Stuff

The horn arrived this morning, (from Highland Horn) you can see it's pale and some bits have nice black blobs showing, of course it looks rough and scruffy in this state but once shaped and polished it should have some nice streaks of colour. I like the polishing phase, as it suddenly brings out all the features and beauty of the horn. Those 6 bits should keep me going for a while.

I've done some more on Twister 2. I've cut out a bit for the grip, not too much but just enough to show where it will be and allow me plenty of wood for shaping and adjustment. I've pegged 4 small knots too on my better safe than sorry principal. You can see the peg near the tip, I have the lamp on it to warm it and help cure the epoxy glue quickly. I've had it on the tiller on a loose string and pulled it to 45#, it flexes a bit, The inner limbs are moving, which is how I like to do it, get the inners just flexing then move out along the limb. Some other people do it the other way round, get the tips moving first... whatever works for you!

We have visitors over the weekend and I'm also going to be on the tree surgeon's stand at  Thurlow Fayre on Sunday The Tree surgeon is the guy who let me take all the Yew on this post http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/early-fathers-day-adventure.html

Hopefully on the Monday I'll get the top nock done on the BooYew bow.
Ha! Just had a thought, maybe I could get it glued on Saturday morning and shape it up at the Fayre... give me something to show and tell.

Yew Boo Update

The bow has a better feel now it's shorter, it's more stable laterally and the draw weight is a bit over 50# now. I've got the brace height up to between 5 1/2 - 6" which is fine.
I've shot a few arrows using a spare string, it seems very punchy.
I was going to press on with horn nocks until I discovered I've run out of white Water buffalo horn. I did have two bits, but one got lost during the Tudor filming at the Weald & Downland Museum. I'll phone in an order to Highland Horn for some more on Tuesday.

Meanwhile I've been roughing out a Yew primitive for a farmer from up near Cambridge, He bought the stave of American Yew online. There are some fine cracks in it and some twist, but I think it will make a fine bow. It will be pretty much like my favourite field bow 'Twister' which was made of English Yew, it will be a chance to compare the two woods side by side. I'm calling it 'Twister 2' for now. Here are two pics of it roughed out.
It was tricky tying to lay it out taking note of the cracks and the twist. After I'd sawn it, I was worried that I should have done it differently, but I re-assembled the sawn bits to check, and there wasn't really any better way to do it. The piece of Yew was half a log of fairly small diameter with the centre offset towards the sapwood at one end.

Boo Yew On the Tiller

The initial tillering is a bit tricky as, at a low brace, just an inch or so the bow will try to bend sideways. This is especially noticeable with this bow as it's rather narrow. At some points on the limb it's as thick as it is wide, so it doesn't really care which way it bends. Heavily recurved bows can flip over on the tiller in the early stages and give you a nasty whack.
So it's a bit of a race, to get it back to a reasonable brace and exercise it  to get it bending in the right direction whilst getting the bend even. At the same time adjusting the nocks sideways a bit to try to help avoid the sideways bend.
It's a mistake to over react to problems. A little off one side of the nock and pulling the string to one side can be enough to keep it in line at the early stages. Don't be fooled into thinking a bow has any respect for straight lines marked down the back of the bow! It may well settle down to flex smoothly and consistently on a slightly skewed plane.
It's the old game of successive approximation and slowly slowly. As the bow is tillered more the thickness will be slightly reduced and the bow will settle to become more stable.
I don't actually like the phrase 'it will "learn" how to bend'  I'm not sure quite sure why I don't like it. Maybe 'the wood will slowly become conditioned to bending in one plane' is better... I don't want to get pedantic or pretentious about it... so whatever works for you.
People say a bow should be exercised by pulling it 20 times every time a little wood is removed. I think it's down to common sense and feel. I'm certainly exercising this one to try and get it stable as early as I can.
It's standing in the corner braced to 5" at the moment.
The rain has been steady all day, so I've been in and out of the garage slowly getting it tillered. the draw weight feels pretty high, but it should as I'm aiming for 55# at 26" which would feel pretty heavy at 28"
It's not quite making it at the moment as it's 50# at 26" mind I've left it slightly long and it's still a lowish brace of about 5". If I lop and inch off each end and brace it to 6" it should be close enough, I didn't have enough width of wood to get any higher without ending up with a bow thicker than it was wide. That would be a recipe for nasty instability. At the moment it's about 70" long, but I want a fairly short bow to suit the archer. If I end up about 68" nock to nock, it will still be about 70" overall allowing for the horn nocks.

You can see the tiller is a bit asymmetric at the moment.
Criticism of tiller:- Slight weak point middle of left limb, and the outer third of each limb a whisker stiff.
The lower (left) limb went from being a bit strong to how it is in the pic just by cleaning up some slightly thick areas as I checked along the limb!
I shall adjust the tiller a bit, and then take 1" off each limb (maybe a whisker more of the left) and then check it again. Not sure how much more I'll do today tho'
Funny, zooming in the draw weight looks nearer 45 than 50# in that pic, mind the bow had been sitting there.
No point worrying, it will come out how it comes out and the proof of the quality will be how it shoots. On primitive Archer people are always asking how to recover lost draw weight and I usually advise it is a waste of time and you end up chasing your own tail. the best way is heat treating, but obviously I can't do that due to the glue line. Lopping some off the ends can help but not if it compromises the design of the bow. I usually allow an extra inch either end, but by the time I've take that off and re-tillered I expect it will be about 50 @ 26" I won't beat myself up about it and it will be a matter of trying it out, if it does the job fine, if not I'll tiller it out to 28", use it myself or find it a home.

I've just gone out to the garage and sawed 1 1/4" off the lower limb and 1" off the upper... no point messing about! New temporary nockshave been glued on with spuperglue and strapped with rubber.

Good Glue Up

Whew, I took the wraps off this morning. I gave it overnight rather than rushing to see if it was good last night. Most glues benefit from a longer curing time.
It looks just about right, slight hint of reflex, less being apparent on the limb which was deflexed, but that's to be expected.
The glue line looks good, you can see the ample squeeze out. When cleaned up the glue line is barely visible, that's well over full size in the pic. The shaggy edge to the 'boo is the masking tape still covering it, handy for marking out the bow and protecting the boo.

For my own information I mixed up 400gn of Resintite with 200gn of water which was just about the right quantity. I'd mixed the same first time but only used about 2/3 of it.

I've rasped off the excess boo, taking care to rasp from boo towards the Yew to avoid tearing off any splinters. I used my old cabinet rasp as the glue is rather hard and I save my new rasp for clean wood. I've marked a centre line and I'll be cleaning it up ready to flex on the tiller. I'll glue on a temporary overlay on the tips and leave a little extra width, this will allow some adjustment of string line if necessary. The nock can be cut into the overlay rather than the sides of the tips, this maximises adjustment room.

Yew Boo Glue Two

Excuse the tabloid style title... I couldn't resist.
Been at it all morning planing down another bit of 'boo, I think I got it a tad thinner this time, tapering from about 4mm to 2mm.
I grooved the mating surfaces slightly using my cabinet rasp sideways on like a spokeshave. There are endless arguments and discussions about whether you should roughen surfaces or not for gluing.
I think it depends on the glue really, some have gap filling properties, some don't. I effectively roughened the surfaces , but only in the direction of the natural fibres.
I took more trouble binding it with freshly cut rubber straps, having two layers all along the stave. I strapped it down to the 2x2 and put a block under each end, giving it a bit more reflex this time. It seemed a heck of a force needed to pull it into reflex, so hopefully there will be enough oomph to make the required draw weight. It was about 12:30 when I finished so, the strapping can come off late tonight. They say 6 hours, but I'll give it until 10 o'clock, maybe that way I'll avoid having to sit through another depressing news program (insert your own rant about politics/religion/man's general stupidity here)

Ha'porth of Tar?

Drat! As I started cleaning up the glued bow I noticed a couple of hairline gaps at the join. I wasn't very happy.
When I'd glued it up I'd seen the glue seemed to be soaking into the bamboo a bit and at one point I'd added a bit more as I was binding down the backing. In retrospect I should have undone it and added an extra bead of glue along the whole glue line and the re-strapped.
Why didn't I?
Well, the instructions for the glue say only glue one surface, but I always glue both, precisely because I don't want to risk a dry joint.
Normally as it's bound down I'd expect some slight squeeze out of glue along the edge. Indeed, that's what I'd got along most of it.
The slight gaps were barely visible and maybe only went under the 'boo a tiny distance, but how could I be sure? Perhaps I should have added a second layer of binding? Would that have done it?
I rubbed in some freshly mixed slightly thin Resintite massaging it into the join as a half hearted attemt to 'fix' it, but I still wasn't convinced.
One of the gaps was under a node and the thought of a dry glue line under the node didn't fill me with confidence.
Did I really want to risk a couple of hundred quids worth of bow for a slat of boo that cost £6 ? It hadn't taken me that long to do the job in the first place. I've had a couple of breakages recently and did I want to risk another?
I was really glad that I bought plenty of 'boo and had thus saved on the shipping cost.
My wife finally convinced me when she said "you're not leaving it like that?" and she's seen enough bows made to be virtually an honorary bowyer herself!
Rather than prevaricate I picked up the plane and set to taking off the boo.

I wish I'd taken pics before I massaged in the glue but the pic does give an idea of the size of the gap, if you look at the glue line near the top of the pic is is barely visible. The second pic shows what does look like a dry area.
I shall make a virtue of necessity and glue a little more reflex in this time, I will also increase the taper a whisker and even it up more before the glue up this time. Or to put it another way I'll just take more care and do it right.

Resintite does have 'gap filling' properties and that fine gap would have been ok had it been solidly filled with glue. The ideal glue line is about as thick as a hair, or at most as thick the fingernail on your little finger.

Would it have failed? Who knows.
The moral of the story is always listen to that little voice of doubt that says "that's not right" especially when the glue stays workable for 2 hours and there's not really any rush.
I've got it back down to the wood already, but I'm not going to try and re-glue it tonight... oh deary me no!
But maybe I should add that £6 and the 1/2 penny worth of glue to the price of the bow? ;-)

Boo Glued and Frozen Bread!

The Bamboo has been planed down to a nice thin slat about 3-4mm thick near the centre and about 3mm at the tips. A sharp plane does the job nicely if the slat is clamped to a length of 2x2 , a rasp can adjust any thick areas and the belt sander flattens it off ready to glue.
Like all these jobs it wise to stop when you think it's finished, have a cup of tea and then have another look, there are invariably areas that need improvement. Too late if you've rushed into the glue up.
I glued it up with Resintite and bound the slat to the Yew belly with one layer of rubber strapping pulled V tight. The stave was then bound to the length of 2x2 at the grip and a couple of offcuts placed under the tips.
I flexed it a few times to settle it, the glue should be cured by tomorrow morning.
At a casual glance it looks like I've put in a lot more reflex than the inch or two I'd said I'd give it. Looks can be deceptive , if you look at the pics, yes it looks like the tip is up by 3" looking at the top of thestave, but the grip itself is up by 1.5" so I've only actually given it the 1-2" I said.
There are a couple of thin wedges under the grip to get it to sit square, it was all at a slight angle intil I added them, again, always wise to look along the stave to make sure it's all straight and true... no good unwrapping it in the morning to find the reflex bend is slightly sideways.


























Ah yes..
I forgot to take a loaf out of the freezer this morning...the bandsaw sliced it a treat.