Bow making contest ( drawlength changed. Make it to your own draw length )

[willie]

I got the tji bow roughed out. here are some pics of the progress.       1-1/8"  wide by  71" long

top pic is a knot hole, about 1/2" wide, 3/8"deep, in the belly

next is a finger joint that goes from back to belly, at center of handle

last are some knots that were revealed after roughing out on the band saw, out by the tip on the back

[turtle]

I wish you luck with that. I think if I was to try plywood I would cut it out as if it were flat sawn not edge sawn.

[willie]

all the usual stuff that plywood bowyers are used to dealing with, so just deal with it, right?

I need to ask if backing is permissible? I can fill the knot hole on the belly, but I think if I start bending without something over those knots in the back, at the tip, it just won't bend very far. Just out of curiosity, I plan to leave the finger joint at the handle as is, I know that I could build up the handle to a non-bendy, but I want to see if that joint will hold at a strain equal to the rest of the limbs.

the top pic in the post above is my redneck power rasp. 36 grit belt generates more hair- like shavings than dust, and is held down by gravity, in the hole in the plywood over sawhorses.
works better than anything I have found yet, as far as power tools go. the level bubble sticks on the stave top with hot melt, to help me stay on the level. a better photo below

does anyone know how to write text between or after photos?

turtle, where were you before I started sawing?  just kidding, I got two or three more tries left in that tji

top photo is a view of the back

[turtle]

I don't have a dog in this fight but I would think if plywood is allowed then backed bows would have to be allowed.

[PlanB]

Hey Steve, they are allowed but not preferred, was my understanding. I guess the final winner will be chosen by vote, and I bet the most popular won't be the easiest to have pulled off. So a backed bow could compete but might not impress people if it was too simple a solution to problems others faced and overcame with an unbacked selfbow. We'd have to see what the mood of the voters was! No telling.

Sleek was talking about any crazy combination allowed like mouldings with nails in them or pieces spliced together, I think. So backing on a weird bow probably would fit in somewhere there. I think a sinew backed osage bow wouldn't count for much in this contest. But ya never know.....

Cottonwood backed with sumac might be another matter.....

[sleek]

You nailed it dude.

[willie]

sumac ??
 does it have fiber in it like nettles?

[PlanB]

Willie, interesting you chose "quarter sawn" stock out of the plywood tree! I think you're going to need to back it or it will pop at 10 lbs like my cottonwood. I might be wrong, though.

Looks nice from the photos, anyway! Glad you're going for the gold.

[willie]

actually, I think that all the plies are going the long way as it is engineered to  be a flange. if so it should not matter should it?

[PlanB]

Sumac has a bunch of smelly pith in it, an I don't think it has fibers like nettles. at all.

Hey are you going to back your ply bow with nettles? That would be pretty radical, dude.....

[PlanB]

actually, I think that all the plies are going the long way as it is engineered to  be a flange. if so it should not matter should it?

oh some kind of special ply, I see. Maybe you'll convert me into a believer.....

[willie]

well, we don't have netttles around here, but there could be something else that would work. I am just worried about one spot with knots on the back. The finger joint, and the rest of the back, is gonna have to get "the test"

actually the mills produce a special "bending ply" with all the plies parallel also, never seen any, just read about it

[PlanB]

If you back that with birch, you're gonna have pretty close to a two wood. I think comp. strength might not be too sad in that ply. Is it Douglas fir -- or a hard pine? Could be interesting....

[PlanB]

Emmet, I've been checking the weight on that cottonwood bow for a couple days and it has dropped 10% in 2 days, so no it was not as dry as I thought.

It's hard to believe it could get much lighter in weight, but I guess we'll find out -- I'll keep weighing it.

This surprises me, because I cut a big cottonwood -- maybe 18" diameter a few years ago, and the wood was pretty heavy and hard when it dried. It would bend nails when you tried to hammer them in.

This sapling stuff is super light and kind of soft, so far. Seems quite different. I'm going to see if I can hunt up one of those old boards -- maybe try a bow out of that to compare...

[willie]

It would bend nails when you tried to hammer them in.

wow, that hard?

I bucked up a fresh log recently and is was so soft, that when I ran the skil saw a rip down the log, It cut like butter, but the crosscut with the husky was more demanding.

early work skiff builders around here used to like it for side planks (2-3 per side), so it must have been tough enough. Natural spruce knees for ribs, but I would imagine they sawed spruce planks for the bottom tho. might look the next time I see one, there are still some rotting in the weeds nearby