i got my self a red oak board..my question is about the handle.... if i have a 4 inch handle and i want to add more thickness to it..should i make the addition the same lenght or should it be longer..also can i use title bond 3 for adding the addition to the handle....thanks john
I would recommend you to the board bow build alongs available. They will answer all of these questions with pictures.
Regarding the tite bond III. Yes this is a great glue. Mkae sure your parts fit well.
I'f you are going to be making the handle more narrow than the limbs just outside the handle then you need to make it thicker. if you want 4" of handle, you need to glue on a handle block thats maybe 6-7". That way you can fade the ends of the handle block into the limbs of the bow. This area is called the fades.
good luck.
The added piece should be long enough to include the roughing-in and finessing of the dips(fades)... which is beyond the flares.
So if, for instance, you have a 4" handle, 1 1/2" flare (on each side), and extend the dips 1 1/2" (on each side) beyond the flare... that's a total of 10".
Depending on design, I have made that piece up to 14-15" long... but never shorter than 9".
For your first consider a bend in the handle bow. Back it with silk, burlap or linen. There is a build along on my site. No glued handles. No narrowing of handle. You can rip the board to 1 3/8 for 45 to 50 lbs. My site has info.Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html
Go to George's site, you can't buy that kind of information.