Thin bellied bow? Riser Popping off? I may have a solution..
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 10:38 am
Hi guys,
Over Christmas I was a little miffed. My two best bows had major dramas develop. Within days of each other the handles on both bows popped off. This was rather disappointing as one was my favourite bow, being my osage flatbow and the other a sweet pacific yew bow I made for a friend of mine. Both were posted here last year. My bows no dot have fibre glass in them and are not the "layed up" type of bows. Some guys would call these type of bows "stick" bows.
Both these bows had a thing in common, they had thin belly's that extended thru the handle/riser area. Not ideal, I know, but that is how the material turned out and that was all I had to work with. Both these bows are real performers, but after about 800/1000 arrows, "POP". Back to square one.
I did a bit of research on the net, and looking at my bows that are still going strong I worked a couple of things out for myself. And after some frustrating weeks, I thought i would share my findings. I am only an amateur bowyer at best, and self taught, so feel free to add to, or correct my thoughts here at any time!!!!!!!
-If you can, use belly wood at least 20mm thick. Add layers on top this for your handle.
-start your fades well into the bellywood.
-keep your riser as stiff as you can, or "static" and tiller your limbs to suit this.
Nothing to hard here, most guys would know this already.
Ok, what if like me, you get some osage or yew or similar and after you have roughed out your timber, the belly wont be as thick as you would like?
Make your bow as usual. Then this is what I have done to stop, or at least try and curb this annoying problem.
-not not use a single piece of timber for your riser, use 3 or 4 thinner pieces and build up your riser. I believe this adds a little more "flex" in your riser.
-add another piece of backing on to the back of the bow, adjacent and the same length as your intended riser. This makes your riser area a little stiffer. It looks pretty cool too!
- make your fades a little longer. I am doing mine at 90 to 100mm now.
- The last thing I am now doing is "pinning" or "dowelling" my risers. After shaping the fades, drilling a 3mm hole, on the opposite angle to my riser, through the first or second layer of riser material and into the belly wood, inserting bamboo skewers and gluing these in with TB3. A little tricky, but guess what, it works. No ill affects so far. My theory here is that this will help stop the first layer of the riser lifting off the belly wood.
I have added a few photos.
This is something I thought I would share, as it has worked for me........so far!!!!!
If anybody would like to add to this and or correct anything I have said.......... all the better I say!
mick.
Over Christmas I was a little miffed. My two best bows had major dramas develop. Within days of each other the handles on both bows popped off. This was rather disappointing as one was my favourite bow, being my osage flatbow and the other a sweet pacific yew bow I made for a friend of mine. Both were posted here last year. My bows no dot have fibre glass in them and are not the "layed up" type of bows. Some guys would call these type of bows "stick" bows.
Both these bows had a thing in common, they had thin belly's that extended thru the handle/riser area. Not ideal, I know, but that is how the material turned out and that was all I had to work with. Both these bows are real performers, but after about 800/1000 arrows, "POP". Back to square one.
I did a bit of research on the net, and looking at my bows that are still going strong I worked a couple of things out for myself. And after some frustrating weeks, I thought i would share my findings. I am only an amateur bowyer at best, and self taught, so feel free to add to, or correct my thoughts here at any time!!!!!!!
-If you can, use belly wood at least 20mm thick. Add layers on top this for your handle.
-start your fades well into the bellywood.
-keep your riser as stiff as you can, or "static" and tiller your limbs to suit this.
Nothing to hard here, most guys would know this already.
Ok, what if like me, you get some osage or yew or similar and after you have roughed out your timber, the belly wont be as thick as you would like?
Make your bow as usual. Then this is what I have done to stop, or at least try and curb this annoying problem.
-not not use a single piece of timber for your riser, use 3 or 4 thinner pieces and build up your riser. I believe this adds a little more "flex" in your riser.
-add another piece of backing on to the back of the bow, adjacent and the same length as your intended riser. This makes your riser area a little stiffer. It looks pretty cool too!
- make your fades a little longer. I am doing mine at 90 to 100mm now.
- The last thing I am now doing is "pinning" or "dowelling" my risers. After shaping the fades, drilling a 3mm hole, on the opposite angle to my riser, through the first or second layer of riser material and into the belly wood, inserting bamboo skewers and gluing these in with TB3. A little tricky, but guess what, it works. No ill affects so far. My theory here is that this will help stop the first layer of the riser lifting off the belly wood.
I have added a few photos.
This is something I thought I would share, as it has worked for me........so far!!!!!
If anybody would like to add to this and or correct anything I have said.......... all the better I say!
mick.