R/D Longbow Build

[Cameron C]

Thanks, it went well. It happened fast. Tomorrow I will take it out and cut the profile, and if time allows I'll sand the glue off the faces of the glass. The wrap will only keep the glue off the cauls, the clamps are already covered in glue, so I'll just have to give them a good scrape when I'm done.

 

[Cameron C]

Bow is out of the press and looking good! So far it seems to be flat/straight as far as I can tell. Here it is, fresh out of the press, no sanding or scraping.



After some sanding and scraping.



And here are the glue lines where the tapers meet the riser. I am very happy, and kind of surprised at how this came out, I thought I would have glue lines everywhere. Pretty clean!



The ebony looks nice below the clear glass. I'm keeping the glass covered up with tape throughout the rest of the profiling process just for good measure. Hopefully tomorrow I can lay out the profile, and maybe cut it!

 

[Mckinnon]

Wow! Looks like a bow, well done sir. That is pretty

 

[Cameron C]

Layed out the taper profile today



And then spent about two hours sanding to get the sides nice and purdy. Looking more and more like a bow everyday!



Hopefully I'll get the string nocks filed out tomorrow...

 

[Mckinnon]

so did you cut the profile today? or just trace it?

 

[Cameron C]

I cut the profile today. If you look close at the second picture you can see the taper on the profile of the limb.

 

[G Posik]

This bow is looking really good. Cannot wait to see the finished product.

Glenn


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

 

[Mckinnon]

I thought I saw that, but I wasn't 100% sure. Nice job! So are you going to add one of those triangular stacking pieces on the end of the limbs where the string goes....? Does that make sense?

 

[Cameron C]

Yup, that is exactly right. I'm going to glue on some overlays. Which will be phenolic, which is a woven sort of plastic material, and then some choice of wood or fiberglass over that. Then grind it to a point, then file string grooves.

 

[Mckinnon]

ahhhh, overlay. That sounds much better than "triangular stacking piece" hahah.

 

[Cameron C]

Layed out the nock groove and the overlay area. First step was to glue the phenolic on. Got the phenolic on today:



Next I glued on a 0.050 maple and a 0.050 walnut piece over the phenolic



Then I roughed out the nock grooves on each end. Left it a little long because I'm not sure what shape I want the tips to be...



The other tip:



Put a tillering string on it and gave it a few gentle bends... It's turning into a bow!

 

[Cameron C]

Got the tips shaped up today... If I did the round file incorrectly someone please speak up, but it seemed to hold the string okay.



Belly view



View of all the layers. Walnut, maple, phenolic, brown glass, ebony, maple, maple, ebony, clear glass



Going to get a stringer right now so I can cut the shelf and handle on Monday.

 

[ElkNut1]

Zeus, you are true craftsman bud! Awesome!

ElkNut1

 

[Vecchio]

Very nice indeed. Do you take orders?

 

[Cameron C]

For you Vecchio, of course.

 

[Tenderfoot]

Zeus, I've been watching this thread, you guys are doing a great job, I am very impressed. Have you ever seen the antler tips some bowyers do? Don't get me wrong, yours looks perfect, I just have a soft spot for em I guess. Adds a real nice classy look, maybe on your next one...can't wait to see this one finished up and flingin.

 

[Cameron C]

Thanks Tenderfoot, I appreciate it. I've seen those antler tips, I collected a bunch of pictures of bows I like to get an idea of how to build mine and a couple of them had the antler tips. With this bow I am trying to keep it simple and get a feel for the process so if I mess up I won't be too heart broken or too invested. Next one I make will have antler on it for sure.

 

[Cameron C]

Well, my strings came in, I swaggered into work all excited about doing the next step on the bow. Put the string on, way too long. The string touches the riser, which wouldn't even let me make the measurement I needed. That's a bummer. I'm working on getting a new string so I can keep things moving. To keep myself busy, I fitted up another riser today. It will be like one of the other single ply ones I posted, only a 1/8" Walnut between two 0.030" maple. It'll be simple, and slick.

Speaking of slick, I glued up my brother's (Rock 2.0) riser last night. Planed it down and it looks good, clean glue lines and nice curves. The grain is pretty nice too.



So, you probably know what you're getting for christmas Rock...

 

[Mckinnon]

Looks amazing, great color combo and beautiful grain! well done as usual

 

[Cameron C]

I called up Kenny, from Kennycustomarchery.com, who has been generously providing me with guidance, he gave me a few tips of advice. For this specific bow (I'm not sure if it applies to most models, I think it's mostly just a preference/performance issue) I'm supposed to use a 61" string. It's a 64" bow, he says just to subtract 3" from the length of the bow for these types of bow and either add twists or take out some twists to get the vibration right. Long story short, I got it strung up today. Keep in mind the string is still sort of long in these photos. I just strung it to check tiller and find the strong limb.

The first time I strung the bow it was obvious one limb was dominating.



I know I mentioned this before, but the limb width at the string nock is about 3/4", and it wants be anywhere from 1/2" to 5/8". So I scribed the line for the 5/8" width and did some more careful sanding and strung it up again:



You can see which limb is a little stronger, but that's not necessarily a bad thing to my knowledge, because you want the stronger limb on the bottom. Also, it's not nearly as drastic of a difference as above. I noticed in these photos one limb looks longer than the other, it must just be something to do with the way I took the photo, because they're the same length.

Tomorrow I will be starting to shape up the handle via rasp/spindle sander, and possibly even reach for the stars and cut the arrow shelf.