first bow, making a bamboo self bow, heat treating

[loon]

I might stop being an armchair bowyer in a little, if this one doesn't break... It is pretty light weight, may end up being 25-30#. managed to draw it to something like 25" once. Now I'm trying to heat treat it. Heat gun is set to 450F on low, about 3-4" 1.5"-2.5" away from the bow. Just leaving it there and periodically checking until it browns. Reverse braced with paracord and an awl as a toggle..

Would bamboo be able to bend more before breaking if heat treating?

Want to do a bit of reflex/deflex with this one.

I made the inside of the bamboo the belly inspired by Dave Mead. Besides, this bamboo tended to make lots of cracking noises if I tried to bend it with the outside as the belly... not so much the other way around.

This is just some Chinese bamboo meant for flooring.

Maybe I'll upload a picture once I clean up my room a little bit...

[PatM]

Would bamboo be able to bend more before breaking if heat treating?

  Have you ever tried to break a piece? More bending ability isn't an issue with a bamboo slat.

[loon]

Then maybe I'll only heat treat the tips.
But then they'll be stiffer..

[simson]

more pics!!!!!!!

[loon]

haha, after seeing your bows, this is kind of embarrassing :p






the top limb looks whip tillered on this one, probably mostly because of set it had gotten from pulling it too far during tillering
I doubt that my tiller will be that good, will be harder to tell with R/D... ..
For tillering I've been using wood chisels and a rasp.
There are no pins or anything for keeping the two slats together, I just filed grooves to wrap string around.

[loon]

Got distracted, left one part for a bit longer than the others and it browned! (at the 450F setting)

Did not need anything fancy for my heating setup. Just balanced the bow on a cereal box and put the heat gun under it.



This will look awesome when finished with tung oil and shellac.

Current unstrung profile, overall deflex at the handle. Failed at flipping the tips by wiping a moist towel + heatgun. Will have to steam bend... I don't wanna clamp and then bend like I did with the handle. Apparently managed to take all of the set out though.



I strung it and drew it. It's maybe 15lbs tops... not too big of a deal, I mostly want it as a form practice bow. Flipping the tips and cable backing should bring it up some.



Tiller looks ok I guess? Maybe a little.. weird.

[loon]

Full draw! 28.5" from the belly. First bow I've ever tillered. Just floor tillered, too... and checked the bend by bending it on my knee. Guess it's not perfect. I like the bend anyway.

Maybe I'll just leave it like this. I'll shoot it tomorrow...

Handle width is about 1.7", maybe I should scrape it more. The bow is 62" ntn on the back... I thought it was longer. The string length is about 58", but I can stretch it to 60" with my bare hands. Huh. Guess this isn't polyester paracord. There might be some "bowstring hemp" around here (Sansevieria trifasciata), but I picked up a dried dead plant and it was a bit too easy to tear the fibers. Maybe it's something else.

What I don't like about D-10 is that it's so damn slippery. I don't wanna do a continuous or flemish string. And a bowyer's hitch would slip. I could just lightly reverse twist some nice plant fiber and pad the loop area with twice as much fiber as the rest.

Well, since this bow is so light, I don't think D-10 will slip

The bowstring is a tad more than 59" ntn at brace, and the brace height is almost 7".

I could wrap below the nocks with sinew since bamboo likes to splinter.

[turmoiler]

That's a buthanese style!

[PatM]

They string the other way around in Bhutan.

[loon]

Maybe if I had better bamboo... this one just makes a cracking noise if bent that way. I could barely reverse low brace it, it was already making noises. The slats without tillering do, too. Though this random one didn't, and I couldn't break it (didn't give it everything though)
Definitely Bhutanese inspired. I made a (craft store) hemp string, too..

[bradsmith2010]

well its looking pretty good,, 

[DC]

See if you can find out why it cracks and groans. There was a fella on here a while back wanted to know how to make his bow creak like an Orc bow. He was kinda disappointed that we tried to avoid that. There might be a buck in it

[loon]

With the inside of the bamboo as the belly like I have it, it is silent. Might be because of how the inside material is weaker than the outside, and gets sort of teared apart in tension.
Hmm.

[PatM]

It is just the pithy material cracking.

[loon]

I cut it down to 49" ntn or so. Narrowed the handle a little, sort of 1 5/8" width. 7.3" brace height, 9#@17", 20#@25", 25#@28". Now if only I could shoot it in this damned urban area without having to drive for an hour.. should make a cardboard target.

Bamboo looks rather nasty and grey in most parts even when I sand it.

I'm sure the tiller is really bad

Making a single piece 36" version could be interesting.

Handle a bit deflexed. Has taken about 3 1/4" of set.

Very crude, but I hope it is interesting somehow?