after unstringing, sighting down the side of the limb. Looks like it might have taken a bit of set somewhere around the #1 and #2 hash marks.

   

I just checked the bow and it has recovered some of the string follow, but it still shows some of it just past the #1 hash mark.

So far I'm happy. I'll work on it more tomorrow.

[Troy D. Breeding]

Back to the shop for more tillering.

[Bowjunkie]

That area that is taking a little set in the last picture seems to coincide with where those rings are running out sharply on the belly side, aye? I wouldn't remove any more wood from there for a while.

[Roy from Pa]

Yep..

[Troy D. Breeding]

That's exactly what I was thinking. Looks like it needs to bend more from mid limb to the tips.

The osage wasn't the best I've ever had, but rather than wait till I found the right piece I thought I'd give these pieces a try.

One of the best osage self bows I ever made came from two pieces of wood that came from different trees. Joined them together with a piece of 1-1/4" muffler pipe that I flattened to an oval shape.

[Roy from Pa]

Muffler pipe?

Is there something in the water out there in Ohio?    

[Troy D. Breeding]

Yep, muffler pipe.

Easy to flatten to an oval shape and yet plenty thick. Takes a little time to make the back of the sleeve flat so that it really is a long "D" shape, but easy to find at any muffler shop and not expensive.

Fit the wood ends as you would for a takedown sleeve and then glue them together. Solid as a rock and much easier than doing the "Z" splice.

Never could find anything else that would fit exactly inside the muffler pipe for a poor mans takedown or i would have done that as well.

[Troy D. Breeding]

Forgot to say it's better known as a Alabama Redneck Bow sleeve.

Only a real Southerner can come up with something that good.

[Troy D. Breeding]

A little more scraping and a little more checking. Scraped from mid limb to tips. Braced at 7-3/4"

 

 

 

Pulled to 20"  weight at 20" at this point is 30#

 

After looking over the pictures I could see it needed more scraping mid limb and alot more towards the tips.