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

[Troy D. Breeding]

If I had one of this fancy digital cameras back when I made a few wood bows in the past it would have been alot easier.

No need to pull and hold while you study things out. Now I pull the bow to a certain draw, take a quick picture then study the picture. Way less strain on the bow if things ain't quite right.

After the last scraping I took a picture of it pulled to 20".  It now pulls 28# @20"

 

Since it didn't look too out of kilter I pulled it to 22". Weight at 22" is 32#

 

Then I pulled it to 24". Pulls 37# @ 24"

 

Here it is after unstringing. A little bit of string follow, but expected that.

 

Side view of the limb right after unstringing.

 

Still have 4" of draw length to get to. If it continues to increase the bow weight at the 5# per inch range I want have to worry about it coming in lighter than I wanted.

[Troy D. Breeding]

Forgot to add that so far I've been able to keep it with a 1/8" positive tiller. May want to increase that, maybe to 1/4".

[Archer Dave]

Looking good. Now that it is finally getting some humidity back in the air, I need to finish tillering a bow I started last fall.

[LittleBen]

Looks like you're gaining 2-2.5#/inch of draw. So that's put you at about 47#@28". Minus a couple pounds for set, a couple for sanding and maybe a couple for shoot in of first 100 arrows .... I think you can probably squeeze out something in the 42-44# range.

The tiller looks really good though, and youre obviously well on your way!

You gonna stain it or you keeping it natural?

[Troy D. Breeding]

LittleBen,

That weight is about what I figured. I stated 5# per inch earlier, but meant 5# for every 2". I can always shorten the bow by a couple inches if it comes out under weight after shooting in.

I may wipe the osage down with clorox bleach just to darken it, but will most likely leave the hickory natural. This bow will just be used to tournament and backyard shooting. If I decide to make one for hunting it will be slightly heavier in weight and will be stained.

[Roy from Pa]

Looking nice, Troy

[Troy D. Breeding]

After looking and looking at the 24" draw picture I think it still needs a little scraping on the outer 1/3 of the limbs. Seems to be a tad stiff in that area.

If I can get that taken care of today it would great. Then I can work on the riser and shape the grip.

I think it's supposed to rain most of this week, so that means no shooting until I can get atleast a few coats of Massey finish on it.

[cunruhshoot]

It make is look easy Troy...nice job. Looking forward to see how you will shape the handle area.

[Troy D. Breeding]

Well,,, all I can say is $#@!#% happens....

 

 

I had just decided that I finally had the tiller to the way I wanted. Been working on it for a couple more hours and had it looking good all the way to 28". I had just checked the weight and it was coming in at 46#@28".

Then on the next pull to double check everything, BANG!!!

Guess all that is left is to play taps and start another one.

[J.F. Miller]

if I were a betting man, which I'm not, I'd say the hickory backing is the culprit. did post mortem exam reveal the cause? hickory has broken my heart many times for no apparent reason other than it's hickory. I don't use it anymore. my osage core wood and my time is too valuable to waste it on hickory backing. quality bamboo is the only way to go, imo.

[Troy D. Breeding]

Jamie,

I'm beginning to think the same way. I've used hickory in the past with good luck, but it was air dried, not kiln dried.

I've seen bamboo in one of the wood stores I buy from over at Charm. They have it tagged as bow backings, but wondered if it was worth trying.

I want be back at that shop for some time. It's a 3+ hour drive for me to get there.

[Buemaker]

Too bad.   :(   Bue--.

[J.F. Miller]

Keim Lumber?

I'd say trust your judgment with bamboo bow backing bought from the Amish, not theirs.

[Roy from Pa]

Sorry, Troy.. Looks to me like the Osage had some bad grain run out right there too.

[Troy D. Breeding]

Yes sir Roy, that's the exact spot where the limb failed. The other limb had good straight grain.

I've only had one run with bamboo for a backing and it was on a light weight bow for my daughter. Not sure what kind of boo it was. The piece was about 3" in dia. and growing in a stand of boo beside my neighbors barn. It cracked so bad while drying I was only able to get the one piece from it.

I think I've got another piece of Osage in my stack of material. If I remember right it is fairly decent quarter sawn along one side.

May pull that piece and look it over tomorrow.

I will make atleast one bow before throwing in the towel.

[mikkekeswick]

Originally posted by J.F. Miller:
if I were a betting man, which I'm not, I'd say the hickory backing is the culprit. did post mortem exam reveal the cause? hickory has broken my heart many times for no apparent reason other than it's hickory. I don't use it anymore. my osage core wood and my time is too valuable to waste it on hickory backing. quality bamboo is the only way to go, imo.

Bamboo can lift splinters at nodes....nothing is bombproof.
A straight grained hickory backing will not break before your belly wood (osage or not!) chrysals. If the grain is dodgy then of course it will. You say for no apparent reason - well unless the wood was bone dry or had been exposed to moisture for too long then that reason was how the grain ran. Straight grained hickory is at least as tough as any bamboo. I've tested many backings and know for sure that hickory will not break unless the grain isn't what it should be....heck you can almost tie knots in the good stuff! Too many people use any old hickory and rely on it's interlocking grain to hold everything together. Some of the elb's I see over here make me wince!

[Bowjunkie]

Sorry, Troy. That sucks.

There was a lot of ring runout in that osage. Sometimes that matters.

It's hard to say about the hickory. I've had good success with it, but I'm still using hickory backings I got from Murray Gaskins, and he sold top rate hickory for bows, imo.

When I run out, ideally, I'd like to cut my own mockernut or pignut hickory and air dry it. I work with a guy that owns a saw mill and he could cut it for me. I'd like to do the same with hard maple and white oak too, but to be honest, it's a lot easier to grab another bamboo slat from the pile :^)

[J.F. Miller]

I respectfully disagree. in theory, everything you say is true, or at least is the popular consensus. My experience tells me otherwise. the occurrence of problems with quality hickory is 10 times that of quality bamboo, perhaps more. quality bamboo is more reliable in tension than hickory. I live in a place where high quality hickory is readily available in whatever grain orientation a person desires. I have used plenty of straight grained, hand picked quarter sawn Pignut and Shagbark hickory backing. none of it lasts on the back of a heavy hunting bow. bamboo does last.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Don't give up on hickory Troy.

[Troy D. Breeding]

Laying in bed last night I remembered I do have a few pieces of air dried hickory out in my garage. If there is any quarter sawn in that stack I may give it a try.

I've used hickory in the past with good results. Heck, I've even got a couple hickory self bows that were made out of hickory boards that were never scrapped to one ring.

I also kept thinking about other things that might have been the death of this bow.

One thing that may have been the killer was being too narrow. The blank was only 1-3/16" wide. When I tapered the limbs that made it only 1" to 1-1/8" where it blew. That width will work fine for a glass bow, but being narrow and having bad belly grain probably wasn't the best combo.

Until I get me hands on a piece or two of bamboo to I'll continue giving hickory a try.