my first BBO bow

[gjkerns]

I made my first bow as a red oak board bow from poorfolkbows.  That bow was  awesome.  It recently wore out after a few thousand shots, probably due to my poor bowyery.

I decided to try an osage board from 3rivers with a planed piece of bamboo for backing.  The board is just over 2" wide, but the bamboo varies from 1-1/2" up to 1-3/4" in places.

I don't have any experience working with bamboo, and it looks like I have a lot to learn.

Here is my plan gleaned from TBB and lurking online:

1. Trace out bamboo strip on bow's back, shorten board width to that amount (around 1-1/2").
2. Rough out limbs, keeping full width to mid-limb, then taper to 1/2"
3. Trace new bow outline to bamboo strip, remove marked excess
4. Now thin bamboo from 1/8" in the handle area to 1/16" at tips
5. Do glue-up, followed by riser, tillering and finishing.

Questions:

1. How far off base am I?
2. When people measure thickness of bamboo, are they referring to thickness at the crown, or on the edges?

Thanks for any guidance.

[macbow]

You are in the ball park.
You can shorten the steps some.

1. Trace or lay out your bow limbs etc. on the flat part of the bamboo. Cut to line, I use a bandsaw.
2. Reduce thickness of bamboo so edges are not more than 1/8 inch. Taper as desired.
3. Take the osage reduce to desired thickness and taper..
4. Prepare form. Glue on bamboo to belly slat. Glue in reflex and or deflex.  Next tillering.

[Bowjunkie]

So much of importance gets missed this way, I'm hesitant to help. I don't mean to he a smart@$$, but it's like 'simplifying' brain surgery by condensing it into 5 simple steps. As long as you do them all, you're golden.

1. Knock patient unconscious.

2. Open skull.

3. Find brain and repair.

4. Close skull.

5. Wake patient.

My advice, in the absence of more specific questions, would be to get Dean Torges' dvd, "Hunting the Bamboo Backed Bow"... review, rinse and repeat... then ask any questions you have.

[gjkerns]

@macbow, Thank you. I wanted somebody who knows something to confirm that I'm not standing somewhere in the parking lot.

@Bowjunkie, smart@$$ is exactly what I'm looking for, because currently I am a dumb@$$.  I will purchase that DVD - thank you for the reference.

[Kohlqez]

I thought the thread said, "my first BBQ bow" guess that's why I am supposed to wear glasses.
Youve got more bowyering experience than I do seeing as I've got 0 successful bows to my credit, but I did notice at least one step that you either overlooked or possibly thought it was so obvious that it didn't warrant mentioning.
When you back a bow with bamboo you are supposed to make sure the nodes are spaced in a particular way. This guy explains it better than I ever could since Ive never attempted it and don't exactly understand the process  http://poorfolkbows.com/ipe2.htm
Also be sure to wear a mask when you work with bamboo, it can wreak havoc on the lungs

[macbow]

The Dean Torges video is basicly what I follow.

[takefive]

I measure the bamboo's thickness from the crown.  When you cut it to your width, you'll probably have to rasp it down a little.  You want the edges of the bamboo to be a knife edge or just a hair thick.  It's hard to explain, but I hope that makes sense.
Here's a good build along to follow.  He used Ipe instead of Osage, but the method is the same.  I referred to it a lot for my first BBO.

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=009703;p=1

[gjkerns]

@Kohlqez - thanks, I had seen that description but hadn't studied it (didn't stick on the first read), but after your comment I have read it more carefully and I get it now.  The piece of bamboo I got is exactly 72" long so I don't have much  wiggle room for centering the nodes.  It's stored in a different location so I will have to measure it tomorrow to see where the nodes fall.  If they aren't centered then I will need to either ignore it or shorten the bow.  Let me see where they turn out.  

@macbow, yes, that's going to need to be required viewing for me before I pick up any hand tools.  I really want to not screw this up, so I am slowing down considerably to learn as much as I can beforehand.  I may screw it up anyway, but I don't want it to be because of some dopey blunder.

@takefive: that is helpful, and yes, that makes perfect sense.  That's a great build along, thanks!!

[takefive]

The last two I made had me scratching my head because the nodes were so unevenly spaced.  I wound up with one node well inside the fade and the other at the edge of the fade to keep them more evenly spaced at the tips.

 

I kept them more even at the handle on the other one, but wound up with nodes a couple of inches from the tips.

 

[Roy from Pa]

The node spacing is cosmetic anyway. Sure it looks nice with evenly spaced nodes, which is how I lay mine out when possible. But it's no big deal.

 

[macbow]

Takefive, those look great.
Could you post a close up of your handle, arrow pass design.

[gjkerns]

@takefive and Roy - D@mn! those are mighty fine looking bows.  I tell you: if mine ends up looking even half as good as either one of those, I'll be a happy man.

I didn't measure the nodes on my boo until today: the uppermost node is 11.5" from the end, while the lowermost is 13".  So it's pretty close already, but I could cut 1.5" from the lower end to get them exactly evenly spaced from the tips.  If there aren't tangible design benefits then I probably will just leave it alone.  The nodes aren't a constant distance between, so it's going to be unbalanced somewhere regardless of what I do on the tips.

I believe I read somewhere that the nodes are the weak point in the backing system, so I can see an argument where those optimally would be balanced from the ends, which might help tillering or something else...?  But there's a difference between theoretical optimality and "plenty good enough" and for my first BBO I would prefer to err on the good-enough side.

@takefive, I would like to second macbow's request for additional closeups.

Roy - is that something silver I see in the handle area?  What is that?  Is it an attached arrow shelf of some kind, or is that just an illusion in the picture?

[Roy from Pa]

After tillering the bow on the tree, I put about 100 arrows through it, then recheck the tiller. What you see is the leather arrow rest with a piece of tape over the top to keep the tung oil finish from penetrating into it, which would make it harder than what I want it to be.

[gjkerns]

I see - that makes sense.  Repeat: mighty fine bow.

[Roy from Pa]

Finished riser with a leather arrow rest, same bow.

 

 

[takefive]

Jeez, I miss a day or two on here and suddenly Roy shows up    
Here are the links to the bows and pictures of the offset handles.  I got the idea from Stim Wilcox's book "The Art of Making Selfbows".  Except for the handle, honestly, I try to copy Roy's bows the best I can.

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=013286;p=1#000000

 http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,58003.0.html

[macbow]

Thanks for posting the pics.
So the offset is done during the layout?

[takefive]

I don't lay it out until it's almost completely tillered.  I have a better picture that shows how I lay it out.  It was a pyramid bow 2" wide at the fades, so I could get the arrow pass just about  center shot.

 

[macbow]

Love it will have to put this on my to do list for a special friend.

[gjkerns]

I bought the Dean Torges DVD.  It arrived today, and I watched it.  I now see why you recommended it.  I'm going to need to watch it several times.

In the meantime, I have some questions.  The bow Dean outlined was a bit shorter than (64" NTN) and not as wide (1-1/4") as I expected.  That's fine, and I don't mind to make a bow just like that, and if it looks like his, then it will be a great bow.  He also described putting some reflex in the tips, which I hadn't planned on, but after watching the video I very well may give it a try.

But he didn't quantify the draw weight of the finished bow.  I was wanting something in the 50# range.  The trick is that my draw length is shorter than most (24-1/2").  That means I'm looking for a bow that would be something around 60# @ 28", though I'd never draw it that far back.

Would I need to change the given dimensions (longer/wider limbs, etc) to get a bow like I want?   Not having experience with this wood/boo combination, I'm really flying blind on how stiff these things are at the floor-tillered stage.

Any guidance would be appreciated.  I have other questions, but overall bow dimensions are pretty close to the front.