Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: bjrogg on March 12, 2020, 12:37:43 pm
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I have a HHB I’ve been working on. It’s a barely bending handle. I’m planning on wrapping handle and picked up some cork at Hobby Lobby today. I’m just a little curious how others have done it. I’m thinking glue on with TB2 then file or sand to shape. Any finish over top? The rest of the bow already has several thin coats of tru oil.
Plan on lacing up leather handle wrap over top.
Bjrogg
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I use 1/4" thick cork and TB3, don't be shy with the glue as the cork sucks it up fast. I wrap it with Saran wrap and then Ace bandage and let it sit as-is for 24 hrs. Then take the bandage off. It will take several more days to dry hard. I rough shape (gently) with a bastard file, then tune the shape up with a sanding block. Once I'm happy with the shape I slather it with more TB3 to strengthen it up and waterproof it. Then a few coats of poly over that.
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I use painters tape on the bow itself so the glue doesn't make a mess of it.
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Thanks Pearl. How does it look then? I’m wondering if anything that isn’t covered by wrap will look ok? It sounds like you basically stabilize and waterproof the cork with tb3?
Bjrogg
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The last one I made with a cork handle went to Mikey (Stixnstones). That one I wrapped a white nylon string around the entire area without overlapping, very tedious. It finished off nice. I have made them where the cork was left uncovered beyond the leather grip. It looks fine.
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Thanks Pearl. I’m wondering if I should get some tb3? All I have is 2.
Bjrogg
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I recently used weld bond contact cement on cork to build some bulk into a non bending handle. Works immediately. The cork sands and rasps easily, but doesn’t look good. For my eye it needs to be wrapped. Good luck.
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I considered the same stuff, but I wanted it to dry hard to make shaping it easier and cleaner.
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If you get the finer grain cork I think it looks fine, I’ve sealed up the outside of the cork with CA glue before it darkened and hardened it up nicely but I was always a little worried it got to hard and might crack.
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Thanks everyone. I did glue one layer on with TB2. I wrap tape sticky side out over that and then snugged it up as tightly as I could with ace wrap.
I think at this point I’m going to plan on wrapping all the cork.
Dylan I was thinking of super glue to firm it up to. How much glue did it use? Seems like it might take a few tubes.
Bjrogg
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Here’s a little teaser
Bjrogg
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Unwrapped ace bandage and with a little light file work and some Emory cloth I shaped my cork like so.
Bjrogg
PS I sanded the cork over a piece of paper to catch the dust. I might use it for filler.
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Looking good. You will want to fill those edge gaps or your leather handle wrap will cave in there and make it very visible. Of course that is cosmetic and totally up to you.
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Thanks Pearl. That’s why I saved the cork dust.
Bjrogg
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You can also skive those outside edges prior to glue up. That will eliminate that gap as well.
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You can also skive those outside edges prior to glue up. That will eliminate that gap as well.
If I had planed on building up with cork from beginning I wouldn’t have rounded off the wood so much. The gap is pretty small but I think I have a plan to fill it in. And another to avoid it in the future.
Bjrogg
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I`ve used 5 min epoxy on a bend through the handle one, no problems
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Nice work, BJ! Waiting for the finished product. Btw, I went to tb3 for almost all of my glue projects, since you never know when something will get wet!
Hawkdancer
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what's about shoo-goo for filling the gaps?
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Thanks for the replies everyone.
I guess this is what I did. I put a bead of super glue in area I wanted to fill. Then I sprinkled the finest cork dust I had on top of it. I then dripped a little more super glue over the dust. After it harden good I filed and sanded it to shape. Then I put a layer of super glue over everything. Let it harden and put tru oil over everything
Bjrogg
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After a few coats of tru oil I wrapped handle area with masking tape sticky side out. Then I cut it off making a slit from top to bottom on the back side. This became my template.
I stuck my template on my leather and cut around it with my scissors. Then I use a sharp pointy knife tip to make holes. I used blue and red d97 to lace up the black leather. It goes pretty good with the garner skins. Use two needles and baseball stitch.
I left the tags long for now. Might add something yet not sure.
Bjrogg
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Nice job, I thought those were garter (garden, garner?) skins!
Hawkdancer
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Yup Jerry all three.lol. I usually relocate them but these two weren’t as fortunate. Figured I might as well give them a knew home.
Bjrogg
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Nice job.
I think, you also could make a "paste" of glue (barge cement) and the little cork pieces for filling gaps or forming the handle
I will rework a handle of one bow, cause it is to small for my hands. I 'll report.
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I like your wrap on that one BJ nice looking bow , I made this one a while back I used real thin cork & the thin almost water type CA built up lams and it sanded & shaped almost like glass very smooth !
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+1 on what Pearly said.
I do all my cork build-ups exactly the same way. The only difference is I use the 1/8" sheet cork, instead of 1/4"; sometimes doubled-up on the belly side. I would add one more detail, and that is, to always make sure that your strokes with the file and/or coarse sanding block are made in the direction towards the glue joint, and not up and away from it. This prevents the cork from chipping and tearing out.
–John