A friend gave me a board he had sawed on his farm , he has two boys and a girl so I'm gonna make one for them.

I don't make many bows and don't sell any but I'm gonna build them this one.

Box elder lams and thin scales of the same on sides of a curly ambrosia hard maple riser.

Just started on it.

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Looke like it will be a pretty bow. 

I'll be watching

Nice veneers.

Thanks, depending on how pink they come out , I may use it as my trade bow. Think I have enough board to make my bud another...

That Box Elder is pretty. Is it spalted, or is that just natural?

It isn't spalted, and from what I can find, not all box elder has the red.  I had a huge tree on a construction site and thought I would have tons of the sweet red lumber from it , but it was plain...

Does it stay red in the long run?  I had some plum that showed some pretty color when first cut but it faded to brown in a couple weeks.

A guy on FB has one three years old and still red , so hope so

Riser glued ...

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Kenny I still have some Pink 

 This is natural tho ...

That one is going to look sharp  the pink is growing on me 

This is man-pink !! 

I decided to build a new form for this one. Old form had been redone about 3 times due to changes because I didn't like the bow off it .

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Man pink huh?

Ok...............................

I like the form with the hump up. It is a little more trouble to keep riser from slipping around. I think a cure for that might be a zip tie to hold it down untill you get things going the right way.

Roy I hear you know all about Man Pink 

Kenny, how wide do you make the form for this model?

It will go with yer man purse!!

Norb,  it is 1.5" 

Crooked stick I  use a zip tie myself and lay up one side first which I then snug down before doing other side with further ties.Works ok.

I put a ty about an inch from either end of riser and at midlimb on both sides loosely. Then gradually tighten the riser tys depending on which way the riser is wanting to go.  You can keep it centered up and the lams rarely move at all. 

I have center marks on edges of all lams to keep an eye on with centerline on form.

Once you have the riser tys cranked down, tighten the mid limb tys.

Put 10 lbs in the hose, let it sit a few and cut tys and pull out, then 10-15 lbs at a time with a rest period each time.

Works for me, and I also have washers on the forms at a couple inches from ends of riser and at mid limb. If you have a lam with a crook in it, the tip end doesn't matter as much as the riser end and midlimb.

Don't crank the washers down super tight against the stack, did that once and ended up with a fat spot on limb edge . Try to tiller around that!! 

Now before I put her in the oven, I loosen and then snug the washers, and take a scrap and wipe the squeeze out glue down between the plastic sheets that are under and over the bow blank...