Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: adb on November 25, 2012, 12:07:18 pm
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Another one just finished up yesterday. This is a tri-lam: maple back, ipe core, osage belly. It came out to 53#@28". Black ebony tip overlays. Round tiller, narrow profile, stacked round belly. 1 1/4" at the grip, tapering to 3/8" nocks. Round maple inlaid arrow pass, to shoot off the fist. 1/2" of set.
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Money shot...
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Good mojo with this bow! First arrow at 10 yards... in the gold... second arrow... a Robin Hood! Kinda made the hair on my neck stand up!
I kinda hate to see this one go!
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how the heck to do you make bows this fast??? Another nice one! And another arrow bites the dust! I've only done a robin hood once, probably at like 12-15 yards, but mostly luck. It saddened me that my perfect arrow got it's neck shattered though!
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Beautiful tiller!
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ADB, that is one of the prettiest ELBs I've seen!...
Love the wood combo too.
How do you find maple as the backing?Is that vertical grain maple?
I haven't used it yet, but may have to try one.
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Nice work! I can't wait to make my first tri-lam elb ;D
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Nice! Another fine example of your woodworking skills.
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Nice elb and fine tiller. Excellent workmanship. :-)
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Seems that someone with the incredible talent at making museum quality arrows would learn to spread out your shots a little! I just naturally tend to use ALL of my targets. >:D
Something mighty elegant about that bow, simply elegant.
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Seems that someone with the incredible talent at making museum quality arrows would learn to spread out your shots a little! I just naturally tend to use ALL of my targets. >:D
Something mighty elegant about that bow, simply elegant.
I don't shoot those fancy-pants self nock insert custom arrows. Too expensive! Those are reserved for the paying customers. I stick with the cheap-ass plastic nocked basic arrows.
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Yup, nice.
I like the tip overlays which still give the flavour of a horn nock.
Del
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Very nice. Bows like that can be so nice to shoot.
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Beautiful bend n colors ;)
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Does "adb" stand for "ambitiously determined bowyer", or "absolutely driven bowmaker", or something like that?
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Does "adb" stand for "ambitiously determined bowyer", or "absolutely driven bowmaker", or something like that?
No ;D ;D. If it seems like I'm making a lot of bows lately, it's because I have a fairly big order to fill by Dec 8th. 5 bows, 6 doz arrows, bow bags, etc. I'm on the home stretch now, only 1 bow left to go.
I've been retired for 2 years from a career in medicine and health care, and this is how I make my living now... all be it, only part time.
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Ooops, forgot to add... for all you mass theory monkeys, this one is 610 grams.
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Absolutely fine tiller job Adb! Man that is just awesome!
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Just awesome.....
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Very nice work,beautiful bow and tiller. :)
Pappy
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It's only rock'n roll, but I like it, like it, yes I do. Very nice bow. :D
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That is sure a cool lookin color combo of woods you got there. Fine job Adam!! 8)
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perfect tiller! ;)
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very nice bow with an excellent tiller, looks like fine work.
Can I ask, why you put the ipe , the densest of the woods in the core and not on the belly? I have made a few trilams and I always put ipe on the belly....was wondering if you knew something I dont?
how long is the bow?
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very nice bow with an excellent tiller, looks like fine work.
Can I ask, why you put the ipe , the densest of the woods in the core and not on the belly? I have made a few trilams and I always put ipe on the belly....was wondering if you knew something I dont?
I was wondering about the same thing.....but I know next to nothing about laminated bows:-/
Tiller is hypnotic.....I can stare at that all day.-)
Cheers
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Beautiful! How do yall do those inlay arrow passes? I always thought that an easy way might be to use a hardcore leather punch to punch out a shallow hole, (the kind you have to use a mallet with) than do another on the wood of choice for the inlay, and than just glue it in the hole and sand it down? I tried it the other day though, and it didn't work as good as I had hoped. Another way I was thinking was use the end of a dowel rod as a pattern, and trace the circle out with a x-acto knife, and then chizel it out like Del does. How you guys do those is just beyond me.
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very nice bow with an excellent tiller, looks like fine work.
Can I ask, why you put the ipe , the densest of the woods in the core and not on the belly? I have made a few trilams and I always put ipe on the belly....was wondering if you knew something I dont?
how long is the bow?
Sorry, the bow is 70" ntn.
As you mentioned, ipe and osage are both excellent belly woods... the two best, IMHO. So, I decided to try ipe as a core wood. Never done it before. I've used osage as a core wood with ipe. I thought the maple, ipe, & osage would make a nice contrast in colors.
I think many bow makers are under the misconception that the core wood doesn't matter. Not true. The core wood should be dense, and strong. This will make the bow stronger, with less set. Each glue line (2 with a tri lam) creates a plane of opposing forces of tension and compression. A weak core material, like maybe pine, will create a weak link.
Core wood doesn't matter when it comes to FG bows. The core wood is only a cosmetic layer with clear FG, or simply a carrying material for the FG if it's dark. The FG does all the work.
The woods I've used as core material for tri lams are: osage, ipe, bloodwood, purpleheart, yellowheart, bamboo, jatoba, bocote, and wenge. These are all dense strong hardwoods (except the bamboo, which isn't wood anyway).
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Actually, I just finished a tri lam glue-up this morning. It's hickory backed, yellowheart core, and ipe belly. A customer wants a kit to make a 100+# warbow. The glue-up is 78" long, 1 1/4" at the grip, tapering to 1/2" tips. I've added ebony tip overlays, rounded the back, and cut and rounded the first belly facets. If he has any tillering skills, he should be able to make any weight he wants! ;)
If anyone wants, I can take some pics and post them here. Just holler!
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thanks Adb, what about the weight of using a heavy core? In your opinion out of those woods, which one made the best core?
how did the bamboo core work?
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The bamboo core wasn't a great success. Bamboo checks badly where I live because it's very dry. I don't use bamboo anymore at all, even as a core material. I used a bamboo core in a hickory/bamboo/osage tri lam... 100#@32", and that bow took >3" of set. I won't use it again.
As far as the weight goes with a dense core... I find the final mass is much the same as a simple backed bow. Also, with a dense core, I can make the limbs narrower, which are faster. I have to watch for prop twist, however. I've had really great success (as far as outcome and performance goes) with tri lam ELBs, and I enjoy making them. My favourite type of bow by far.
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Here's an example of what I was talking about regarding mass... these two bows are almost identical. Maple backed jatoba, 70" ntn, 1 1/8" at the center, tapering to 3/8" nocks, 48#@28", final mass 620 grams. This bow: maple/ipe/osgae tri lam, 70" ntn, 1 1/8" at the center tapering to 3/8" nocks, 53#@28", final mass 610 grams. So, even though this bow has 3 layers, it's mass is nearly identical with the same profile. Both bows took basically no set (1/2" each). If I had to overdraw one of them, it would be the tri lam.
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Beautiful! How do yall do those inlay arrow passes? I always thought that an easy way might be to use a hardcore leather punch to punch out a shallow hole, (the kind you have to use a mallet with) than do another on the wood of choice for the inlay, and than just glue it in the hole and sand it down? I tried it the other day though, and it didn't work as good as I had hoped. Another way I was thinking was use the end of a dowel rod as a pattern, and trace the circle out with a x-acto knife, and then chizel it out like Del does. How you guys do those is just beyond me.
;D ;D Making this type of arrow pass is just the easiest thing possible! I drill a 3/8" hole into the bow grip where I want the arrow pass to be, glue in a round dowel of whatever material you want with epoxy, let it dry, cut off the dowel, sand it smooth, and presto... inlaid round arrow pass! BE CAREFUL HOW FAR YOU DRILL INTO THE GRIP!!! 1/4" tops!! Anymore will cause a major weak spot, and if your bow is a bendy handle style, failure is possible if you go too deep. I've used round horn, antler, and wood as material for round arrow passes.