2024 Bow Swap Progress Thread - Open

[Kirkll]

Sorry. Meant to post this in ‘What did you do today’ thread.

I have zero wall space left in my little shop as it’s only 11x23 as it’s the third bay of the garage, so one wall is garage door and there are two service doors at opposite corners.

I’ll definitely have to find a spot somewhere though. It’s a pain to get it out and screw it to the table

Sounds like it’s time to move one of those vehicles outside and stake your claim on bay 2 of that garage and build a partition wall to hang that baby up on.  Life is too short to have too little shop space… That was the first structure I built on our place back in 96’. 36x36’ pole barn with a loft….

[Buemaker]

Some time since I reported, but I have been doing things.
Since my first did not work out I wanted to have something that works before posting.
The DR is a glass bow. Riser is Bocote with a Jatoba I beam and glass and Elm on back of riser. Limbs are two parallel Norwegian Elm lams, one .003 taper that goes into a .004 reverse taper last inches before nocks, one strip of Uniweft and Bjørn glassfiber. A thin wedge of Hard Maple is glued as an overlay on the belly to stiffen the last inches a bit more. Tips are Linen Micarta. Needs finish sanding and spraying.

NOW I must ask one thing, the weight is one pound above victim’s asked for upper draw weight. It is now bending as I want it to and I would rather not adjust it. Will this be allright?
The other bow is a 4 laminate shallow ELB with Buffalo horn tips, will be fitted with leather handle and strike plate and Fast Flight string. Weight is right. I am just showing that one also in case victim would rather have such a bow.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

A couple pounds either way is no big deal for me. Hell, 10# either way is no big deal.

Kyle

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Both bows look great! What lams did you end up going with in the ElB?

Kyle

[Buemaker]

From back. Hickory, Wenge, Hickory and Ipe. The thin Hickory in the middle could have been an other wood species, but I had this strip that fitted. I usually taper the backing .0015 and the Wenge and Ipe .oo3 before glue up, comes out pretty good that way without too much tiller work. Glued up with one inch backset and stays pretty straight after shooting.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Awesome! I bet it’s a good shooting combo.
I’ve never measured any tapers. I always just floor tillered each lam and rolled with it.

[Kirkll]

One pound off a draw weight is well within professional standards... There are a lot of bows out there 3-4# off what they are marked....I seriously doubt it would even be noticed.   Good looking stuff there Buemaker...

[Kirkll]

Here is the finished product on my bow swap...... Riser is black walnut with a curly maple radius footing. The limbs are a combination of S glass over leopard skin silk on the back and walnut on the belly. The cores are vertical grain old growth Douglass fir with very tight very straight grain and walnut wedges and matching overlays. Tip overlays are buffalo horn. She's a 64" length with the  Draw weight right at 40@ 28"

The finish material is the same auto clear coating i typically use on all my bows, but this one after laying down 3 coats, i polished it out, and gave it a hand rubbed satin finish. it came out feeling like silk in the hand.

Here a few more photos i took in different light conditions...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/f4BLMfcdUxvVszKJ8

I'm ready to ship this baby to its new owner....

Here is a link to the build album.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/65qB8TLhqTR4FJzB6

[Noah70]

Beautiful work Beu, I would not have any worries about any weight over. I like both, but always love glass the most 

Wonderful work as always Kirk, even though I know It’s not mine.  Love the leopard silk, what did that add to the stack?  Presumably no strength advantage, strictly cosmetic?  Opens up a whole world of limb colour’s and  patterns though. 

[canopyboy]

So several years ago when I ended up in charge of this debacle, I added the rule that you need to post at least once a week to try to kick some of the deadbeats into shape. Fast forward and I'm the deadbeat... 

About a month ago you guys got me inspired to pick out some wood and get started. I got as far as prepping and starting the riser glue up. But I needed a new roll of sandpaper for the thickness sander and realized I didn't even have any decent bandsaw blades left. And then I was on work travel, smashed a finger between some cinder blocks, got my garage permit approved and started pulling out trees, and lost the batteries to my camera in my sock drawer.

But I'm still here, just got caught up on all y'all's progress (took a while.) I'll still get a bow out before the deadline. And if any of those questions were ever for me, I'm good with builder's choice on colors, my poundage is flexible, heck I can even shoot LH if push comes to shove and it means one of the bows this year!

[Kirkll]

" I smashed a finger between some cinder blocks, got my garage permit approved and started pulling out trees, and lost the batteries to my camera in my sock drawer."   

 

[Jon Lipovac]

Beautiful work Bue. I'd be good outside of my weight range. A pound is nothing.

Kirk, great looking bow, as expected. I really like your limb overlays, I may have to pirate those at some point, very classy.

That looks like it's gonna be sharp canopyboy.

[Kirkll]

Beautiful work Beu, I would not have any worries about any weight over. I like both, but always love glass the most 

Wonderful work as always Kirk, even though I know It’s not mine.  Love the leopard silk, what did that add to the stack?  Presumably no strength advantage, strictly cosmetic?  Opens up a whole world of limb colour’s and  patterns though. 

Actually.... I got the idea for the silk under glass years ago from self boyers that used it for backing on their staves.... believe it or not... it does stiffen things up a bit...How much under .040 glass i couldn't tell you....this is only the second one i've done.  probably adds about .005 in the stack, if that..

 This bow only has .030 glass and ultra light cores. It should be on the top end of the performance scale for a light draw weight bow. But never tested it....But i planned it that way because it was built for a  24" -26" draw. I wanted to eliminate as much limb mass as possible to make a shooter out of it.     Kirk

[Kirkll]

Beautiful work Bue. I'd be good outside of my weight range. A pound is nothing.

Kirk, great looking bow, as expected. I really like your limb overlays, I may have to pirate those at some point, very classy.

That looks like it's gonna be sharp canopyboy.

Hey Jon.... If you give these cycle shaped overlays a go, its easiest to pre shape them and put a nice bevel on them before you glue them on, and finish sand the edges.  Also take great care to wipe off excess glue on the glass or its a bear to sand.....

Another thing is do not extend them past the riser too far, and feather them down really thin at the point or those tips will pop loose when the wedge flexes....Especially using G-10.

food for thought.   Kirk

[Bryan Adolphe]

Awesome job everyone, good lookin Bows there !

[kennym]

Other than a tiny run I found , she is ready to victimize someone…

Will fix that and spray matte on her

[Buemaker]

Very nice Kirk and Kenny.

[derekdiruz]

So so so sorry this is late: I had to rush out of town for the weekend the day after receiving and just realized I never got tj posting!!

Got the bow from Crooked Stic! For some reason, I had the odd gut feeling that his bow shipped to my P.O. Box, so I went and checked, and sure enough the long box was there!

Opened her up, and she is marked 41@31. Draws incredibly smooth, even better so since she’s light weight for what I’m used to (though this is what I wanted- as I like shooting bows that are lighter for me lol) tuned a 2016 perfectly for me. Very mild mannered bow, dead quiet. Fantastic work Stic!

Here’s some pics of her.

Meanwhile, tomorrow I finally will be gluing the limbs and riser for my victim. Both of which should be done next week if I’ve got the time to glue them tomorrow!!!

[Mad Max]

Nice bow
Great work stic

[kennym]

Awesome bow , check the addy and see if it was sposed to come here!! lol