Two PC long bow project- Finished Photos 1-30-23

[Kirkll]

First of all..... I HATE building 2 pc bows.... There is just something about cutting a perfectly good long bow in half that makes me cringe.... Kinda scary too...

I pretty much quit building these things years ago, but every now and then i get a long time customer that sweet talks me into doing one. This was the case with this one too.... 

On top of the extra hoops you need to jump through building these two pc rigs, Keith wanted a carbon backed bow with a bit more horse power at a shorter draw length..... Oh good...

I had to blow the dust off my bowyers log to find a good stack height for a carbon backed Flatliner, and try and match the same carbon i used back then..... Fortunately i was able to pull it off on the first lay up and hit my draw weight...   Here she is profiled and on the tree checking draw weight at 64" length....

Originally we were thinking of a 64" length.... But Keith's draw length is only 27". So i recommended going down to a 62" length to get a wee bit more horse power. I hit my draw weight perfectly at 64" length and she is withing a 1/4" in tiller measurement on the photos above.  Cutting her down will get me some extra draw weight and i'll be able to narrow up the limbs to drop the weight, and sand that belly glass to adjust it.

She's got curly maple with mineral deposits under clear glass on the belly. I cut the trees and cured this wood myself years ago. The stuff has character as well as figure.

Here is the millwork prep i did to get it ready to install the metal sleeves.  (more photos on link below this photo.)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7K8g7MdsLpwQmnFV6

This morning i did the deed, and cut a perfectly good long bow in half and started prepping the sleeve installation.

I just use a die grinder to rough shape the tendons going into the sleeve, and its not a real tight fit. You want a bit of wiggle room when bedding these in epoxy, and clamping the bow back into its original shape.

Note the double G-10 I-beam in this riser. i used 2 layers of 3/8" to add mass weight, and it has definitely done that.

.......     To be continued.......     Kirk

[Buggs]

Wow! That is a massive riser and super beefy looking sleeve arrangement.
Looking forward to seeing more

[Kirkll]

Actually the riser isn’t as massive as it seems. The sleeves are the smaller version that 3 Rivers  carry’s , making the riser look larger than it is. The riser depth is about 2.5” and just under 1.5” thick.

The last couple of these I built, I used the larger ones, and the finished grip was rather large.

They come in
Small 5-1/4" x 1-1/2" x 1-1/4"
Large 5-3/4" x 1-1/8" x 1-1/2"

The reason for going smaller on the sleeve was to end up with a smaller grip in the throat, and give me a bit more room to raise the heel of the grip.

 Although Kieth still wants a relatively low wrist grip on this one, you could build out the base of the grip and accommodate a medium grip angle easily using this method.

Today I’ll dress up the brass sleeve and lubricate it with a spray silicone before bedding the lower steel sleeve in epoxy and clamping it back to its original shape.
The silicone is and excellent bond breaker and insures you don’t end up right back wher you started with a one piece bow again…… I hate it when that happens….

To be continued…..

[Kirkll]

Here she is back in one piece again.... I'll let this set over night before pulling it apart and start dressing it up.

[Kirkll]

This may help explain the depth of my riser a bit..... After letting the second sleeve cure i was able to take the bow apart again, and do the grip overlay procedure. I use the same MT-13 from smooth on to bed the steel sleeve into a piece of ebony here.  This stuff is some serious epoxy and holds the bond extremely well from steel to wood......   After this cures, i'll shape my grip and do my limb and riser overlays next.

[simk]

Thank you Kirkil for taking your time and posting this! Very informative. I haven't done this. Do you make the sleeves yourself or buy them? cheers

[Kirkll]

You can buy the sleeves at 3 Rivers in two sizes.... But.... they all need fine tunning and polishing to get a smooth connection....

Here she is with the riser overlay complete and the grip overlay faired out.  I've sill got finish sanding and limb balancing to go before i spray it. The riser doesn't look so bulky anymore.

[Kirkll]

Here's the finished product... I got her all set up and did some shooting with it today. I was impressed with how snappy it was with heavy shafts. These limbs were built for a shorter draw length, so i was short drawing the bow considerably from my standard 30" draw.

I took it upstairs and put it on the shooting machine to check what she was doing at 27" draw. The bow will be used for 3D and shot at 8.5- 9 gpp arrow weight. I was pretty happy with 188 FPS at a 27" draw. I tested it with a 400 grain fletched shaft.  There are a few more photos in the album link below.   Kirk

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7K8g7MdsLpwQmnFV6

[Crooked Stic]

I am not sure how the fiberglass wrap would  the metal but being its cover with leather might be easier to do and it shapes well also.
Looks good tho.

[Mad Max]

Nice

[onetone]

Nice bow! What DW did it end up being?

[Buggs]

That looks real good   I like the riser profile, looks like a St. Charles style.

[Roy from Pa]

Sweet bow..

[kennym]

Looks great Kirk!

[rainman]

Very nice.

[Kirkll]

Nice bow! What DW did it end up being?

Draw weight is 46 @ 27”.  This particular limb design can produce some pretty high performance bows between 28-30” draw lengths. Especially with carbon backing.

But …..the numbers don’t start jumping up until you reach about 51- 52# for some reason. I never could explain that.

Getting higher performance in a short draw length, at lower draw weights is really tough to do…. I used bamboo cores with a maple power lam on this one.   Kirk

[Bryan Adolphe]

 Very nice Kirk ! 🏹