Yew Bow Detail & a Glue Up

I got Jeff's Yew bow finished, the drying crack in the back looks rather horrifying, but other parts look lovely, it has some nice character. Unfortunately Jeff can't shoot it yet as he's getting over a accident and his wrist is still weak, but I shot a few arrow through it for him to see when it was collected.

I've been making the mk5 50# ELB flight bow too!
One reason I'm pressing on with yet another bow is that I can't quite finish the previous one as I can't determine which of my scale is correct. It would be easy to assume the digital one is right, but that's not necessarily so. What I've decided to do is to buy 2 x 10kg weights, I can then take these into the factory where I used to work and get them weighed on some trade approved scales to calibrate them. I'll mark them up and use them as my reference weights. The problem is they haven't arrived yet (inset your own joke about ordering a long weight here)
I had some scraps of Ipe about 30" long so I spliced in a 4" section using scarf joints to make a full length belly for a Boo, Yew, Ipe bow.
I like to use up odd and ends for experimentation. This bow is slightly shorter than the other Boo, Yew flight bows, I took rough limb thickness dimensions at mid limb from the other bows as a guide so that it would be somewhere near the right weight after glue up.
The pic shows it with half the clamps removed after an overnight curing time. Note, I used some rubber strapping as well where the nodes of the bamboo back were making it reluctant to clamp down.
Now it's glued up, I've added a 7" riser/grip piece glued to the belly overlapping the scarf jointed centre section to give a
very secure join.

English Yew Bow on the Tiller

This stave was cut by Jeff a tree surgeon who brought it up to me to be worked into a bow. He was in the workshop while we got it sawn from the log, and roughed out to the point where it was flexing on the tiller.
Since then I've taken some twist and sideways bend out with steam and got it coming back further.
Some of the sideways bend had come back and it needed another steam bath. There are some tricky areas and I've had to tease it back working down both the sapwood back and the belly. A big knot on one edge and a twisting undulation have been most problematic as they were rather stiff. It takes some blind faith to rasp down knotty or undulating areas.
Since taking these pictures, the tiller has been improved with the outers flexing more.

Video of it flexing here:-
https://youtu.be/G7K97LDAH24

Update:-
Next day, got it to full draw now :-)
https://youtu.be/m8Vc_rpKVYM

Flight Bow Frustration

I got out in the glorious sunshine to test my 2 Boo/Yew flight bows head to head with the same arrows.
The first bow was slightly disappointing, but turns out that by applying all I've learned from the first bow and making minor changes for the second, I've made that one marginally more disappointing!

On the plus side, I didn't  break any arrows and the second bow, being a couple of inches longer can be cut down and reworked.

I had 6 arrows, 4 were pretty similar, about 280 grains with narrow footed tips, one was about 50 grains lighter and one a bit heavier (about 310 grains). The lighter one nearly always the shortest, and the heavier was also one of the shortest.
I shot all 6 from bow mk1, 6 from bow mk2. I then shot 4 from bow mk1 again to see if I'd settled to a better technique, but in fact the first ones were further.

Furthest arrow was a mere 268 yards.
Hey, ho, back to the drawing board, I may re-work the mk2 back to a 26" draw, as I have a set of 26" arrows.

Not much point in pics, I'll allow you to imaging the scene... an empty flat sunny field... some arrows sticking out in a desultory fashion... lone archer plodding disconsolately back and forth ;-)

A couple of the other guys did turn up as I was about to leave, so I had a bit of a natter.

I did have a bit of a mess around with the results by adding the distances achieved by each arrow to see if one performed significantly better, but with only 3 results for each arrow it doesn't mean much.
It did give the best arrows as the one which also had the single furthest distance. The shooting machine would help, but one doesn't want to perform too many tests and shoot out the bow. Mind, once the best bow is found, the second string bow could be used for arrow testing.
basic problem is too many variables.

Squeak!

Hmmm, the bandsaw started squeaking and I noticed that it was stopping very promptly when switched off.
Maybe the blade guides need adjusting or a sliver of wood is jammed in there.
Adjust and clean them.... squeeeeeeak.
Remove upper blade guides.....squeeeeak.
Adjust lower blade guides...... squeeeeak.
Remove blade. ..... squeeeeeak.
Grrrrrr.
Remove the lower wheel, ah, the bearings are seized up.
Rinse 'em out with white spirit, WD40 and much waggling about... got 'em freed up.
Re-fit lower wheel, switch on........ squeeeeak!
Bloody idler wheel bearings (the idler tensions the belt) are similarly seized.
Clean them up.... that's fixed that.
Get online to Bearing Boys and order new bearings, yes I noted the numbers on the bearings before re-fitting everything. Bearing Boys are V good compared with getting the bearings from a bandsaw spares site, and they have several grades of bearing in any give size.
That was about mid day, the new bearings turned up about 11am next day!
Got 'em fitted and it's running much smoother now.
I don't begrudge the bandsaw a bit of minor expenditure and time as it has a pretty busy life.

Meanwhile I'm busy making millions of flight arrows.... well that's what it feels like as they are fairly labour intensive.
I've done some tweaking of the two boo/yew flight bows so that they'll both be shooting 27" arrows at 50#. I hope to do a direct comparison on Sunday if I've got some arrows done and we aren't off on a family jaunt 'cos it's Easter.

My mate JT was over too and he had a relatively new warbow that he felt was iffy and in need of a re-tiller, so we attacked that! Video here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqB3XLRKNb8

Boyton Bow Repair Completed

I completed the repair on Piers' Chris Boyton bow, the patch extended well under the grip which then had to be rebuilt.
I used a piece of cork sanding block to rebuild the cork grip, it shaped nicely on the belt sander, but the first attempt snatched out of my hand, jammed down the back of the belt sander dancing about as it got ground down to nothing and swallowed! The trusty UHU glue worked well on the cork and leather. A bit of brown boot polish brought the grip back to a lovely finish.
I gave the bow a good flexing on the tiller and  the patch seemed good and sound.
Piers came over to collect it this morning and brought some Easter eggs for Mr Hare, he had a few shots with the bow and was delighted to have it shooting again.

I've done a bit more steaming on Jeff's stave and glued the bamboo back on my mkII Boo/Yew 50# flight bow. Plenty to keep me busy. I may get to shoot the Hickory flight bow against the mkI Boo/Yew tomorrow weather permitting.

On his way out Piers spotted the missing nock from the exploded warbow... a mystery solved.

PS:- Picture of the bow before repair here:- https://bowyersdiary.blogspot.com/2019/04/busy-time.html

Tired Warbow Result etc

I didn't feel like making a string for the rebuilt warbow, so I waited until my make JT came over so we could test it further on an adjustable sting.

We strung it at full brace, well, he strung it and could feel the power of it.
Partially drawing it he could feel the early weight, said it felt like  about 140# and fancied trying it as a flight bow!

I didn't want to risk it exploding in his face, so we put it on the tiller.... same as before 90# at 24" ... 100# at 26" ...and bang on 28"...
...it went BANG!
Absolutely exploded into shards!
Examining it, the dreaded blue/black discolouration was visible along most of where it split. It had withstood a bit over 100# before, but the bow had about 1" off each end where the nocks were removed. The belly being heat treated and the slight reflex added was also putting a huge extra strain on the back, which just couldn't take it. Once the back gave way the stress just shredded the rest of the bow.
The good thing is that the glue line didn't give way at all.

JT had provided the old worn out bow and I'd put in the work, it was an interesting experiment, and tends to confirm my view that for heavy bows or highly stressed ones , you want a perfect back.
(I have no idea where the other nock ended up!)

Meanwhile I've done the basic repair on the Chris Boyton bow, the patch is glued now. It needs blending in and the handle/grip rebuilding.
There was a lot of work getting a sliver of single growth ring Ash, I ended up sawing a 1/2" slice off the edge of a huge 1/4 log which was at the bottom of my stash of logs.

JT was using my lathe to turn up some antler points to go on the end of blunt arrow heads. While he was doing that I did some preparation of the bamboo back for the mkII Boo Yew 50# flight bow. Then once JT had gone (and I'd had my cat nap!) I set up Jeff's bow to steam out some twist from one end and also pull that end into line. There is a longitudinal crack in the sapwood at that end, and there was no point gluing it until I'd done the steaming. I'll unclamp it last thing tonight and see how it looks in the morning, leaving it to thoroughly settle before gluing the crack.

It's hard to see what's going on with the steaming! There I a length of square plastic drain pipe acting as a steam chest over the end of the bow. My wooden bow spanner is twisting the tip anticlockwise, (the end being held down in tension by some rubber strapping tied to a log) the vertical piece of timber under the tip of the bow is there to stop the tip being pulled down too much.

Busy Time

My mate Rob came over last week Thurs' and gave me a couple of Yew logs and a couple of Elm, he brought a couple of lengths of timber and a broken bow for an autopsy too. There was some confusion regarding the timber identification... it's tricky at the best of times. I think he had the right species, but not necessarily in the right order! I think the broken bow was Lemon wood and it had only broken due to the grain running diagonally back to belly on one limb. I clamped the other limb in the vice and heaved mightily on the tip, it bent in a lovely curve showing his tiller was ok. Generally lemonwood is used on the belly of backed bows (Hickory backed Lemonwood being a common combo). The two lengths of 2x2 were Ash and Hickory, so we got 'em roughed out on the bandsaw with the grain running back to belly as if quarter sawn  like this ||||||||||||.
The Ash was roughed out to be a heavy bow ~90# and the Hickory as a light ladies bow.
Rob pretty much had the Ash bow back to full draw the next day!

Next day I was doing some more on my Hickory flight bow and tidying up. At the weekend I got the Yew and Em run through the bandsaw, the ends painted and up onto the shelving.

On Monday Jeff came up from Folkestone with a half a Yew log that he'd cut himself some years back. We got it roughed out and flexing on the tiller, it was a lot of work crammed into 4 hours with me demonstrating and Jeff doing some of the work too. In the end we had it pulling 60# @ 14 1/2 " on a string that would just slip onto the bow. There are a couple of knots to fill and maybe a little twist to take out of one tip, then another session should get it finished.
While we  were working another friend Piers turned up with a bow that he wanted me to see if I could repair. It was a Chris Boyton bow, two laminations of Yew with a back of a single growth ring of Ash. The was a crack on the back by a couple of tiny pin knots near the handle. I had a quick look and said I'd have a good look and evaluate it later.
That night I had trouble sleeping as my shoulders and elbows were aching!

I decided to take it easy today, but I still had a tinker with the Hickory flight bow, finally getting it to about 50# at 28".

I also had a look at Piers' Boyton Bow. I pulled it to about 26" on the tiller and could see the crack opening a whisker, so it needed repair. I unwrapped the grip and rasped out the cracked area to see how extensive was (not too bad, mostly on the corner) and found some Ash I could patch it with. The crack extends under the grip which makes it a tad tricky, but I'm optimistic.
You can see the two little pin knot where it is rasped out, I've allowed for a long thin patch to give a nice long glue line. Because it's only a about 1/4 of the width of the backing and on the corner it shouldn't be under too much stress. Hopefully it's more prevention than cure.
Whew! I need a bit of a rest! I have lots of projects on the go, but it's better to be busy than bored.

Tired Warbow Lives!

The warbow has had the horn nocks fitted and I tried it on the tiller with a string that I could just slip on. It looked ok and I pulled it to about 90#.
I shortened the string but couldn't initially brace it. I enlisted some help to get the string onto the nock while I heaved with both hands while I had two feet on the string. Pulling it on the tiller looked pretty good and I took it to 90# at 24", I found a string with smaller loop which sat better in the nocks, did a bit of adjustment of the string grooves and then took it to 100# at about 28".
That interpolates to 114# which is pretty good, it was 100# originally. Assuming it doesn't explode it should be a bit punchier.

Tired Old Warbow Experiment

My mate JT brought over a tired old warbow with a ton of set, the belly was very clean but the back had some blue staining which could be rot or the natural discolouration that you sometimes get between heart and sap. It was always a funny bow that looked like a 150# but was only about 100# it was bought as a used bow in the first place. He originally suggested ripping off the sapwood and replacing it with a boo back.
I sawed off the nocks and ran it through the bandsaw while JT was beavering away turning some blunts on the lathe. It was obvious that both back and belly had taken some set, but the belly having taken more. I set too heat treating and straightening the belly, doing one end at a time.

Having heat treated and straightened the belly, I suggested we just re-fit the back, gluing it up with a hint of reflex. This was thought to be a wizard wheeze, so I went ahead after JT had gone and finished the job. I did a little tentative gentle heat straightening of the back, heating only the belly side of it. The glue up went ok, but due to the change in curvature the back slat overhung by 1/8" at either end! That 1/4" change in length gives some idea of the extra tension that will be in the bow, mind we've lost the thickness of the coarse saw cut (3 teeth per inch alternate set blade!)

It glued up nicely, but the bow had a bit of a sideways curve, however was very wide in the centre (about 42mm) and the tips were about 13mm where I'd sawn off the nocks. This allowed me to rasp some off one side in the central section and some off the opposite side at the tips, which straightened it out somewhat. A little remaining curve doesn't matter as it puts the string line closer to the arrow pass for a right handed archer. The width is now about 38-39mm at the grip which is good.
I gave it a good scraping and sanding so that I could see how the glue line looks, it's pretty good and hard to spot generally. Before working on it you could get a full 4 fingers between grip and floor with the tips on the floor and the back uppermost.
Now with the belly on the floor you can get 2 fingers under each tip!

Note:- I flipped one of the pics so that the bow is the same way round in all the pics for ease of comparison.