Two piece self bow?

[TroutGuide]

Well not exactly a self bow but a two piece longbow built from sister billets split from the same log.  I want to us an all wood joint if possible. Anyone have a good system to do this as a takedown?  Dovetail or something that works.  I will be joining the butts together and allighning rings as best I can.

[Jack Skinner]

joining all wood billets together is a selfbow. Take a look in the how-to section there I believe is a good tutorial on splicing billets using a fishtail splice which is a common practice.

Yep went and looked "How to splice billets a pictoral" is in the how-to section. I dont how to copy the link but is down the page a way.

[TroutGuide]

I do not want to splice I want to make the bow a takedown using only the wood and maby a pin, or key, or something .  I will look in the how-to section thought, thanks.

[BMN]

How about using a sleeve like this?
 http://www.3riversarchery.com/product.asp?i=4461X

[Jack Skinner]

Hummm, you might have problems there. As far as I know all t/d systems use some metal to strengthen the joint after cutting the bow in half. I have an old hinge system that screwed to the bows back and used an aliment pin. There are hook systems as well. I suppose if you use the right kind of joint with an aliment pin and a removable dowel you could do it with minimal metal but durablily would be in question there is a lot of stress in the handle.

[TroutGuide]

I have an idea of how I would do it so I might try with some scraps and test it with excessive stress before I go to the trouble to finish a bow.  I have to wait to got to my dads for the right tools. I will report back at that time.  Still open for sugestions.

[FerretWYO]

I dont know about a takedown all wood splice but I know that Aram Barsch had one in Florida that was a sleve type takedown. It worked great and shot awesome.

[Jack Skinner]

TroutGuide if your test gives you some good results please let me know you can PM me even, I also have an idea that may just work using minimal metal. The old hinge I have is like a jackknife system and makes the handle area uncomfortable. Sleves work great but I really like the minimal metal idea.

[Mark Baker]

I've used both sleeves, and the connexion hinge with good results.

[seabass]

on page 266 of the traditional bowyers bible it says and i quote:Tim Baker's tip for making a quickly,primitive style"take-down"bow:make the splices 6" long and blunt ended(you can splice side-to-side or back-to-belly)and then wrap with strong line,an extra bowstring or sinew.such wrapped splices are strong and according to Baker,"they shoot just fine".hope this helps,steve

[broketooth]

i just built a 2 piece osage selfbow on the bowyers bench back in jan. is this what you are enquiring about. it took me a little over a yr to build this bow. ruddy

[broketooth]

i actually took a perfectly good 66" stave, cut it in half fitted the sleeve to both halves and tillered this bow like it was a one peice. it came in  to 47#@28" draw   click on the image to play vids. ruddy

[TroutGuide]

I saw that when you first posted.  Awesome bow and great job.  I may end up doing the same thing with these billets but I realy want to try to do something without all the metal.  I just have a fondness for wood joinery and want to try and devise some joint that uses only wood.  The wraped joint is a interesting thought.  I might come up with a laced handle that would tighten enough to hold a corectly made joint in place.  Interesting. Keep them coming.

[broketooth]

to be honest, the metal sleeve actually adds a lot of mass to the handle are and makes this bow a joy to shoot. it has very little hand shock and is very quiet. it took some getting used to as far as not being centershot. its a shoot of the hand bow with a strike plate. spend some time with it and you will see why selfbows can be fun there are some splice methods you are lookin for ive seen some builds here on tg do a search. ruddy

[HugeBull]

I have made 2 with metal sleeves, but the easiest one I've seen was Ryan O'Sullivan's fiberglass sleeve.  Build your self bow, shape your handle but leave it a bit smaller than you want.  Saw the bow in half, on a diagonal.  Wax one half, screw two pieces back together.  Fiberglass two pieces together!  I gave up on selfbows (for awhile at least), so I haven't built one.  I'd post the pix that Ryan posted, but I lost it when my old computer died in a storm.  I've also swapped a hickory stave with Baker's splice cut to someone who was gonna finish the bow, but I never heard anything else from them and don't know if it was ever completed or how well it worked.  There is also a build along on the Pirates of Archery site.  The author cut a glass lam bow in half and rebuilt it as a TD.  Good luck, and post pix.

Hugh

[Davt]

The OP stated that he wanted it to be all wood, no metal etc. I have a number of self bows that are t/d, all with metal sleeves of some type and they have all worked well. I really question the reliability/safety of an all wood t/d. Perhaps on a really light bow. But perhaps there is a way I have not thought of, be careful if you try this.

[Pat B]

The handle area of any bow has the most stress put on it because of the leverage of the limbs. I don't think that you can make a takedown joint strong enough with wood alone to successfully make an all wood two piece take down bow.

[Pat B]

...one method I saw years ago was to make a long scarf joint through the handle with 2 dowel pins for alignment. The bowyer used an extra string to bind the handle, thus making an all wood(except fot the string) take down bow...with a back-up string.