Here is the stave I started with.




Lots of heating and clamping to get where I am today...and still not out of the woods yet!

Looking good Pat. The only way it could look any better was for it to be hanging in my bow rack. Whoever gets that will be a happy camper for sure. Paul<><

looks great Pat.

I'm gonna glue mine up this week end then I'll post some pics

Got my boo tapered and done a little thickness tapering on my blank. gonna get the powerlam tapered and faded in a day or two and hopefully have this baby ready for some glue.

I planned on using TB111 for glue up does anybody see any problems with this.

Should I size the boo and blank before I glue it up. Gonna put some perry reflex in it, probably about 3" or so.

Stiks

Stiks just be sure you have good glue coverage on both glue surfaces. Wipe off as much excess as you can after glue up while the glue is still water soluble.

Sounds good Pat.

I read your reply on the othe post I posted about sanding the rind down instead of scraping. That's what I will do.

What do you do with nodes to get them worked down? how far should I take them down? Just enough to smooth the rough out?

I only remove the corky ridge at the node with light scraping along the node and try not to hit the boo surface. I prefer boo backings to look like boo backings so I generally do nothing else except remove the rind and sometimes not even that. I don't make many boo backed bows. Even though they are very cool looking, to me it is not worth the effort it takes to make one. Lately I have heard of lots of boo back failures or splinters lifting. I believe most of this is from leaving scraper marks(even minute ones) on the surface of the boo from scraping.
  For my money, I'll take a good hickory backing or just a simple selfbow.

Pat B thats a very nice character bow! very nice!

I hear you Pat. I really like the looks of a boo backing. I won't be hitting with a scraper to remove the rind for sure, Just some good ol' elbow grease and some sand paper.


Pat, everytime I see your bow I think "shoot dang, wish I would of drew him" But I been thinking that about all of them LOL

Sure are some sweet bows going out, alot of variety.

A lot can happen with a character bow like this between now and time to send it off. I will start shooting it this weekend and we'll see! I've been building wood bows long enough to ever be surprised by the good stuff or the bad stuff that can happen. I'm looking forward to shooting her. The first arrow will tell me a lot.

Here is a few pics. Still have a few more coats of true oil to apply and then shoot it some more. Then do the final finish stuff and if all goes well get it shipped.

Like Pat B just said "A lot can happen with a character bow..." However this one was shot a lot before the skins were applied. We'll see what happens.

LongbowHuntr,
That is a nice looking stick right there. I know what you mean about them character bows. I jumped in head first on a few cause I wanted to build a character bow and learned real quick how to trash a stave in a hurry LOL

I swithched my trade bow to a boo backed Jatoba and will put the character bows on the back burner for a later time when I don't have a deadline, even if it is six months.

nice looking bows Gang, for sure.

Now that's a bow, longbowhunter! Well done. I love the thin copperhead skins that mold around almost anything! Looks like 2 well fed snakes.  d;^)

I've just been going through this thread looking at the wonderful pictures. These bows are all fantastic. I hope I can reach this level of craftsmanship someday.

Those snake skins look great  great job!!!

Longbowhunter that is one of the coolest bows i've seen. Job well done sir!

Hi longbowhntr, that's a really cool looking bow you got there. Awesome job ! It almost looks like a snake that just has swallowed it's prey.

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Andy

Thank ya'll for the kind words, sometimes it works out inspite of the dummy behind the draw knife.
I want to get a few more coats of tru oil and get a handle wrap put on and shoot it some more before sending it off.

Thanks again it has been fun building for the bow trade. David

need to go back to the drawing board. Built the bow but missed weight badly. whoops, I think what happened was my glass was the wrong thickness. I shortened the bow by 4 inches hoping to pick up the added weight but it's not to be.On a good note however it's one of the smoothest shock free longbows I've ever built.