Seems like forever ago I was the lucky winner of a set of bow laminations in Kennym's first giveaway.  I knew what woods I wanted but did not have any idea about what thickness I should get so after talking with Kenny I just went with a guess.  I've made a few Bamboo backed bows and one glass laminated bow.

Here is what I started with.  A set of parallel Maple cores that measured .065 and a set of real purty Curly Hickory lams that measured .045.  I bought some .050 clear glass and a pint of Smooth-on from Bingham's and started making a form.

I cut a piece of 3/4" cabinet grade plywood in half and glued them together to make a 1-1/2" thick form.  I used a thin piece of wood cut from the edge of a 2X4 to make the shape of the bow and traced the curves.  

   

After cutting I trued the edge so it was square throughout the entire length with a panel bit in my router and then used Bondo to fill any small imperfections.  Sorry, no pictures of that.

OK, fast forward about 8 months.  After numerous setbacks from blown auto engines, to work, to health issues, to.....aww heck, you know what I mean.  I got after the project again.

I decided to use Hickory, Osage, and Black Walnut for my riser......

   

And drew the shape.  It's kind of hard to see the lines.  The lower half of the form is in the background.

   

After getting everything lined up in the form I set her in the hotbox and set the timer.  It was bed time.  
   
I don't have any pics of the glue-up.  I couldn't make myself pick up a $600 camera while I had Smooth-on all over my hands.

I pulled the bow out of the oven the next morning and took it to work with me.  I wanted to show my co-workers what a mess you have to work with.  Sorry about the sideways pics....Photobucket won't let me rotate them for some reason.




I also got my first peek at the bow.

After sanding off the excess glue I peeled off the tape to get a good look at the lams.

 
 

I re-taped the limbs and after initial tillering and checking the limbs for straightness I drew out the limbs and sawed them out along with the riser cut-out.  Between the fiberglass and Hickory I pretty much trashed that bandsaw blade.

 

Now I roll up my sleeves and start sanding.  The Maple lams had moved slightly in the form and wound up just a tad under the level of the riser.  I had to do a little extra sanding on these areas.




I added some tip over lays, Hickory and Black Walnut again, and started working on them.  This is the part that I kind of hate.



 After about three hours this is what I had on one end.  Now I have to duplicate it on the other end.

I decided on putting an Ipe overlay on the riser and cut a thin strip and glued it on at the same time I glued on the tip overlays.

Feathering out the ends of this was the next task.  The bottom edge came out great,



But the top had some air bubbles under it.



You can see the glue line to the left of the Ipe.  Add that distance to the left again and that is where the original edge of the Ipe was when I started sanding.  I found more evidence of air pockets and finally sanded off the whole overlay and started over on it.

Tonight was the final run.  I got the Ipe feathered out and strung the bow and checked the tiller again.  Everything looked great and the bow came out at 54#@28, 62" nock to nock.  The initial scaling was around 65#'s after cutting out the limbs.

I then started the final sanding.  I sanded everything starting with 100 grit on the wood and finishing with wet/dry in 200, 320, and 400 grit.

The first coat of poly is drying now.

 

 

Thanks Kenny!!

Dennis

Man, that looks great Dennis. Great job. Tripper

That's sweet Dennis. Great job.

John

Looks great Dennis!!    

Everyone should handsand a bow at least once!! LOL

Be sure and let us know how she shoots!!

I like your wood combinations.  Very nice.  Chad

Great job Dennis, I love that curly Hickory.

     

Very nice work.

Very nice looking bow! Good job!

I'm curious. What makes a wood "curly"?

Thanks everyone.

Bona, I'm not sure what makes them curly but I'm glad it does.

Not bad for a gravel floor is it Dano?  Just kidding.

Dennis

Really nice!  Good job with the photos.  Thanks for the inspiring "build along".

Aeronut, good answer! Sometimes it's right to just enjoy the good things in life. We don't always need to know "why".  

I finally got to shoot it today.  Feels and shoots good but it is a tad noisy.  No hand shock.  More tuning and finishing to do.




Dennis

   

Looks great!!!!!

Forgot to post these.





Dennis