Robin Hood...ish, full draw pics, is it right?

[Frode]

Well, I gotta say, I think I'm starting to see what all the fuss over osage is about!  I started working on this old osage quarter, just to get the lay of the land, and that is one good looking wood!  Cuts nice, too!  Between the knots and swirls of grain, anyway.  Pictures are nice, but they don't quite get across the depth of that gold.  Sapwood looks clean too.
By the way, this piece looks like it might have a fair amount of reflex and twist.  Too much?
Frode

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[Frode]

Here's a couple more pics showing reflex and twist...

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[Pat B]

I brought this twisted, knotty osage stave from this point...





to this bow I'm just finishing up...





  Lots of sessions with a heat gun and clamps and still some twist in her but she shoots great. One of the nice things about wood bows, a little twist won't hurt anything.
 Get her down to floor tiller stage and heat straightening is more effective.

[jeff halfrack]

  I  have  some  sasafras  staves  if  need  be?  JW

[El Destructo]

I brought this twisted, knotty osage stave from this point...

But Pat...you can make a Silk Purse from a Sows ear too.....

[Pat B]

Michael, anyone can with the right imagination! 

[Frode]

Okely Dokely, I'm back with some info on my prospective Robin Hood, and some questions.
He's 5'8" with a 28" draw, asking for a 40# bow.
I have some hickory cut to 1/8" x 1 3/4" x 72" or so, and some white ash and elm cut to 1 3/4" x 7/8 (4/4)" x 72".
So for a 68"ntn, 40#@28" bow, what say you to hickory backed elm?  I was thinking of gluing with Titebond III, unless there is a better alternative.  And, as I prep the faces for gluing, how smooth would you recommend, 100 grit?
As always, your insights and suggestions are greatly appreciated, especially since this is my first attempt at lamination.
Frode

[Pat B]

Frode, With the TB glues you want no gaps in the mated surfaces. 100 grit paper should be OK Bit I'd use a sanding block.
  I use TBIII mostly for backings, risers and overlay glue ups. It should work well for any combo of these whitewoods. Although I have never backed elm, hickory backing should be OK for elm. Glue in a little reflex(2" to 3") and you should come out with a flat profile or slight deflex which works well for a longbow.

[Frode]

Thanks, Pat.  Would you recommend something other than Titebond?
Frode

[Pat B]

Urac is the best wood to wood glue but TBIII will do the job also. My glue-ups are pretty sloppy and I never had one come apart using TBIII.

[Hillbilly]

As Pat said, mulberry makes a good ELB design. I tried making a couple from it after reading Maurice Thompson's writings about making mulberry longbows in "The Witchery of Archery." Both ones I made turned out really well. One I gave to someone, but my son snatched one of them. It has a couple rings of sapwood left on the back, is a little over an inch wide at sixty-something inches long, deep round-stacked belly, and pulls about 53#. It's a good shooter, and after aging awhile, it looks a lot like a yew longbow. The first question most people ask when they see it is "Is that yew?"

[gpw]

 Hill , we've got tons of Mulberry growing around here.... What's the story with leaving the sapwood on

[Hillbilly]

I just left it on for the contrast on the ELBs, to look like the yew sapwood/heartwood combo. Most of the time I take mulberry down to a heartwood ring, but it works fine with a sapwood back, too. I just thinned it down to a couple of rings of sapwood for the ELBs. Pat has made a couple of nice osage bows with sapwood backs.

[gpw]

 Hill, Thanks !!!  have to try that !!!

[bow-toxo]

I think an ash or elm longbow would be more authentic for portraying Robin Hood. Not all english longbows were constructed of yew, and I believe that the bandits of Sherwood used some more readily available wood!

Either ash or elm would be authentic choices as bowyers were required by law to make the majority of bows of wood other than yew. so there is no reason to have separate backings or to colour to look like yew. Hickory makes very satisfactory bows.  However the forest outlaws Adam Bell and his friends "bent up their good yew bows and looked that the strings were round".

                                                                                           Erik