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    Lets build a recurve....

    Ever have one of those bows that was just about perfect…… if….. If… the handle was more of this or less of that.
    Or the limbs didn’t bend so much? And so “if” becomes a “thing” with that bow? It did with me. So I decided I want a bow that I liked, The handle of this one, limbs of that one and the limb tip curve of that one over there hangin on the wall.

    So on the lid of my heat box that’s, exactly what I did, I drew my “perfect bow”. Then I decided I need to build it, to see if it shoots like it does in my head(perfect or close to it)

    I went to Home Depot and bought some ¾ Oak plywood, had it ripped into 3 15 7/8s" pieces wide pieces.(I usually buy Birch but it was junk)
    In the truck they went and away I went. I know how hard designing a bow can be.
    Bowyers use sophisticated Computers, CNC, deflex meter machines, and machines I can’t even begin to spell their names. But that wasn’t going to stop me, so I dug into my own stash of sophisticated tools. If O.L. can build one daggonit, so can I.

    So I rummaged through my stuff and found almost every tool I’d need, So lets build a recurve, lets go start to finish.

    First my bunch of sophisticated design tools, A Quilting hoop for the limbs, a straight edge for the riser and line marking device, a tape measure for accurate measuring and a drywall mud bucket for the limb tips, and what ever else I might have in the cave.


    Remember it has to be a drywall bucket or it’ll not …….well nuff said



    Ok, lets get started, First we need base lines, everything comes from these two important lines, for this one, I used 36 inches as a center base line, the form ply is longer, but 36 inches is the base line.



    Now for the length base line height, I chose 7 inches, remember the base line stays, but the limb lines will go above as well as below the base line, so give yourself plenty of room.



    First I lay out how long the riser is going to be. This one is going to be 20 inches from fade out to fade out. I can also shorten it to 18” or 19” if I like, or squeeze out 21” or 22” if I want a longer riser.
    The riser is a modified Bingham’s design forward style riser, like I said “If it was just a little different” little too forward now it is to my liking.



    Ok lets put some limbs on this bow, I like the curve of the Hoyt Hunter limbs, nice gentle accelerating design, hard to free hand draw so I used the Alpha Females oval quilting hoop and just about got just what I wanted…… sorta… it needs some modification too.



    I used black and white braided center serving thread (very important to use black and white) to pull the hoop so it bends a little faster than just the hoop naturally had. so I tie the top and bottom together and pulled real hard bend the loop and tie a square knot.

    I laid the hoop on the limb and marked how long the limb was, I marked it all the way across both side so I can flip it over to use on the both ends.



    And do the other end too, everything is done exactly on both ends. Later on you can design your own and change the upper and lower limbs if you like. I like these.




    You should have something that looks like this, crude I know but Hey, we're designing a recurve from scratch .




    Before we “freehand blend” the limbs into the riser, measure from the base lines, everything is exactly the same on this bow………..I guess………should be if we did it right…



    I forgot to take a picture of the bucket making the final limb tip , sorry bout that, but It happened.

    Now that the blending is done, Good job by the way, we need to make this a "workable" form which means we need to have a top and bottom (2 piece form)for this bow, I'll use a fire hose for clamping or holding system.
    Mark out the Max length of the bow add a half inch and square off the form. this is so we don't have to have a 8 foot long fire hose.

    Take a ¾ inch scrap of wood and using the bow line on the form trace a “air gap” space all along the limb bow line. This is the space above the bow once all the pieces are put together to make the air hose squeeze it together when inflated. You'll see....



    Lets do the riser, the original riser is way to pronounced for me, I don’t do HIGH wrist grips, Why? just don’t!
    Your hand doesn't normally bend that way. So I lower it by an inch or so…. Now I like it, it “fits” me ,so allow ¼ inch for the belly tapers and glass, then draw the riser in place.



    Maybe the old from pattern might work………..uhhh nope to high…. Freehand time! see it's all starting to come together.







    Same thing, we need a “air hose gap” over the riser but make this just a ½ inch instead of ¾ inch, it’ll be a tighter fit when and if we decide to lengthen the riser there will still be enough of a gap. Great Idea Huh? Who said I was dumb?



    Ok, lets make this a press, We need to glue both ¾ inch plywood pieces and we need to put a ¼ inch piece of plywood same width sandwiched in between that, Should make it the full 1 ¾ inch wide limb I’m looking for.(just stack a bigger center ply for a wider limbs or leave out the center for 1 1/2' limbs... cool huh?)



    Oh with today metric measurements ¾ ply wood isn’t ¾ inch thick. I came up 1/16th shy.... not a big deal the lams I’m going to use on the press will make up for it.



    Tomorrow we glue and screw the press together, it’ll become clear why I drew the bow on the press first.

    Stay tuned it’s gonna be one heck of a fun ride

    If ya have any questions ask, Sometimes things don’t always come out in print the way they do in my head.

    #2
    Mad skills I tell ya!

    Comment


      #3
      That looks pretty darn close to my 58 and 60 inch recurve forms. I love build a longs Keep the pics coming.

      Shawn

      Comment


        #4
        I'm wanting to build one also... Take plenty of pics... you just may force me to make a move...

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by darnobody View Post
          I'm wanting to build one also... Take plenty of pics... you just may force me to make a move...
          It's my intention to make it so you can build a bow when I'm done. I got a new card for the camera, so I'm good to go.

          Comment


            #6
            Sticbow, Do you make selfbow's ? That is next on my list.

            Comment


              #7
              I'm pretty stoked about seeing this, being a recurve addict.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by warrior62 View Post
                Sticbow, Do you make selfbow's ? That is next on my list.
                No self bows, I have a Osage stave in the cave. I guess my yellow color scheme is all sorts of out of whack. it's real hard for me to tell the difference from the ring and sap wood.
                I did make a BBO longbow and Boo Backed Hickory longbow and one bamboo backed recurve.

                I found that they have a tendency to be unstable in the limb timing and draw weight loss. So I make more glass backed bows than anything else. I'm still wrestling with recurve or longbow. They both have qualities I love.

                I need a mentor to show me the proper ropes with selfbow building.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Nice build-a-long so far!

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Aloha Welcome back, Let's see.. We got the bow drawn and freehand work is done. Remember it’s just a bow.
                    I like how the limbs kinda melt into the riser, but you may like it another way, it’s up to you. It'll be your bow.

                    All of the bows have already been designed, or made, good, bad, successful, failure, indifferent. This one isn’t something no one thought of as far as design ( well maybe me) I just modified some of the parts that’s all.

                    On with the fun, when we glue up a bow or anything else it’s always wet to wet surfaces, it just sticks together better. That’s a fact.
                    Same for bow form presses, lets get started, I use bondtite I, II, III what ever I have… wood glue !

                    Start with two up sides and smear the glue over the entire surfaces as long as it good and covered



                    Keep on stacking till all mating all wet surfaces are glued.

                    Remember, We have the bow on base lines so it’s already drawn, just mate the bottom factory edges and make sure they are square…………. Why……. just so it won’t fall over that’s all…… see told ya it was simple…



                    And start screwing it together. This is the first of a hundred or so screws. Make sure they don't poke out the other side either.



                    Now the reason we drew the bow first becomes clear, I don’t want to put any screws in the bandsaw blades way



                    Go ahead and mark the ends for the air hose and length of the bow, (58 to 62 inch bow) and we’ll cut the excess weight of the press off later. Remember it’s almost a full sheet of ¾ plywood to carry.......... heavy !!




                    With all the screws in place lets see how straight the press is…..




                    Uhhhh.....Opppps Guess I got a little heavy handed huh? Of geeez what to do now?



                    Well, I laid one end on a 4X4 scrap of wood and applied kinetic energy with gravitational…….Oh Heck...I jumped on the darn thing………. Hoping to rack it back into straight or close to it . I tried for a pic but it didn’t work out…….. I checked the straightness again and it’s real close, so I put a angle iron on it and shimmed it straight



                    See it told you there was all this sophisticated ways to build a bow.. Thank you Sir Isaac Newton.

                    Good to go, we’ll let it dry over night and see what we have tomorrow.

                    On with the build…………..

                    We need to keep this press soon to be in two pieces together. We need straps.. Lets makem.. some guys use door hinges or what ever they have available.

                    Light steel, 1/8 thick and one inch wide and bout…….8-9 inches long will work perfectly for this press.



                    Back to the press and decide where the most pressure is going to be…….that’s everywhere darn so just mark it 1/3, 1/3 we’ll put on two straps. the ends are plenty beefy so it won't shift...I hope.





                    The bottom of the press is the base so put two holes in the bottom to steady the top…Drill press…. yesss




                    I like it, looks good, and if it fits, this will be my pattern.. Lets see how it fits…………



                    I love it when a plan come together, We need three more………..




                    Ahhh done ! We have just what we need to keep our press together, all we need to do it cut the press into.



                    Ohh shoot…….. it’s not dry yet……….ok, we'll... do that tomorrow, and like Will Primos says………This ain’t Hollywood

                    Thanks for stoppin by, it should be dry tomorrow, and We'll make some sawdust then !!!

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Great stuff....gonna follow this one to the end. Keep em coming.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Keep it coming Mark!

                        I know how you feel when the form decides to warp a little, LOL. I usually submit and cut it in half, make T/D forms and start over, kudos for your never give attitude!

                        I have one piece of (my .02cent) advice. You might consider making a cardboard tracing of one half of the profile, from the bottom of the form to the belly and then flip it to check for consistency. Sidenote...when I make a new form I'll make the proflie tracing out of 1/4" plyboard and make the cut 1/8" outside the line then use a router with a pattern makers bit to cut the belly profile, it's just a suggestion, don't want to ruffle them feathers
                        Last edited by Kevin Breaux; 08-08-2010, 12:23 PM.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I dont shoot traditional, but ive got to see this one through. That looks like a great way to get what you want.....

                          Comment


                            #14
                            This is great stuff.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              When I first started reading this I thought you were gonna try to make a recurve out of a piece of plywood! I got it figured out now though. You do need to have a press to make the bow.

                              Loks sweet so far,

                              Bisch

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