experiment - milkweed fibre backing

[campx]

Soooo, my brain is trying to kill me...the bowmaking bug is back.
Building a recurved bow out of a Douglas maple sapling, 1-1/8" at the widest, 44" long, for my 8 year old girl.  It had a lot of natural reflex in one tip, so I did some heat bending on the other tip.  I tried some Knox gelatin glue for the first time, along with some rawhide from the mule deer I took last year, and it was a failure.  Too hot, surface contamination on the bow, I dunno, but there was no way the rawhide was sticking....
So, I have a bunch of milkweed from stuff I cut this fall.   Stripped the fibres out, man that stuff is STRONG!  Used Titebond II to glue a bunch of fibres right down the middle of the back.  Currently curing, will test it out when it sets.......anyone else ever tried milkweed fibres for backing?

[JW_Halverson]

Off the top of my head I can't remember seeing that posted in here recently.  I have seen some folks making nice milkweed fiber bowstrings, though. 

[J05H]

I can't speak from experience, but I imagine it should work well. I've read somewhere about flax fiber making a good backing, and even potentially overpowering the belly if its too thick. I would expect most bast fibers to behave similarly.

[campx]

I only just stumbled over the properties of milkweed this fall.  I tried the "2 strand reverse wrap" technique for the 1st time, braiding some tiny bracelets for my girls...I tried breaking one and all it did was cut into my hands, tuff stuff.

[JW_Halverson]

Well, there ya go!

[Eric Garza]

Milkweed yields very strong fibers. My only fear is, like someone already mentioned, it will overpower the belly of the bow and cause a compression failure.

[koan]

If its even close to flax strength it oughta work good.. I flax backed a qestionable osage bow and i geuss i used more than needed cuz it drastically changed the tiller and added 8-9#'s of draw wieght... Brian

[koan]

But.... Its still holding and placed in the Clout shoot at Mojam a few yrs ago, lol... I believe it helped the cast quite a bit IMO.. I laid down 3 layers with  TB3 but i believe 1 layer would have been sufficient... Brian

[campx]

The milkweed fibres went on smooth. 
Used TB2, sized the back first, then started laying down the longer fibres I had on hand (6-10inches long).  Once I had built up a bit of a ridge, I used Suranwrap to squish it all down and smoothed it out.  Let it cure overnight, and it looks pretty good. 
Then I cut some strips of giraffe-print cotton fabric that I found at Wallyworld, and glued that on.  Waited for that to cure.  Put the string on, had to adjust the tiller a bit. 
Good news......my 8 year old girl can pull it, and it didnt blow up!  I'll get pics up when I get home from work.......

[campx]

Some photos....
Top limb needs a few scrapes.  Gonna take a bit of un-needed mass off of the levers.  Wrap a handle on and let the kid shoot it..........she just turned 9 today, time for a bigger bow.


Maya's bow by CampX, on Flickr


Maya's bow by CampX, on Flickr


Maya's bow by CampX, on Flickr

[TimBo]

That looks great!  I will have to try milkweed - it will save me the trouble of growing my own flax...

[Pat B]

There were a few guys at the Tenn Classic a few years ago that backed bows with raw flax and TBII. That seemed to work well for them. I would use it sparingly so it doen't overpower the bow.

[ssgtchad]

That's a nice one. Thanks for the idea. I can't find any milkweed in my area, but I've got tons of thisle,  so ill be trying that.

[Prarie Bowyer]

Verry interesting! 

Where does one get get raw flax?

[Pat B]

Weavers supply shop maybe Michaels or Hobby Lobby.