2 wing footing. Can you explain how?

[jonsimoneau]

I have bought some purple heart to make 2 wing footings on some sitka spruce shafts that I have coming.  I have never tried this, and cannot find much information on it.  Can anyone here explain how they do it?

[Mike Byrge@home]

There is a chapter in one of the Traditional Bowyers bibles that explains it well.   It is not difficult to do but I would practice on a few cull shafts and footings before trying it on good ones.

I cut the footings into half-inch squares on a table saw then cut the slot with a bandsaw.

I taper the shaft with a small "thumb plane" and just eye ball it until it is even.

Spread glue on the taper and push it into the slot on the footing..straighten it then clamp or wrap with rubber bands.

I work the excess taper off with a rasp and the thumb-plan and finish with sand-paper.  It helps to have a sizing-jig handy so you don't take off too much wood.

[jonsimoneau]

Mike rather than tapering the shaft with a thumb plane, do you think this could be done with maybe a miter-box with a fine blade on it?

[Tom Phillips]

3 point & 4 point foootings are cool too.

[Nate1990]

http://sjaqua.tripod.com/footed.htm


thats how i do it

[Mike Byrge@home]

John,
I think it would be tough to do it with a miter-box but worth a try if you feel more comfortable with that.  Using a plane is pretty easy...I can prep one in just a few minutes that way.

[jonsimoneau]

Cool. I guess the plane idea is not to bad.  But how do you make sure you get them all to be relatively the same?

[macbow]

Mostly it's count the strokes and eyeball.
When you take them down to make the footing round is a little more critical to make them the same.
The most important thing is to roll them or spin them to keep the footing straight as you sand them etc.. Especially if you intend to shoot broadheads.
Ron

[Andrew Wesley]

the trad bowyers bible vol. 3 goes really indepth on how to do 2 and 4 footing.