Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Lehtis on December 01, 2016, 07:35:21 am
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Hei,
Last summer I got a couple of yew staves grown here in Finland. They were too knotty for selfbows so I decided to try backed bows from them. I took the bark away, flattened the back side by bandsaw and allowed them to dry in my cellar. In the beginning of November I glued 5 mm ipe slice as core and bamboo back with Unibond800 on the shorter one and bamboo only on the longer one.
I started with the shorter stave (the longer one is still waiting for it´s turn), shaped it and started tillering with long string. Everything fine until I tried to switch to shorter string and I thumbled with my stringer succeeding to crack off ca. 10 cm from the lower limb. Some Finnish swearing and then I decided to reshape the remaining stave and continued tillering w/o too high expectations. Now the tillering proceeded fine and the little stick refused to break at 28" even though it was only some 62" long. I was very amazed and pleased the same time about the ability of yew to stand the compression pressure under bamboo.
After raw shaping water buffalo horn nocks and strike plate I did test shooting, ca. 100 arrows, and everything was working fine. Then final sanding, some 8 layers of TruOil, leather handle and recycled Dacron string from a broken bow and my "Toy Bow" was ready for action. Now after some 200 more arrows the bow is still alive, no compression fractures on the belly and it shoots fine. Very happy with my "Toy Bow".
Length 62,3" ntn, 85 lbs @ 28" and 75 lbs @ 26".
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Looks good, i like those laminates.
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Those are certainly working hard :)... Boo yew is a great combo, not tried Ipe myself
Del
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That is a beauty, very nice job. :)
Pappy
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Looks good, but I know I couldn't pull that one.
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Impressive, beautiful tiller.
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Nice work!!
X2 on the tiller
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Nice bow! In this case does the Ipe serve any purpose other than appearance and thickness? Could you have used just about any wood(within reason) in that spot?
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Awesome work, perfect tiller. A nice toy to play with.
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Looks really good
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Pretty bow, beautiful tiller. Nice work!
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DC: The purpose of ipe is firstly to stabilize yew´s tendency to live sideways along temperature and moisture changes. Stiffer ipe keeps the limbs stable. Other stiff hardwoods could be used also. Other purpose of ipe is for decoration.
Actually, the other stave shown in the pics with only bamoo backing seems to have restless limbs. After removing some wood both limbs started to bend left. Bamboo alone is not strong enough to prevent bending sideways. Now the stave is tied to table and bended to opposite direction; let´s see if it helps to straighten the stave.
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DC: The purpose of ipe is firstly to stabilize yew´s tendency to live sideways along temperature and moisture changes. Stiffer ipe keeps the limbs stable. Other stiff hardwoods could be used also. Other purpose of ipe is for decoration.
Actually, the other stave shown in the pics with only bamoo backing seems to have restless limbs. After removing some wood both limbs started to bend left. Bamboo alone is not strong enough to prevent bending sideways. Now the stave is tied to table and bended to opposite direction; let´s see if it helps to straighten the stave.
Thanks
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Lehtis, that's a big boy toy. Beautiful tiller really sweet combination you got there.
Bjrogg
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Really incredible man an 85# of only 62" that is working hard. Mind you I don't doubt it's a tough bow growing up around all that Finnish swearing! :-o