After a bit of a break

[looseplucker]

I've started building ''em again. One is for a mate that is 4 years over-due. My bad. He was and still is my kung-fu Grand Master, no bull. And he saw my takedown I made a couple of years back and asked.


So. His will be a spotted gum outer core, hickory inner core (4 lams here, 1.5mm) thick with bamboo on the back and the belly. Profile is interesting. I made up a Sudbury template a while back and so thought "OK" and that will be the profile with reflex.

The other bow - now this is weird - I am doing a running mate. This is a D/R Osage flatbow backed with bamboo. Not much to see in the pix but what the heck.

And here is a thing. You know the planets are aligned when Yeoman calls you up to see if you want to go and poke some arras at targets - and you are in the middle of a glue-up!

Takedown first - riser on the first lam:

Riser blocks on hickory.jpg (103.92 KiB) Viewed 3679 times

Next day we are getting lams on a form, pulling lams off the form:

limb on form.jpg (151.09 KiB) Viewed 3679 times

limb out of form.jpg (191.17 KiB) Viewed 3679 times

Limb 2 on form.jpg (195.08 KiB) Viewed 3679 times

Some bits of lamination waiting to be glued.

Spotted gum and hickory lams.jpg (122.82 KiB) Viewed 3679 times

And now the running mate. This is a single piece of osage - about 1cm thick all the way through, backed with bamboo.. I D/Rd it and then glued in the riser - Dean Torges style. This one is floor tillering already and I reckon it will be about 30# so perfect for William who is now in High School....it originally came off a 25mm thick stave - which I had cut to bow shape already - so I have another one ready to go!

D R bow.jpg (180.35 KiB) Viewed 3679 times

DR osage and bamboo riser glue up.jpg (166.39 KiB) Viewed 3679 times

[yeoman]

Good work mate. Bout time you started making bright orange dust again.

I gotta get me some Hickory to play around with backings. I like bamboo backings. A lot. But the nodes can be a real pain. Much better, in some circumstances, to be able to resaw 3 mm off a board, sand it smooth, taper (if the wind is blowing in the right direction), and just glue it on.

[longbow steve]

Good on yah John. Will be interesting to see them come together over the next couple of years . Steve

[Stickbow Hunter]

Good on yah John. Will be interesting to see them come together over the next couple of years . Steve

Seriously mate, I look forward to seeing your progress on these. Thanks for the photos and write up so far.

Jeff

[jindydiver]

I've started building ''em again. One is for a mate that is 4 years over-due. My bad. He was and still is my kung-fu Grand Master, no bull.

Not Neil Hardy by any chance?

[looseplucker]

No - Geir Fokstuen Mick.

@Longbow Steve - that was cruel and unwarranted.....but bloody funny.

The bamboo backed osage just needs a further riser block putting on and then some bold adjustments to the thickness taper at mid and outer limb and then it'll get tillered. Should be shooting in the next couple of weeks. It will be 68" ntn and I am thinking about 35# - perfect for William to grow into.

Laminated takedown could take a bit longer - but that one is going to be about 66"ntn and 45#. My other takedown is 59" and I busted a couple of limbs on the journey. This one will be interesting due to the Sudbury like profil - albeit with reflexed tips and laminated.

[greybeard]

John, the work in progess looks good and as the old saying goes 'a picture is worth a thousand words'.

Daryl.

[looseplucker]

Thanks for the encouragement colleagues - it really was a great weekend of getting the bits together and getting started. It also forced me to clean up the workbench and work area!

I have to say that there are not too many more elegant shapes than deflex-reflex.

@Yeoman - Monaro timber has good supplies of hickory. Bit exxy at $56 per metre, but I got plenty of lams and stuff out of the piece I bought a while back AND plenty of dust and shavings for the smoker!

[looseplucker]

Broken Bow!

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Ha - made ya look. That is actually the bow for my double bass - they do go after a bit and when they do it can be pretty specky. This was. Nearly had my eye out.

A repair was attempted by a violin maker mate but it failed, per the pic. No matter, I'm getting one in Carbon Fibre.....wonder if it will have wheels.

Ahem. Did some work on the bows in the last day or so. One limb of the takedown is 90% done- just needs the bamboo on the back and the belly. But the shape, per the pic, is very similar to the Sudbury - or best I could make it from pics. That limb is about 34":

Takedown limb.jpg (75.88 KiB) Viewed 3627 times

The bamboo backed osage bow is coming along nicely. Tonight I squared it off, did the 'facets' (see Dean Torges literature), and started smoothing them back preparatory to bringing in the tiller. Also did some work on one end of the riser (which is maple). The bow itself is 69.5" tip to tip - so I have some wiggle room:

Facet 1.jpg (82.97 KiB) Viewed 3627 times

Facet 2.jpg (82.97 KiB) Viewed 3627 times

Inner limb 1.jpg (68.65 KiB) Viewed 3627 times

Inner limb 2.jpg (70.61 KiB) Viewed 3627 times

Riser 1.jpg (71.89 KiB) Viewed 3627 times

Riser 2.jpg (61.46 KiB) Viewed 3627 times

Had a bit of a mishap with the other end of the bow - floor tillering and the bamboo backing was not properly glued right to the tip. It parted company for 10" downwards but fixing it as you might a de-lamination and re clamping I am confident that nothing too much has gone awry.

Next steps are to get the other limb for the takedown at the same stage as its mate and smooth out the facets on the other end of the osage bow. Then I'll glue up the bamboo back and belly and while that is all cooking bring in the tiller on the osage bow.

[longbow steve]

Looking good John. Steve

[flyne]

Nice work mate

[bigbob]

I'm particularly liking the Osage bow. Be very interested to see some 'action' shots once its done.

[rodlonq]

Well John, I am shocked. I thought you were going to show us how you made a new bow for your double bass. It probably wouldn't sound right anyway with a 12 strand B50 flemish twist string

The new bows are coming along well. I particularly like the bamboo backed osage.... very nice.

Cheers..... Rod

[looseplucker]

Cheers colleagues

The Leader of the Opposition, Mrs Looseplucker is away until Sunday so I can sneak in some workshop time. What I intend to do is work on the take-down a bit more and finish the riser and the facetting of the osage bow. I'll then leave it a week before subjecting it to tillering - I am off camping and picking my banjo and trout fishing in Victoria next week anyhow so not much will be done

[looseplucker]

Well John, I am shocked. I thought you were going to show us how you made a new bow for your double bass. It probably wouldn't sound right anyway with a 12 strand B50 flemish twist string

The new bows are coming along well. I particularly like the bamboo backed osage.... very nice.

Cheers..... Rod

Mate - I have seen a double bass bowed with something that looked like a curved bit of 4x2 and strung with rope - a gypsy/klezmer player - but they are all nuts.....

[hazard]

I leave the country for a week and it all goes to pot

OK John where ya at on this eh?

Oh yeah looking good mate!

Hazard

[looseplucker]

Doing tip overlays on the osage bow - bit of a bugger in that some of the reflex has pulled out of a limb in floor tillering

The takedown needs the belly and back bamboo putting on and I will then fit the sleeve and sockets. Bit weekend of sport coming up but I might get something done on Saturday.

[bigbob]

Be waitin' to see it.

[looseplucker]

Pix coming soon. The Osage bow is now finished. It was originally 66"ntn and I was going for 45# draw. Anyhow while faffing with the tips and a disc sander it got suddenly shortened at one end by 2". Sooooo after the traditional swearing I fixed the other end. As it was time to visit with the Yeoman I took it around his place and had Dave's expert eye assisting tiller it. This was a challenge as notwithstanding re-backing the thing one limb stubbornly refuses to hold the same about of reflex as the other. However we got it there and while one limb is the tiniest bit stiffer at the outer limb it is the bottom one.

The bow is now 61" ntn but pulling about 40#@27" (we tillered it to 24" and it was on 38#) and not stacking. I reckon you could get a 30" draw out of this. After shooting in we'll re-test the draw weight, but I reckon we'll end up with something between 35# and 40 - just right for young William - who has already claimed the bow.

I had the 320 grit on it yesterday and also did the tips - without using the sander. Just need to purtyfy the riser area and bung on a leather grip with a small flap to protect the hand and we're ready to go.

The Sudbury take down advances apace as do a couple of other projects.

[yeoman]

As far as a laid up, laminated bow goes, that one had a lot of 'character'.

I've been a slacker...haven't uploaded the pics yet.

You did well to get that much bow out of that amount of wood. Top stuff.

[looseplucker]

She has some curves....and thanks very much for the help - as well as the new terminology. "Proximal terminus". There is a good lawyer got lost in you.

[hazard]

Looking forward to those pickies, this sounds just the ticket for William!

Hazard

[looseplucker]

Mate - I am surprised at what it is shooting after being tillered - 37/38# @ 24" with William having about a 26" draw....not bad for a backed self bow at 61". Mind you osage is pretty tough - look at the really short sinew backed bows.

[hazard]

You are going to have to post a picky of him shooting it and at full draw.

This looks like a very nive shaped bow.

Hazard

[yeoman]

Hokey pokey, here's some pictures:













D

[looseplucker]

Thanks Dave.

[Hamish]

Yep, that's lookin pretty darn good.
Hamish.

[yeoman]

So the astute will observe that the right limb is a little stiffer at full draw than the left. This is the limb that holds more reflex.

Made a little wider, by maybe 3/4", this could easily be a 28" draw bow, with a respectable draw weight too. Maybe even as it is! A testament to John's skills.

[looseplucker]

A bow is a piece of wood perfectly tillered...... I could not have got it to that state without Yeoman's eye. He saw things I did not see. And I mean that. I will admit I have some ideas on bowyery that are different but it is just grand that we have this community where we can appraise each other's work and swap ideas and advice and learn stuff. I think in the TBB they call it the Bowyer's Bar....

[rodlonq]

So the astute will observe that the right limb is a little stiffer at full draw than the left. This is the limb that holds more reflex.

It does look stiffer in the outer third, however it also seems to have bent overall a little more than the left limb. Maybe it is bending in the inner third a bit more than the left limb? Hard to say. It looks like you blokes have done a really good job on that.

John, I am sure you are going to enjoy shooing that bow. It is a real achievement and something I aspire to do myself.

Cheers....... Rod