Here is the start of a bow build for Oliver Stacy.  She will be my Cumberland straight longbow model.  She will have an ebony riser with an osage canine accent.  Josh supplied the osage.  Here are the riser pieces laid out.

 

Notice my plexiglass template.  This is mainly used to lay out how I want my accents.

Next I find the grain on each piece so that I layout the riser for the most strength.  Notice how I draw lines on the cut end so that I can tell at a glance the grain is proper.  The grain is really hard to see in the ebony.  Then I cut each piece down to just over 1 1/2" wide.  I want them the same width when I start to laminate them together.  The thin piece will be used for accents behind the riser and on the tips.

 

I then cut my arch on the osage and sand it close to the line.

 

Then I trace the osage to the ebony and cut it outside the line.

 

 

Next is a lot of fitting until no light shines between the pieces.  Tomorrow you will see the next laminating step.

 

Thanks Apex, I have been wanting to attempt my first laminated riser and may just do it now.

It's posts like these that gave me the confidence to give it a go to glue up a riser block.  I really appreciate your openness, Marty, as well as all the other men, who share your work in these pictorials.  As soon as I get a little farther along in the finishing details I will post some pictures of a bow you and all the others on here have helped to inspire.
I'll check back in, tomorrow, for more of this exciting episode.

COOL........as always!!!!

Oh man is this going to be good!

Can't wait to see it all come together!

Josh

   

Looking good. Nice choices Josh.

Ebony and Osage =    

Sure is beautiful wood.  Never priced some of these exotics-how much do they run?  Thanks

Jeremy

I bought this ebony from Gilmer Woods.  The piece was roughly 2X2X24 and cost about $65 with shipping.  That is figuring 1/3 of total shipping, cause I bought three different pieces in the order.  Their minimum is $100.

I have to go do some more work on her, but will update in a couple of hours.

Here I am using my plexiglass pattern to see how the canine accent will look.



Off to the bandsaw!  I use this sander to take her to the line that I drew.





Glue lines look fabulous!



Now I use my riser to draw a line on the cut-out piece of ebony.  After the first test fitting I can see some high spots.  I mark them like this and take it to the sander again.  Lots of back and forth fitting and sanding here.



I have the pieces fitting well, so now I lay my template back on top to see how everything is gonna look.



Time for the second laminating stage for the riser!





150 degrees for four hours ought to do it!  Stay tuned!

QuoteOriginally posted by Apex Predator:
]

Glue lines look fabulous!

 

   :eek:      

That joint is a work of art! Seriously, I'd have that over the fireplace just to look at. AWESOME attention to detail!  

apex you never sease to amaze me...this is just absolutely beauty in the making! good work here

This thing is going to look amazing!

WOW I can't wait to send some arrows down range!

Josh

Yep...  

This morning I started by sanding all the glue boogers off the sides of the riser.  Then I layed out the riser with my template again.





Now it's off to the bandsaw!



Then it's time to sand the fades.  I start with the belt attachment on my combo sander, since it has 50 grit paper, then move on the the spindle attachment for finer work.  The Rigid combo unit is the most used piece of equipment in my shop!  For $200 it's a must have for the serious hobbiest or amatuer bowyer.



Notice the piece it's attached to.  It's square to the sander and has an aluminum surface.  This backing piece allows me to get the end of the fades super thin.



A little hand sanding at the very ends, and it is ready for glue-up!  The riser will stay on this sanding block until ready to lay-up the bow.  This will protect the very fragile fade-out ends.

Thanks Marty. I really enjoy your build alongs.

The contrast of the ebony and osage is excellent.  And as always, the build is clean and precise.  Looking forward to seeing those limbs.

Wow great lookin riser Marty

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing your methods and jigs. The riser and fades are top notch!