Practised bow

[oldandslow]

I'm tired of waiting for my stuff to show up...virus!
I want to build a bow on my bench without a form.
How do I start? Numbers?
Let's say a reflex/deflex 62 inch and maybe two common woods?
I can get ash and hickory walnut and purple heart easily.
Dont need a fancy thing just real numbers.
Is there a resource available?
Are there basic numbers?

Thanks!

[Longcruise]

Look at Roy's ongoing thread here on the bench.   Or, a board bow??

[Mad Max]

What materials are you waiting for?
For a all wood laminated bow Hickory or maple (sold as a backing material) are good.
Osage Belly wood would be good, just use a darker core wood.
Patience Grasshopper

Made from 2 x 4's


x2 on Longcruise

[oldandslow]

One thing I have none of is patience🤔

[oldandslow]

Look at Roy's ongoing thread here on the bench.   Or, a board bow??

That Build along is what caught my eye. So where do I get the numbers for reflex and deflex?

[mmattockx]

I want to build a bow on my bench without a form.
How do I start? Numbers?
Let's say a reflex/deflex 62 inch and maybe two common woods?

Have you ever made a bow before? If not, an R/D lam bow is not the place to start, IMO. Make a board bow out of maple or red oak or hickory and learn to tiller a bit. Lots of guys don't like it much, but a straight grained red oak board will make a perfectly functional bow and costs $10-$15 at our local big box stores. Buy a couple boards and you have a couple cheap guinea pigs to work on and no loss when (not if, when) you break one or both of them.

As for lam bow woods, maple is a good backing and decent belly wood, hickory is an excellent backing wood and good belly wood. The really good compression woods (belly woods, that is) are yew, osage, juniper, eastern red cedar and ipe. None of which are common up here, unfortunately.

Another question - do you currently shoot a traditional bow (ie - not a compound)? Do you know what your draw length is and what draw weight is comfortable for you?


Mark

[Mad Max]

I want to build a bow on my bench without a form.
How do I start? Numbers?
Let's say a reflex/deflex 62 inch and maybe two common woods?

Have you ever made a bow before? If not, an R/D lam bow is not the place to start, IMO. Make a board bow out of maple or red oak or hickory and learn to tiller a bit. Lots of guys don't like it much, but a straight grained red oak board will make a perfectly functional bow and costs $10-$15 at our local big box stores. Buy a couple boards and you have a couple cheap guinea pigs to work on and no loss when (not if, when) you break one or both of them.

As for lam bow woods, maple is a good backing and decent belly wood, hickory is an excellent backing wood and good belly wood. The really good compression woods (belly woods, that is) are yew, osage, juniper, eastern red cedar and ipe. None of which are common up here, unfortunately.

Another question - do you currently shoot a traditional bow (ie - not a compound)? Do you know what your draw length is and what draw weight is comfortable for you?


Mark

x2
You have 3 topics up
You need to tell us what kind of bow you want to make?
What kind of bow are you making, It makes a difference, R/D fiberglass, R/D all wood trilam???
Ifthis is your first one you need to make a board bow like mm said

[oldandslow]

I want to build a bow on my bench without a form.
How do I start? Numbers?
Let's say a reflex/deflex 62 inch and maybe two common woods?

Have you ever made a bow before? If not, an R/D lam bow is not the place to start, IMO. Make a board bow out of maple or red oak or hickory and learn to tiller a bit. Lots of guys don't like it much, but a straight grained red oak board will make a perfectly functional bow and costs $10-$15 at our local big box stores. Buy a couple boards and you have a couple cheap guinea pigs to work on and no loss when (not if, when) you break one or both of them.

As for lam bow woods, maple is a good backing and decent belly wood, hickory is an excellent backing wood and good belly wood. The really good compression woods (belly woods, that is) are yew, osage, juniper, eastern red cedar and ipe. None of which are common up here, unfortunately.

Another question - do you currently shoot a traditional bow (ie - not a compound)? Do you know what your draw length is and what draw weight is comfortable for you?


Mark

I used to shoot oneida eagle back in the day. Bow hunted Alberta for 7or 8 years and gave it all up.
I now own a Bodnik  mohawk.
I also been a hobby woodworker for a while now with quite a few tools.
I figure I should be able to get a good start. 

[oldandslow]

I want to build a bow on my bench without a form.
How do I start? Numbers?
Let's say a reflex/deflex 62 inch and maybe two common woods?

Have you ever made a bow before? If not, an R/D lam bow is not the place to start, IMO. Make a board bow out of maple or red oak or hickory and learn to tiller a bit. Lots of guys don't like it much, but a straight grained red oak board will make a perfectly functional bow and costs $10-$15 at our local big box stores. Buy a couple boards and you have a couple cheap guinea pigs to work on and no loss when (not if, when) you break one or both of them.

As for lam bow woods, maple is a good backing and decent belly wood, hickory is an excellent backing wood and good belly wood. The really good compression woods (belly woods, that is) are yew, osage, juniper, eastern red cedar and ipe. None of which are common up here, unfortunately.

Another question - do you currently shoot a traditional bow (ie - not a compound)? Do you know what your draw length is and what draw weight is comfortable for you?


Mark

x2
You have 3 topics up
You need to tell us what kind of bow you want to make?
What kind of bow are you making, It makes a difference, R/D fiberglass, R/D all wood trilam???
Ifthis is your first one you need to make a board bow like mm said

An all wood reflex/deflex. Just 2 woods and I can play with a tiller tree. Paid attention already to what Roy said about where to place the pulley. Made good sense to me.

[KenH]

One thing I have none of is patience🤔

That's the one thing that will get you in trouble building bows.

Shooting bows does not confer expertise in building them.  And hobby working is a start, but there are special skills you need to develop for bow building.  At the very least you need specialty glues -- Titebond or white carpenter glue isn't going to work here.  Use Unibond 1:12 as Roy describes in his thread, or Thunerbird or Smooth-On EA-40, not hardware store epoxies.. 

You can use Roy's build along and substitute other woods for the Bamboo and Osage he talks about and substitute Maple, Hickory, Ash if you can get it, but no guarantees of quality and performance of the finished project.

[oldandslow]

I been reading alot for quite some time.
I believe I have the basics. I understand about epoxies.  Just need some numbers to begin with so I can get my hands dirty. I already have wood in my garage waiting for a project. Ash, oak walnut purple heart and more.
I dont know the height of the deflex nor the reflex and at what points(out from center).
Is there a write up somewhere that I can't find?

[Mad Max]

I'm no expert but If you don't use Hickory or Maple for the back like I said above, I don't think it's going to work with a R/D style, maybe a flat bow.

[Roy from Pa]

On the first page of my BBO build.

I listed the materials, dimensions of materials, the heights and positions of my posts for deflex and reflex, along with pictures of the build.

If you don't have much patience, you may want to reconsider bow building.

Cause it takes a lot of patience to build bows.

And there will be failures,  trust me there as I've lost several bows in my builds.

And you should keep notes on everything you do.

[oldandslow]

I can get osage for the belly. What can I use for the back?

[oldandslow]

On the first page of my BBO build.

I listed the materials, dimensions of materials, the heights and positions of my posts for deflex and reflex, along with pictures of the build.

If you don't have much patience, you may want to reconsider bow building.

Cause it takes a lot of patience to build bows.

And there will be failures,  trust me there as I've lost several bows in my builds.

And you should keep notes on everything you do.

Looks like I'm off to a bad start! Did I mention I'm a dog for punishment? Hard knocks is my middle name. Heading back to that first page. Thanks

[mmattockx]

I also been a hobby woodworker for a while now with quite a few tools.

An all wood reflex/deflex. Just 2 woods and I can play with a tiller tree.

If you want to build a lam bow to start that is fine, but make it a flat bow. R/D bows are vastly more difficult to tiller correctly and your chances of success are much, much lower. Lots of experienced bowyers struggle to get the bend right on R/D bows.

If you can get osage (where, where?!? ) then hickory will make a good backing for it.

At the very least you need specialty glues -- Titebond or white carpenter glue isn't going to work here. 

This is one thing I will disagree with. TBIII works just fine for gluing up all wood bows and I have used plain old yellow carpenter glue for all my risers and tip overlays with no issue. The oily tropical woods like ipe do need epoxy, but bamboo, maple, hickory, red oak and other typical NA hardwoods glue OK with wood glue. The prep needs to be done properly, but that applies to all glues.


Mark

[oldandslow]

Black forest has 4/4 osage in long lengths about 7 or 8 inches wide.

[mmattockx]

Black forest has 4/4 osage in long lengths about 7 or 8 inches wide.

Outstanding. I really need to go for a visit now.


Mark

[oldandslow]

Where are u in central Alberta?

[Longcruise]

Two biggest enemies of the bowyer;  impatience and power tools.