Vine Maple for my father (Thar She Blows!!!)

[Buckeye Guy]

Ebony does not glue well with standard wood glues ( its kinda oily )
 A tip overlay will probably be OK if its degrease with a cleaner like acetone
Epoxy might be a more sure thing
Just food for thought !
The bow is looking good !
I like slow and easy !!
Guy

[Weylin]

Thanks for the advice, Buckeye Guy. I was planning on using a 5 minute epoxy, hopefully that will do the trick. Gordon, what did you use when you did the ebony overlays?

[Gordon]

Weylin, I use superglue gel for all of my tip overlays and I have never experienced a failure even with oily woods.

[Weylin]

Want to see the wonkiest set up imaginable for taking out twists and turns? look no further. I still can't believe this worked. Well, I'll see how well it holds tomorrow night when i bend it again.

[blackhawk]

Hey..whatever works to get the twist out as long as its out when done is all that matters...and I've seen and done wonkier things than that to take twist out.

[Weylin]

I'm really frustrated! I've been going excruciatingly slow, exercising the limbs as I go and everything seemed to be bending fairly evenly. Now as I work on the bow tonight it has rapidly relaxed on me and seemingly lost alot of weight. But even worse than that, the top limb has completely over powered the bottom limb. It's clear now that I need to take more off the top limb to alleviate the pressure on the bottom limb and both limbs need to bend more in the fades. But I feel fairly certain now that if i do all that I'm going to come in sorely under weight. The top limb has been hard for me to interpret because of the significant kink in it and clearly I've overestimated how much work it is actually doing. Now that I've finally gotten the twists out and reduced it to an appropriate weight to brace the bow the tiller seems hopelessly jacked, so much that I dare not string the bow. I definitely need to call it a night and come back at it with a clear head but my gut tells me that I messed this one up beyond redemption. Which is depressing enough by itself but even more so considering that my dad finally sold his house, packed up his stuff and hit the road for Oregon. He'll be here on Saturday and this was supposed to be his welcome to Oregon gift.  Oh well, it is what it is.

[blackhawk]

I feel your pain...but I also feel your fathers joy. As a father of 4 lil ones myself,anytime they make an effort to make me something,or draw me a picture im thrilled to death and happy despite how ugly it is or if it turned into a failure....and im sure your father will feel the same and be very proud of his son....its the effort and thought that counts ....besides you can always make another one if this one doesn't work....I know he'll understand and be thankful to have a son like you. 

[Elktracker]

Do you havea picture of the bow being drawn? Even if it is a long ways under draw weight it will still be a great gift! You put allot of time into it and that is what counts, you can also show him this thread so he can see the process you went through to build it. Im sure its not a tottal loss

Josh

[Carson (CMB)]

What is the length of the bow?  Maybe you can add some pounds by cutting a few inches off the tips? Don't give up!

[Gordon]

Weylin, if you want you could bring it over and we can take a look at it. It might not be as bad as you think. And I have more wood here if you really do need to start something new. Let me know.

[Weylin]

Thanks for the advice, and encouragement Blackhawk, Josh, and CMB. And thanks for coming to the rescue Gordon, I will most certainly take you up on that offer. PM sent. I'll make an update after my bow gets some CPR from Gordon.

[blackhawk]

Can't go wrong taking a visit to Gordons

[Keenan]

Good for you Gordon! That is what I love about this site. Everyone helping each other when they can. If anyone can save a bow, Gordon is one of the best there is with VM.

[Keenan]

If you need, I have this VM that I am working on, shooting and to ready to be finished. What is his draw length and poundage you are shooting for? I know you want to make it yourself and I admire that Yet I know how time crunches are and you could still do the finish and handle wrap.

[Weylin]

Wow, that's very generous of you Keenan. It is really not as big of a deal as that though. My post was a bit on the melodramatic side because I was really bummed out at the time but now that I've had a couple days to process I've realized that it is what it is. My goal is to make this one into a shooting bow even if it is grossly under weight. worse comes to worse I can give it to an 8 year old that I know who is getting into archery. My dad got here this afternoon and I showed him the bow. I guess it will have to be one of those "it's the thought that counts" deals and I will make him another one later if we can't salvage this one. I have 2 yew staves drying out right now and my dad brought out 3 yew staves that he cut 30 years ago to give to me. So between all of those I'm sure I can make a bow for him sometime soon. I'll find another vine maple stave to cut and I'll give it another shot next year. I think I was just too inexperienced to see what the wood was telling me as I was scraping and pulling. Hopefully I'll learn something from it.