Red Oak Board to Stave build-a-long (Finished Page 3)

[RyanY]

Tried to even out the tiller a bit more. Got it to just over 31#@27". Weight before heat treating. Made a new form with 2.5" of reflex. I cut the form to 1" wide to prevent the heat from bouncing back against the sides of the limb. Pictured is the jig I use. It's not the most stable but it works. Keeps the heat gun my desired distance of 4" from the belly. I tried to get a picture of the color I go for.

[RyanY]

More pics.

[RyanY]

Finished heat treating tonight. Normally I would go all the way to the tips but since I did overlays on this one early I avoided getting too close. We'll see if the glue joint is impacted at all. The form I used had 2.5" of reflex and the bow bounced back to 2". I generally err on the safe side of waiting at least a few days to start bending again. Being on the thinner side AND trapped, I definitely don't want to risk the back being too dry.

[bambule]

Nice buildalong. Try to wrap Aluminiumfoil around your caul to avoid the back from the heat. I did that in the past and I never had a scorched back after that. The Reflexion works.

Greets Cord

[RyanY]

Nice buildalong. Try to wrap Aluminiumfoil around your caul to avoid the back from the heat. I did that in the past and I never had a scorched back after that. The Reflexion works.

Greets Cord

I’ve always felt like it would reflect the heat more but I’ll have to give it a shot!

[RyanY]

Strung up the red oak board -> stave bow and immediately noticed the tips were considerably weaker than prior to heat treating. Not even worth tugging on the string at this point! I am going to go over the weaker areas again with the heat gun to make sure they are well heat treated.

A couple thoughts on why this happened. I started heating the bow from the handle towards the tips. It takes a while for the heat gun to heat up so the process speeds up over time. There's also less mass the further out I go on the limb so it may take less time for the limb to achieve the same color but maybe not stiffen the wood. The difference in width and thickness along the limb may mean that heat treating doesn't stiffen the whole limb proportionally to keep the same tiller shape for this bow. The tips are quite thin at 1/4" wide. I will be risking compromising the glue joint of the tip overlays to make sure I heat up the tips. My understanding of PVA glues is that they can break down if heated too much but if it doesn't get to that point then it can maintain its strength when it cools. Hopefully not compromised enough to make it fail. We shall find out!

[RyanY]

After the second round of heat treating the tips were a bit stiffer. To my eyes one still looks a bit weak but it doesn't appear to be taking set or really whipping around so time to finish tillering. The bend appeared more stiff in the inner limbs than I wanted and was asymmetrical to start. Got it close in the end. Not perfect but didn't want to go too low for draw weight. Ended up at 33#@27". Started with just under 2" of reflex and it goes back to 1.25" just after unstringing. Next I will finish shaping the nocks and sand it down to start the finishing process.

[bradsmith2010]

looking good

[Zugul]

I bet it'll shoot nicely!

[Pat B]

I think the only time I scorched the back of a bow was when I used aluminum foil to prevent scorching the back.
 Nice work on the build along Ryan. 

[RyanY]

Thanks guys. It'll be interesting to see how it shoots. I don't have arrows this light to test at 10gpp but I'll try and check with some heavier arrows.

Back to work on this one. Shaping the tips to get it finished up. Going for a simple rounded shape with a taper at the tip to match the trapping on the back. I mark out the shape I want to guide wood removal and help keep it even. I use a piece of 80 grit sanding belt on a stick for wood removal (blurry pic). I don't always draw out my tips but wanted to show what I was going for on paper.

[RyanY]

I string up the bow to see where the string lies so I can taper the belly side a bit as well to make it so the string isn't just rubbing against the edge of the belly. Finished tip shape. Just something simple. I like to make sure the apex of the curve is where the overlay meets so there's not a lot of pressure against just the overlay if I set the bow down on the tip. Started changing the shape of my tips after I had a few pop off from sticking out past the limb wood.

[RyanY]

Just need to sand it down and start the finishing process. Since this bow is involving a bit of experimenting I thought I would try that steel wool and vinegar stain and see if I like it. I'll probably finish the bow with boiled linseed oil and paste wax to keep it simple and do some kind of rope handle wrap.

Took a pic of the tip with a pencil for scale to show that they're pretty narrow. The outer limbs are surprisingly thin too. Probably a result of being a bit too elliptical in the tiller shape. Should make for good performance though if it holds up.

[Allyn T]

I like the vinegar, especially because your can make it darker or lighter depending on soak time. Question about the trapped back, do you normally not trap all the way through so it's almost like shaping a backing or can you trap it all the way to belly side

[RyanY]

Depends on what I’m going for but I never trap all the way to the belly or as you tiller the width of the bow will change. I knew that for this length bow at my desired draw length the limbs would end up about 3/8” thick so I trapped 1/4” down from the back leaving about 1/8” of edge at the end.