Two TD-ELB Stylish Bows - Not So Happy End (28.12.2017) - Addendum (05.01.2018)

[Lehtis]

Yeah, they would be more durable if the limbs were wider and thinner... but cause Iīm mimicing ELB stylish bows, the widest part of the bows should be at the handle area. The TD sleeves set the max width limit to that 28 mm.

[Lehtis]

... and the story continues... the parts of the new lower limb glued as before... the broken one set there to frighten and teach the new one to behave...

[mullet]

Cool build along. That stinks with the broken limb but osage is king.

[Pat B]

Good recovery, Lehtis but those bows don't scare that easily. 

[simson]

Cool work, Lethis!
And a nice workshop, I see you have a luxury heating inside - that would cause me staying in the shop all time, 

[Lehtis]

Simson: Our houseīs central heating is not on yet. Too mild winter so far and my workshop is in cellar below the ground level and I have a fireplace there... :-)

[Lehtis]

  This bulletwood bellied billet really doesnīt want to turn to a bow. Something odd happened in the gluing process and the bullet-osage joint popped before trials to bend it. Perhaps there was residues of wax left on the bulletwood slice (been on exhibition terrace before I got it). I planed it only gently and wiped with acetone before gluing... Another reason might be that my Unibond was old but it was looking quite normal and was freely running when I was mixing it... Now Iīm a bit afraid of whatīs going to happen with that osage bellied bow. It was bending properly yesterday when I was starting the horn nocks... letīs see how this story ends.

[Pappy]

I guess that is all a part of bow building, but I sure hate it when a plan don't come together. Good luck with the redo, still watching and look forward to the final finish, remember patients is a virtue in life, but especially in bow building .
 Pappy

[ohma2]

I would remind you to clean the osage very well,i clean it till i dont get any more yellow color on a white cloth.your wotk looks to very attentive,bet you end up with fine bows.

[Lehtis]

Hickory-Cumaru-Osage TD proceeding. Horn nocks now raw shaped and the bow is ready for test shooting tomorrow morning. Lower limb looks a bit stiff and tiller unbalanced but thatīs on purpose because of in many cases they seem to start bending more when in use. I hope it looks better after some tens of arrows. In this condition before final smoothing it gives 82lbs@28".

[Pat B]

The outer portion of the left limb looks quite stiff. Be sure it doesn't hinge where it is bending while drawing. How far have you drawn the bow the way it sits now? You won't be able to tell good tiller until you hit full draw.

[Lehtis]

After test shooting it strongly looks like "EIAC 2018 @ Budapest, here we come!" The bow behaves well and itīs ready for finalizing, i.e. horn  arrow pass, smoothing and oiling, leather handle and new string. My third five arrow set from 20 yds in the attached photo when testing the bow this morning.

Tiller changed during shooting as I expected and itīs now proper 4-5 mm measured at 25 cm from handle pieces. I draw some 27-27,5" and the bow gives now 82-83lbs@28" and 77-78lbs@26". Pictures after test shots in my next message.

[Lehtis]

Pics after test shots:

[Pat B]

She looks pretty good. Nicely done. Too bad about the other two. Hopefully you will be able to rescue them.   

[Hamish]

Latest one looks good.
Shame about the bulletwood etc. Old Unibond might be the problem, as you have already mentioned. What type of clamping method did you use?
Do you sand your mating surfaces or handplane/scrape?

That complete delam, I have only had that happen with an old formula west systems epoxy. Shouldn't happen with good Unibond. As others have said it could be the oiliness of the osage. It also could be too much clamping pressure starving the glue joint. You can usually get around that by roughing the surfaces with 40grit paper and a sanding block.
 It will be a fair bit of work to clean scrape/sand the glue joint clean, but they look like good quality(expensive too) materials so it would be worth the effort. Soak the ferrule in a bath of acetone, it should loosen after a day or two.