Author Topic: Take down Mullberry in progress (Read 3797 times)

Bow Nut · « **on:** June 30, 2011, 04:20:34 pm »

I made a great trade on here for some mullberry billets. the are not fully cured yet but are getting close now that I have roughed it out close to final bow dimensions. it measures 71 inches long right now the top limb is longer than the bottom but I am going to even them up and try to get a 66 inch bow out of it once fully cured. The fades right now are 2 1/8 inches wide tapering down to 1 1/4 inches at the top plan on final size being 2 inches wide at fades with a pyramid style taper down to 1/2 inch or a little wider at the tips. I hope to get 60 pounds out of it. It has a few character knots to work around. What do yall think I am fairly new to self bows and this is my first mulberry. are my dimensions good for this wood considering it already has about 4 inches or more of back set and will probably take a bit more when fully cured?

toomanyknots · « **Reply #1 on:** June 30, 2011, 04:25:17 pm »

Lookin nice and straight there. Love that mulberry.

mullet · « **Reply #2 on:** June 30, 2011, 04:30:17 pm »

The mulberry bows I've made have been layed out the way I do Osage. I go an 1 1/4, to a 1 1/2 at the fades then taper down to a 1/2' or smaller.

Bow Nut · « **Reply #3 on:** June 30, 2011, 04:33:17 pm »

should I go shorter than and keep it wide? I cant go to narrow at fades because The pipe I found to make the handle ares is a bit big I could probably got to 1 3/4 and still have a nice looking fade area

mullet · « **Reply #4 on:** June 30, 2011, 04:38:56 pm »

1 3/4" would be good and I'd take it down to 64" n to n.

Lee Slikkers · « **Reply #5 on:** June 30, 2011, 04:44:44 pm »

Sweet! I need to try my hand at a take down. did you buy that portion as a kit or make your own? I have a few Osage billets curing as we speak and can't wait to try one. Nice job!

Bow Nut · « **Reply #6 on:** June 30, 2011, 04:55:03 pm »

I made it I searched all over for coper pipe that would fit snug into each other but they come in 1/4 inch increments so I kept searching and found out brass come in 1/4 inch increments as well but are 1/8 inch of the measurements of the copper. So I made the small insert copper and the larger one brass. It was till not a snug fit. The first thing I did was slide the copper inside the brass and clamp it in my vise to make it and oval shape so the could not twist around each other. then I mounted them once mounted (took about 2 hours of fitting) there was still alittle wiggle room so I sanded the copper surface to ruff it up and got that JB Putty plumbing weld and coated the whole cooper piece with it and then did some fine sand on it until it fit snuggly with no wiggle room inside the brass. It came out perfect to me but there might be a better way to do it. I just envisioned something and went for it. any better suggestions on how to make a 2 PC take down would be great.

Bow Nut · « **Reply #7 on:** June 30, 2011, 05:29:00 pm »

here are some better pics of the take down handle

Bow Nut · « **Reply #8 on:** July 02, 2011, 03:38:15 am »

Well I made a rookie mistake. Every since I started the trade for these billets I could not stop thinking about trying a take down so when I got them I went to work. the fella told me that they needed some time to cure and when I roughed out the limbs and put my moisture meter to them I confirmed it that they did need a quite a bit more curing. I mounded the handle tubing thinking the wood would not shrink enough to make any difference. Well it shrunk inside the tubing already and shows a nice hairline gape between the wood and tubing and is probably going to become an even bigger gap as it cures more. My plan is to heat the tubing enough to melt all glue inside and pull them off set the billits to the side for a 4 weeks or so and check them again later. once fully cured I will remount everything. Oh well I guess some times we have to learn from our mistakes. I just feel lucky that it is not worse and I can correct it with some patience.