Repair Along BBO

[JJB]

Very interesting, great work!

[NYArrow]

Thanks for posting! Good for rooks like me to see how its done.

[Abram]

Great repair along Eric.

I am wondering about the super glue, could you use a finish like the one where you mix two ton epoxy and acetone or would the mixture not be strong enough to accomplish the same thing.

[Shaun]

One of my favorite definitions of humility is "Remaining teachable". I think taking to time to share such information with the bowyer community has got to be right in there too. Thanks for the valuable information. Especially the visual reminder of how little wood is shaved to reduce fifteen pounds of draw. I am about to do a weight reduction on an old selfbow and this is timely.

[razorsharptokill]

Eric is definetly one of the "sages" of bowyering.

[Eric Krewson]

This is the "watching paint dry" segment. I have about 6 thin coats of Tru-Oil on the bow now.

I will be lettering the bow this afternoon with more pics.

[Leafwalker]

Eric, that's quite a repair job, well done!  I'm new at making bows and have a tough time with tillering.  Can you explain a little more about the 'gizmo'?

[Eric Krewson]

Gizmo stuff.

http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=001047#000000

[bigcountry]

Eric, why did you remove more rine?

I had a failure onece, and decided next boo bow, not to remove it anymore.  was it due to the streaking?

[Eric Krewson]

I didn't take all the rind off but I didn't like the dye job when I left the rind intact so I sanded off most of it but not all the way into the power fibers.

[Eric Krewson]

Time to letter the bow. I have used all kinds of markers in the past, sharpies and paint pens but found a better way several years ago.

I use acrylic calligraphy ink and a very fine tip pen now. This type of inks advantage is you can wipe off your lettering with a wet paper towel if you goof up and I goof up a lot. Lettering is one of my weakest skills. Here is what I use.

   

The smoother you get your surface the better this ink goes on. It is still a problem to put on because the pen will tend to bounce over any unfilled grains and leave a blob. I dip the pen about halfway in the ink and get the ink flowing on a piece of cardboard. I like fine lines so I expend most of the ink in the pen on the cardboard then start my lettering.

     

I have a really cheap pen, sometimes the ink won't flow so I press the tip on the limb until I get a tiny dot of ink on the limb then start writing.

The surface of this bow limb was very rough and difficult to letter, should have sanded it more before I put the finish on. I wiped off my lettering at least a dozen times, at first the whole inscription and later the last line applied that I didn't like. I guess I worked out too hard at the gym this morning and my hands were too shaky. Here is the final result.

   

I like white ink on osage because it really stands out as the osage darkens. I will put three coats of Tru-Oil over the lettering after it dries to "lock" it in place, it will never come off or smear.

My ink was a little watery. I shook it up but in hindsight I should have stired it a bit to get the pigment mixed better.

Handle leather is next.

[D]

Very cool work on the boo.  I love the dying job that you do.  Gotta make one of your famous gizmos.  How do they work on R/D or just longbows

[Eric Krewson]

While I had my white ink out I checked the spine and weight of some of my unmarked arrows. Seeing as how I have enough arrows to arm a medieval army, I like to know at a glance what each weighs and spines. When I shoot a tournament there is always one arrow that flies a little better than the others. This way I can identify that arrow. I put a couple coats of tru-oil over the lettering.

 

[Eric Krewson]

Handle time.

I start with leather and barge cement. Thanks a bunch to DCM for the leather, best I have ever used.



Half hour later, finished.



Rather than rehash my stichless leather application technique, here is a how to.

http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000052

[Eric Krewson]

No one likes a shiny bow so I give the bow a coat of satin spar urethane to dull the shine of the tru-oil. I have found that barge cement is compatible with tru-oil but dissolves spar urethane. For this reason, to bond my leather tightly on the handle I put the leather on over the tru-oil, tape the handle and spray on the spar.

 

I will check my spar coverage tomorrow, if it doesn't need another coat the repair will be done.

Of course I will post the obligatory full draw pic when my photographer gets back from a camping weekend with her kids.

[Eric Krewson]

Time to wrap it up. Here is my finished bamboo stain job, I like it.



I put a stringing groove in the top overlay of all my bows now, sure makes stringing easy, even for high poundage bows like this one.



An finally the gizmo tillered full draw picture.



Thats all folk.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Ahhhhhhhhhh yes, the almighty money shot! Good work Eric

[Jack Denbow]

That was really cool Eric. Thanks.
Jack

[Roy from Pa]

Real nice Eric.

[KochNE]

Beautiful bow.  I'm doing the final sanding on a bamboo-backed maple bow now.  Hope it comes out half as well as this one did.

Just curious...  Have you used "normal" wood stain on bamboo before?  How were the results?  What made you prefer the leather dye?