Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Carson (CMB) on February 19, 2015, 10:48:58 pm
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I have an old osage billet that has been sawed up for belly laminations to be backed with bamboo.
My question is whether it is a bad idea to use a piece of quarter sawn osage when the edge grain is snakey, and so it goes on and off of the board at high degrees in several places. I leaned on the board a bit and it held together, but I rather not go through the build, if it is doomed to fail.
Thanks for your input.
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Just saw a bow last weekend that failed in this configuration...
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I thought that might be the case. Thanks Pat.
Looks like more coat hanger material.
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I have used some pretty radical unouts on belly lams without problems, I would give it a go.
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Yes it's surprising what you can get away with on belly lams. Make the belly as thick as you can with a thin backing.
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If it were me, I wouldn't use it. Sure it might hold together, but it might not. I have used wood like that in the past and had failures a few times. I would saw it into 1/4" thick core lams and taper it from 1/4" to 1/8th" at the tips.
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Carson I usually wont waste my time listening to Royberts ramblings, but considering he builds nothing but RD BBO bows. Id buy what he is selling my friend.
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By the way I wasn't meaning any old wavy grain will do. Personally I have come round to the thinking of only using the very best I can get. One of my absolute favourite bows ever 'let go' at a wave. The stave i got was too narrow really and had been sawn not split so the grain was violated next to where a knot had been.
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I too try to use only the best I can get my hands on. As a result I haven't had a bow break in so long I can't remember exactly when it was... but it was many years ago.
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Thanks guys. I think I will give them to a buddy who can get a couple glass lams out of each.
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Send them to Pearl Drums, his bows always blow up anyway... :) LOL
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Nah, Im the like dances with squirrels, don't even remember the last bow I broke.
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LOL, short term memory loss huh?:)
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I remember a bow blowing up on your tree Jeff.... Remember we duct taped it back together? LOL
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you guys are funny... *(blowed up on the tree.... lol)
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Wasn't funny at the time, I was holding the pull rope.. I flew 10 feet backwards, went over the table saw, bounced off the jointer, and did another back flip.. But I never spilt my beer.. :) LOL
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Wish there was a YouTube video of that, Roy. That would be fun to watch ;D
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;D
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I've also made some BBO's with pretty wild grain runoff. The only problem I have found is that you have to be careful when gluing the reflex in
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I've not used quartersawn osage or osage with that grain that wild- just rift sawn with much less wild grain- e.g. the attached pic. I'm a chicken and my tillering is horrid so I would never attempt a BBO with it. Lams for a glass bow is a good repurposing.
If I was going to attempt it, +1 on Marc's tip to be carefull when gluing in reflex. Would be real easy to break the belly if there's too much reflex.
The problem I've had with wild grained bellies, wheter reflexed or not, is that the glued-up bow will be more prone to having warped or twisted limbs like the one in the attached pic did. I've taken to gluing up bows with the belly pre-profiled to the back's profile. Most folks seem to profile the bamboo back and glue it onto a full width belly. The problem arrises when the width of the belly is reduced later the to the back's profile, the bow limbs will tend to twist and/or warp as the belly is profiled later- similar to ripping a piece of wood with wild grain tends to result in warped and/or twisted boards. With an osage belly, you can pre-profile the belly and then heat straighten it or gradually reduce the width to the profile from the center out while correcting the profile for warpage.
c.d.
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If the blank is sawn as straight as can be and the snakes run side to side, I'd do it. as long as most of the grain runs mostly down the middle of the bow behind the backing, you'll be ok. heck, you could even make a snakey backed bow.
If the front surface waves a lot, or snakes back to front as well, I'D avoid it like the plague. The only backed bow failures I have ever had that weren't my fault, some grain ran front to back through a 3/8" piece of wood (jatoba, massaranduba, and osage) at one spot, and the belly sluffed off like a shingle when bent far on the tree.
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Great info guys! Much easier to learn this one form others experiences. :)
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Yeah, I think at the beginning PatM is referring to my bows, I had two quartersawn Osage boards, one was better than the other. One was a hick backed Osage static that popped under the backing, right around the handle fade and the other was a sinew backed Osage shortie, with much wavier grain and popped a big splinter right at the edge runoff.