At long last... I finally have my good copy of a 1950's flatbow... similar to the Yorks and Pearsons of that time. Those who have been on this journey with me know that I tried having some bowyers make a copy (Project X1 and X2) and it didn't quite come off. Project X3 was much closer, but then I got the opportunity to get some training and make a try at making my own copy. With many thanks to JD Berry, I can say that I have a fully satisfactory, attractive and good performing 1950's style flatbow, with the design updated from the original selfbow to a laminated glass/wood version.
I've posted some pix of progress along the way, of my time in JD's shop, and of setting up my shop. Today, the bow itself is finished... the last (fourth) coat of poly finish went on, and the leather wrap. I've done some shooting with it and can say that it's a nice bow, with decent performance... not a barn burner, but I didn't expect that. At 20+ yards I can keep my shots decent hits on my bear target. At 30 yards, things get tougher... it doesn't keep up with my Widow longbow or my Bear recurves, but still, within my abilities, it's decent. I'm sure I'll be popping them in at 30 quickly as I get it tuned and get used to it. I wouldn't feel disadvantaged using it at a 3D. The wider limbs carry more weight up toward the tip, and I think that's a slowing factor, but I have a chronograph coming and I'm looking forward to seeing what it does; I expect it won't get close to 160, but we'll see. Bottom line... it looks good... is fun to shoot... and with help from JD, I can feel it's something I made happen.
All that said, here come pictures of new bow...
Basic info: 64", 45@28 The design is a longbow in the sense of a "D" shape when drawn, but with wider "flatbow" style limbs when compared to a Hill-style longbow or English longbow. There is no cut in shelf, just a leather wrap that includes a small leather arrow placement reference...not really wide enough to hold and arrow on its own. You're really shooting off the top of your hand. The middle of the riser is as slim as you dare make it... .82" in this case, and symetrical. You could shoot it off the top of your hand from either side, so it is actually ambidextrous. A simple operation with a pocket knife can work out the leather arrow reference and work it into the opposite side. Construction is 3 lams of yew, all tapered.
This is a pretty good shot of the slim riser swelling gracefully into the wide, flat limbs.
My previous bowyering effort started from a layup by Craig Ekin of Howard Hill Archery. Came out a nice bow, but basically a Hill style without the shelf. The limbs simply weren't wide enough to produce the graceful flatbow I was looking for.
Above is a shot of the respective limbs of my last bow, (top) and of this one.
The bow form that JD made for me included a nice 1" of built in string follow.
Here is the bow strung...
So, where am I now? I still need to play with the string and nock point. I think the brace height needs to be higher and the nock needs to be lower.
I was planning on leaping right into another layup, but I think instead my next step is going to be some more related projects... my own bow oven and a frame for paper tuning arrows... and getting in some practice at making my own tapers and parallels. While that's going on I think I'll just enjoy the new bow, but maybe before Christmas, I'll start another one. I want to try another flatbow with a longer and more shaped riser, a shelf that's cut close to center, and perhaps limbs that don't carry the swell quite so far toward the tips.
Captain Dick
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Some Comments On The Background and Details of the Construction
I've had numerous requests for more details of the construction and background of this bow, so, here goes...
Basically, the design is that of the 1950's lemonwood selfbows... the old Pearsons, Yorks and Chieftains that were common and for sale at the time just about everywhere. I know I bought my first bow, one of these branded for Western Auto, for $13 in 1955. They featured no riser, selffwood construction, ability to shoot right or left handed, and were pretty good as a basic starter bow, though many found their way into the hunting fields as archery and bowhunting grew in the 1950's. They were generally available from about 20# to 60# in 5# increments.
I was privileged to be an early recipient of the traveling bow "Ol' Buck", a York version as above. I shot him at the 2006 NALS and had such a great time that I hunted up a duplicate on **** and bought it, as well as a Pearson. The York was a 60# bow (50# for me) and after my health problems I couldn't draw it any more, so it moved on.
I tried several times to have this basic design, a wide limbed flatbow without shelf, built by established bowyers, and it never quite came out right... the limbs were always too slim and the riser too thick. I was in a discussion with JD Berry and he suggested that if I came to his place and brought the bow, he could make me a form for it and show me how to build it myself. I did this and this bow is the result.
Given the limb width required, we ordered 2" glass from Binghams. It arrived the same day i got to JD's, and they had mis-filled the order, sending only one instead of two strips of glass. Fortunately, JD had two clear strips 1 3/4". These would just barely work. We used the 2" strip to line the top of the form. This left us to use a 2" wide form to lay up what was to become a 1 3/4" lamination. We went ahead and were just extra careful to be sure we didn't let the laminations slip sideways on the form. Basically, the laminating process went great. I got to watch JD resaw the yew from a log, taper it, and do the layup.
The bow is constructed of .050 clear glass over 3 lams of yew... .110, .120 and .110. All three lams are tapered .002. All of the lams were laid up and then the riser was epoxied to the belly. (More on that later...) We were shooting for a 66" bow that would pull 40# @ 28", or 33# for me at 25". Right after we got it out of the form and the riser on, we strung it and checked for pull weight. It seemed as if it was going to come in too light, so we cut it to 64" and then finished it. As it turned out, we probably should have left well enough alone. JD figured that we'd lose about 10 pounds in the shaping and finished, but we only lost 5, so we ended up with 45#, or 38# for me. I can still handle that so that's where we left it and where it is now. Not faulting JD for that... he'd never built a bow of this design.
The only real error we made was in the riser. We measured the riser on the Pearson, which had been glued to the belly of the bow just as we planned to glue our riser to the belly of the laminated layup. The riser was 9" and that's the measurement we used. This turned out to be wrong. What we missed was that the thickness of the selfbow limb had been shaped to swell up and effectively extend the length of the riser. So, we ended up with a very short riser. In fact, when it came time to wrap the riser, I had to a piece of leather that was longer than the actual flat length of the riser. The grip is just barely big enough for my hand... fortunately, I have a small hand. That isn't too great a problem. The thing that really worries me is that as a result of a thin, flat set of lamination being fit to such a short riser, there may be more stress than I'd like at the spots where the riser ends. I intend to keep a close eye on those points and watch for any stress cracks to appear.
Other than that, things went pretty much as planned. One point that JD emphasized is that any change, any, will affect the draw weight of the bow. On my next effort, I plan several changes, so I'm still definitely learning about this bow. I will want to come out a bit lighter in draw, which would mean thinner glass or lams, but on the other hand I will definitely use a longer riser, like 15", which would raise the draw weight. It'll be interesting to see what I decide to try. Right now I'm thinking maybe .043 glass, two tapered .100 lams and a .100 parallel. That should produce a lighter bow but the longer riser should produce a stronger bow, so maybe it will even out.
Getting back to the bow at hand, at JD's we didn't get the riser slimmed down as much as I ultimately decided I wanted. We had a thickness of 1.2". When I got home I found the Pearson was actually .78". I went to work with the oscilating spindle sander and slimmed it down to .82", ending up with what I now feel is a really good riser/limb profile relationship.
The finish on the bow is four coats of Minwas wipe on poly... applied one a day. Each coat was rubbed down with piece of denim when it dried. I've found this gives a really nice, deep finish. I had actually bought a can of spray spar varnish and was going to try that just for something different. However, when I was ready to use it, I had my pipe going perfectly and the directions said not to use near a hear source. I wasn't about to let a perfectly good pipe load go to waste, so I went back to the poly.
I can't think of anything I can add at this point. I expect to receive a new chronograph in the next couple of days and I'll add some performance info once I get that set up.
Dick
Topic: New Bow Finally Finished - Construction Details Added (Read 351 times)
