Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: cook1536 on May 21, 2013, 06:12:55 pm
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So, while in the process of making a red oak board bow for my daughter, I bought a fairly straight grained hickory board. My question is, can a person rip an 1/8" thick strip off the belly, flip it around and glue it on the back to make a hickory backed hickory bow?
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yeah you can, is the grain questionable, hickory generally doesn't need a backer
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Not really, it runs staight for about 4 feet then slowly curves off the side.
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give it a shot then, worst thing is you end up with some wood for the smoker , and maybe a knot on the head>:D
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I can handle the smoker wood but i dont think the glue would taste very good!!!
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Be cautious of boards where the grain curves to one side, i had one recently and the bow ended up with some twist. The one before that from the same board broke while on the tree because i didn't notice it early enough.
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Is backing it gonna help?
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Pictures? Jawge
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The backing can help in the sense that it can hold together an area of slightly dodgy grain with a piece that is more uniform. You can also use this as an opportunity to glue in reflex (or whatever side profile you want ,for that matter.) Just remember that heating it afterwards will be out of the question, as it would weaken the glue.
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So you want to rip off a 'backing' from a board, and glue it to the same board back again? ??? That...well...wouldn't be a backing. It's just a laminated selfbow then. No matter what you do, the grain will not get better on the back[ing] in some magical way. There's just no sense in cutting an iffy grained board in two and glueing the two halves back together, except for the fact that this allows you to clamp the blank into a reflex and/or deflex shape and hold its shape. Instead, if you have a poorly grained hickory board, back it with a good grained hickory lamination, from a second board. One good hickory board may yield four backings to save four iffy grained boards, used as belly.
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I am going to post some pics tonight of the board to see if the grain is ok. I thought it looked good for a hickory board but as i am so new to board bows I want to make sure before I start working it. As i mentioned it curves to the side about 4 feet down. My first bow was a hickory stave bow in which the grain was violated on the back while working it but it still a good shooter and I made it over a year ago so I knew hickory was tough and am hoping I can get away with this board.
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Ok here is a couple pics of the hickory board. I have it cut to 60" so I marked a line at 30 and took the pics of each half to get a good pic of the grain and where it starts to curve off.
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Thats gonna twist, sorry bro. :(
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Thats gonna twist, sorry bro.
Not sure I agree. Considering it is hickory, the runoff is not that bad. Keep in mind that with any straight grained board you will have runoff when you do your width tapers to the tips anyway but generally that area is under less stress. I think I would chance it with that board. If it were red oak or a less forgiving wood, I probably wouldn't. Keep in mind, I live here in the south where we have a little more humidity and hickory is just hard to break, period. I have read where in dryer climates it is a little more volatile.
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Just my experience with that kind of run off.
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Not bad. Will make a nice light bow for your daughter. Make it as long as she is tall and 1 in wide and let the handle bend. No glue on pieces. At least that is what I do for my ladies. A backing of linen, burlap or silk is a good idea for piece of mind. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html
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I've made a few hick bows with grain like that with no twist to speak of. If so it'll be minimal, and a little twist is actually not a big deal. Lotsa self bows end up with quite a bit of prop twist and shoot just fine.
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I am making my daughters from a red oak board that is straight all the way through. This bow is gonna be mine and I am looking for 50# at 26" at 60" length overall. My stave bow i made last year had some prop twist and I used a heat gun and straightened it out real nice. Is that possible with this board bow? The reason for the question of ripping and re-glueing to itself was just to see if I did rip a piece off the belly and flip it where the run off is on opposite ends from each other, if that would make this board better? I do want to glue on overlays and a grip as I want a rigid grip with walnut inlay...if it is worth the trouble with this board.
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How wide/thick is it now? It looks about 1.5" wide from the pic, but i'm really guessing. If you're at 60" overall length, that means you'll end up with about 59" ntn, which I would say is a touch short. You could go with 1.5" fades and a 4" grip for 7" handle area, which would give you exactly 52" of limb to work with. You'll have to get all of it working and have great tiller. I would go with a pyramid style, and i wouldn't worry about ripping a backing from it and reapplying it if it was just for the runoff. If it IS under 2" wide I might change my recommendations!
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I meant to put that in the last reply. It is a 1x2 board so it is 1.5 wide. I am going for a pyramid style but want to leave the grip the width of the board and cut out a small sight window and arrow shelf, if that is not possible it will be a pyramid. I was going to try and leave the fades as wide as I can so it would as close to 1.5 as possible. I want a 4" grip but I have it drawn up with an 8" handle area. If this is not possible I will just look for another board.
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60" ttt if it was me i'd go bendy handle, probably an eastern woodland style bow
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Yup agreed. My recommendations are for a 2" board, at 1.5 i'd for sure go with a bendy handle as bubby and scott said.
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What'r y'alls thoughts on tempering? if you had a 2" wide board, you'd probably trap it so it the back would start at about 1.5" and the belly at 2" to help even the compression/tension properties. Tempering ( a good, deep, dark tempering) is effectively the same as trapping, but would be like widening the belly as opposed to narrowing the back. So would a 1.5" wide hickory bow with a deeply tempered belly be equivalent to a 2" wide hickory bow with a trapped back?
Not trying to hijack here but it's seems pertinent and it's been on my mind lately ;)