Black Bamboo - Purple Heart - Osage Orange Carriage Bow

[Lehtis]

Snowy Greetings from Finland.

Got to start this project because of my previous bow broke after couple of thousands arrows; it´s black bamboo backing broke. Anyway, I stubbornly wanted to use black bamboo again for this new takedown bow to be able to travel easier to England next February to sling arrows in IFAA´s Indoor World Championship Competition.

So, I chose black bamboo for back, purple heart for core and osage orange for belly and glued them to reflexed stave with Smooth-On EA40. Then I cut the stave at it´s mid point and fitted take down sleeves on the halves.

[Lehtis]

Then scraping and sanding as usual to achieve proper tiller... until in the final end the difficulties started: I heard an unpleasant "crack" caused  by popping splinter from lower limb´s bamboo back. Looks like that bamboo is not good at tension.

First I almost gave up but on next morning I diceded to try something new I have not done before. I carfully added some epoxy under the splinter, squeezed it down. The next step was to glue a moistened rawhide patch over the splinter area with TiteBond III. When the patch was dry I carefully sanded both limbs and covered them with rawhide hoping the best. When dry more sanding to remove excess TB III and back to tillering. Surprisingly no new explosions and the tiller and pounds were as before the crack.

[Lehtis]

So, it looks like the rawhide patch and backing saved the bow and I was able to finalize the bow by sanding and shaping the nocks and installing the arrow pass; all water buffalo horn. Then some one hundred arrows without problems and I was ready to coat the bow. First two layers of stained wood wax to cover the rawhide and visible bamboo at sides. Then several layers of TruOil, leather handle and some more TruOil and the bows was ready. The string is polyester (16 strands of BCY 55, to meet IFAA´s rules) from the earlier broken bow. Some more shooting and the bow is still alive.

[Lehtis]

The bow is 71" long ntn, draws 80 lbs @ 28" and got name "The Leatherback" for obvious reason.

... and some more pics ...

[superdav95]

Gorgeously done.  Good save.  That black bamboo is hard stuff.  Good luck at your competition. 

[Hamish]

+1 on a good save. I like your attention to detail in your craftsmanship.

[Selfbowman]

I have some black bamboo myself but have been reluctant to use it because I heard it splintered easily. That’s a beauty though. Arvin

[IdahoMatt]

Nice recovery.  Looks awesome.

[Pappy]

Nice save, beautiful bow.
 Pappy

[M2A]

Real classy looking bow. Congrats on getting a working piece out of it. Good luck at your shoot.
Mike 

[SteveT.]

I cannot be sure from your picture of the black bamboo, but it looks to me like what we call "poppyseed" bamboo. In the past I have harvested all my bamboo from a stand of Madake bamboo ,used for making Yumi's, and bamboo composite bows. Amongst the culms, there were some which had a fungus growing on it, which looked like poppy seed. It is a valued material for making special bows, but only used on the belly side. It is not good in tension. Your black bamboo could be a different variety, as there are so many varieties of bamboo. There are also many other factors which could cause the bamboo to lift like that. Moisture content, how the bamboo was dried ( in a kiln vs. slowly drying in the sun over months) and how thick the backing is on your bow. I prefer to make mine as thin as I can, and take it to knife edge thickness when gluing to the back of the bow. Your bow is beautiful and I really like the combo of purpleheart and osage. Creative way to save the bow. Best wishes.

[Lehtis]

I have no real information about the species and origin of this bamboo; ordered it from Denmark. Looks like they have some mold or fungus because of their inner surface is a bit grayish/blueish. Anyway, I´ve made two well performing one piece longbows (78 lbs @ 28") from two of the best black bamboo slices I got but both of these takedowns have had problems showing splinters and the first one is currently non-shootable. Actually, I have plans to sand the black bamboo backs away and replace them with common moso bamboo. A bit thinking required how to secure the bamboo slice ends near the takedown sleeves. Nock ends are easier. To be seen next January.

[Lehtis]

The bow with rawhide backing seemed to work fine... but after some time it started to make tiny noices during drawing. Propably TiteBond III cracked on hard bamboo back. So, I decided to rasp and sand the backing and top layer of black bamboo away; some 1/3 of the bamboo´s thickness. Then thin moso bamboo slices on with SmoothOn EA40. Let´s wait and see what comes out.

[Lehtis]

Both "Mom´s Chopping Board" and "The Leatherback" (now ex- ) with new moso bamboo backs. Nex week end, hopefully, some scraping, sanding, tiller and poundage checking. Let´s hope the best.

[superdav95]

Some good progress there!  You’ll be happier with the mosso I believe.