hey all... I am stepping away from my fiberglass recurves for a moment and want to try some long bows for kids. I want them safe but need to keep cost down so I am thinking of doing hickory laminations glued together.
just need some opinions on this idea from a few of you that has done this. I will cut my own lams and was going to glue two parallels and a taper with tight bond III.
so any helpfull hints would be great. I will build one of these after Thanksgiving.
Dean Torges showed how to make kids bows with Rattan in his video on bamboo backed bows. No glue up needed.Rough the bow out on a bandsaw, cut some nocks and string it up and you have a bow.Little or no tillering required.
What weight are you looking for? For light weight bows around 15@15 or so then two 1/8in. pieces 48in. long will do you for a heavier bow use one 1/8in. piece for a back and one 1/4in. piece for a belly and make em 54-58 in. long. Should end up around 30ish lbs. Straight taper for the profile. Glue on a six in handle if you want. I don't have any pics but they work good. Hemp wraps are a cheap finish or use old leather scraps. Floppy rests help protect their hands.
Maybe I am over thinking this then. I was going to use a new form.. and glue them up like I do the fiberglass models. A full handle with a sight and all. I was shooting for 13# to 22#.. different ones.. and about 48" to 52"
So is there no benefit to using 3 thinner lams? Using the 2 lams will be enough and won't break on me.. cool. I was thinking 3 thinner lams glued up would really help prevent any possible breakage.
Thanks again guys