Hickory and oak pyramid bow

[John Malone]

Another question before I start gluing the riser. The oak belly is 7/16 thick, the hickory backing is 3/16 thick should I run this through the planer and take the backing down to 1/8 or leave it like it is? Reason I ask is my limited experience tells me that its way to thick to bend at the tips and mid limb starting at 1.5 and tapering to 3/8 so I will end up removing some belly material and have read that hickory can over power woods like oak which are weaker in compression. Id like to end up with as much draw weight as I can get using what I have. The backing was only 1.5 wide to start so you know.

[BMorv]

Yeah, that's why you don't see many bamboo or hickory backed red oak bows, they can easily overpower the oak.  
I don't have much experience with hickory backing, as I use bamboo, so maybe someone else with chime in.    
I think you'll have to do some thickness tapering with 1.5" wide.  The pyramid red oak bows that require little thickness taper start at around 2" wide or more and taper to less than .5" at the tips.
Floor tiller the bow after you cut out the width profile, and you should be able to get an idea if you are starting out too thick, and see where it's bending.

[John Malone]

Thanks BMorv. Seems like I remember reading a post that told some one to go 1/16 on the hickory. But I cant find it or remember who gave the advice. For some reason I'm thinking its awful thick.

[BMorv]

I'm pretty sure that most guys keep hickory or maple backing 1/8" or less.

[John Malone]

I believe you are correct.

[John Malone]

Took it down to 3/32

[John Malone]

Glued on a riser, maybe 1/32 over hang on the sides.
 

[John Malone]

Just thinking ahead, I have a ton of rattan out in the shop I use for chair backs and bottoms. They use that to wrap all kinds of handles, it might look nice on a bow handle instead of leather. You have to soak that stuff so its pliable enough to work with and as it dries it shrinks like rawhide does. That would clamp around the handle area like a vice, couldn't hurt anything. Anyone ever try that. Looks nice on a fly rod.

[YosemiteSam]

I always love seeing pics of people's woodworking space.  It's like a good kitchen or a campfire.  We need no explanation to understand what to do there.  I'm certainly no master chef, storyteller or woodworker.  But I think those spaces are deeply wired into our DNA at this point.

Getting inspired to start on my next board bow, too.

[John Malone]

Couldn't agree more Sam, my shop is desperate need of cleaning.

[John Malone]

My Stanley 220 circa 1910ish its 117 years old give or take and still works like new. Now that's ALL AMERICAN right there fellows.
 

[John Malone]

Decided to taper the belly a little bit as I could tell straight of it was stiff on the mid and outer limbs. Going to make a new long string then see were I'm at.

[John Malone]

Should I cut the handle area out before I start tillering?

[BMorv]

Get the fade areas nice and feathered to the limbs as you don't want any surprises if you do it later.  
It's easier to keep the bow in the tiller cradle if the handle edges are square.

[John Malone]

Gotcha BMorv. I left some meat on the belly so I could do that, ive feathered it in, the last two I done were a pain because I had a heck of time keeping them level and still so this time I left the handle square. Just wondering when the best time to cut that out is.

[John Malone]

[John Malone]

BMorv are you a Morvant? I knew some Morvants from La. Beauregard parish area. Matter of fact I think i knew a Bret or Brent Morvant but that was 35 years ago.

[John Malone]

Well I ordered the Tbb complete set but #2 is on back order. Maybe I wont need it for awhile. I've ordered from 3rivers 3 times in the last month and a half, those guys are fast. Put an order in on Thursday I get it Monday, even the one I placed on thanksgiving day.
 I went over board with the wood removal on this one AGAIN. So I stopped and regrouped.  Impatience isn't usually my down fall. These last three attempts have taught me one thing if nothing else. The difference between a 50# and a 40# draw weight can be 1/32 of an inch on one board and 1/16 on another.
 So I'm just going to laminate a piece of oak to the back of this one, hickory oak and oak. That will put me back to a 5/8 thickness and we will try again.

[BMorv]

Sorry man, I usually disconnect from the internet (and the rest of the world) over the weekend.
Yep, it's Benton Morvant.  I'm in Lafourche Parish.  My great grandpa and his brother came over from France to my area.  They each had 15 children, so we populated south Louisiana pretty quickly. Hahaha.  
Yeah, read all that you can on bow building.  TBB is a great reference.  There's some conflicting information in there, but overall it's a great base to start with.  If you have volume 1 and 4, immediately after you read the performance part on volume 1, read performance revisited in volume 4.  They changed their viewpoint a lot from 1 to 4.

[John Malone]

Never been to Lafourche parish that I remember? Been through the Naw lens area many times but don't remember much of it. To many side trips down Bourbon street and all through the French quarter. Which reminds me I'm down to one can of tonys got to get online and order some, kinda hooked on that Cajun food.
Those books should be here soon looking forward to reading them.