6 piece Asiatic style bamboo bow

[Bob Barnes]

I like the look...it would be interesting to see how much weight it added and what the effect was on cast...and then how well it hold's up after lots of bending/shooting.   Great idea.   

[superdav95]

Thanks man.  Ya I think time will tell on this.  The leaves were not so brittle that they broke apart on me when wrapping them on the limb.  I saturated them with lots of glue then skimmed off the excess. I’ll measure the weight when applying it to the actual bow and see what difference if any it makes.  Should be interesting anyway.  Thanks for looking. 

[superdav95]

So I decided to go for on the bow after testing the idea out on a old test piece.  It turned out good I think.  It added about 12 grams weight after all the coats of glue and a couple coats of spar urethane.  In a couple days I’ll string it up and shoot it to see how it does.  Let me know what you guys think of this.  Just something I’ve wanted to try for a while.   

[Bob Barnes]

That was fast...I always wait a week or two before spraying finish just to make sure the glue and other materials are completely dry.  I hope this works like you want, and can't wait to hear/see the results.  It does look good.   

[superdav95]

Thanks bob.  The titebond 3 dried overnight for me and then I laid it out in the sun for the day before applying the spar.  I find that titebond dries pretty well for me in a day or so.  Gonna let that dry a few days and should be good.  It’s dry to the touch now but it takes longer to dry throughly.  I may apply a Matt finish spray when it’s done drying I’ll wait and see.  I’ll get it strung up then and fling some arrows through it and post results.

Thanks for looking

Cheers

[superdav95]

Got some good weather and shot this bow after a number of days drying.   It hasn’t lost anything for speed and the leaf camo backing held up.  Shot it about 60 times today and drew it out to about 29.5”.  At that drawlength it shot 191fps.  Using the same 400 grain arrow from previous tests.  Pretty happy with that for this bow.  At 28” draw it shot consistently mid 180’s. Has two duplicate reading at 184 at 27”-28” draw.  Readings in the range of 185-187 but conservatively I would say 184fps at 28” draw.  Just going by feel.  the first pic is me drawing to about 27.5-28”.  The second pic is to about 29-30” roughly.  At this draw I got speed of 191fps. Draw weight at 29” was 47.2lbs.  Still not too shabby.  So my concern was the backing staying together.  Well so far so good I guess time will tell.  After several dozen shots today no noticeable damage or change to the leaves that I could tell.  So I’ll call this a success on two fronts.  First the design and performance and second the dead leaf camo backing experiment.  I do think next one I’ll use smaller leaves so as to get mostly entire leaves on the bow to look little better I think.   Still happy with it.  As far as the belly goes it’s got 8 layers of true oil after the initial first layer of tung oil coating.  Each session sanded with 600 grit and applied with my finger.  After last layer dried for couple days I hit it with toothpaste and polished entire belly surface to give it depth.  Turned out just the way I hoped.  Thanks for looking. 


Here’s a few videos of me shooting this bow.  Enjoy and thanks for looking!

This vid I drew out to around 29-30” to get 191fps

https://photos.app.goo.gl/izgRaYwXDUi5VrDC6

Thes vids are at 27-28” draw for 184fps

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Bzj11qHLCY61J1hX6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AW3eYg9PS9tzNxyH9
Cheers

[superdav95]

More pics…

[backtowood B2W]

Very nice! tiller looks very good, too . good numbers!
I have to try this kind of decoration - looks great - perfect for autumn
Thanx for showing us.

[BowEd]

Excellent imagination of the native colors as a theme on your bow.Reminds me of the feather backed bows from the past.They were beautiful too.
It does'nt surprise me of no performance reduction with the leaves on there.Bows with shorter limbs are not influenced by that much with that.Good work showing of your testing.Having a spotter along side keeps things legitimate.
Basically your shooting approximately a 9 grain arrow @ 28".Less yet @ 30".Still very good numbers.
Definitely a successful adventure you took here.Beautiful bows.
There's 2 parts IMO about making bows.Much like carpentry building houses.
The set up and the finish.
With bows the set up is the design and tlllering.The finish is the bling and finish put on after shooting it in.
With carpentry the set up is base or frame up and basic lay out.Then it's the inside and outside finish work.
There are good set up people and good finish people.Some better at one more than another.
IMO you excell in both these catagories.

[superdav95]

Very nice! tiller looks very good, too . good numbers!
I have to try this kind of decoration - looks great - perfect for autumn
Thanx for showing us.

Backtowood.  Thanks for your kind words.  I was quite happy with the numbers on these test bows.  I’ll definitely be making more.   I’ve still got the sinewed version waiting to compare numbers with in a couple more months so it should neat to compare.  Thanks for looking.   

[superdav95]

Excellent imagination of the native colors as a theme on your bow.Reminds me of the feather backed bows from the past.They were beautiful too.
It does'nt surprise me of no performance reduction with the leaves on there.Bows with shorter limbs are not influenced by that much with that.Good work showing of your testing.Having a spotter along side keeps things legitimate.
Basically your shooting approximately a 9 grain arrow @ 28".Less yet @ 30".Still very good numbers.
Definitely a successful adventure you took here.Beautiful bows.
There's 2 parts IMO about making bows.Much like carpentry building houses.
The set up and the finish.
With bows the set up is the design and tlllering.The finish is the bling and finish put on after shooting it in.
With carpentry the set up is base or frame up and basic lay out.Then it's the inside and outside finish work.
There are good set up people and good finish people.Some better at one more than another.
IMO you excell in both these catagories.


Wow.  What a generous compliment Ed.   Especially coming from you.  Your work is admired by all here and look up to you as a well of knowledge.   Thanks for the kind words.  I do love the entire process.  There’s just something about bows that has captivated me.  My dear wife laughs at me for my obsession with bows and can’t  understand it.  It’s a great outlet for a lot of us.  Therapy if you will….   Thanks again!   

[BowEd]

Visa/verca.
Building bows close to the edge but durable are not for the faint of heart.
Robin understands my obsession as she has some of her own.Plus she has a good eye to cross check my work.

[superdav95]

Yes I agree.  for sure my wife has been a good eye and second opinion on my bows and on this bow in particular for me as an objective opinion.  It’s nice to have good feedback that’s honest and and can give you the straight goods.  Thanks again. 

[Selfbowman]

Cool builds Dave . I enjoyed the the thread on the bows . Good speed also!

[superdav95]

Cool builds Dave . I enjoyed the the thread on the bows . Good speed also!

Thanks selfbowman!   Gonna get the sinewed version finished up here in the next couple weeks and compare them all head to head. Sort of.  They are all similar draw weights but ended up varied.  I just finished I putting a hog gut covering on my sinewed version of this bow and letting it dry a week or so.  Should be interesting to see how it does.   

Thanks for looking.