Let's make a bow...

[BT]

Greg was telling me about his want to try and follow along with this project of yours.
Good deal

[red]

Isn't Tonkin Bamboo supposed to be the best for bow and fly rod building applications? Some of it is tempered.

[easternhunter]

Red, tempering is a process of applying dry heat to the backside of the bamboo, reallu toasting it until it starts to turn brown. This drives the moisture from the bamboo and also I think it imparts some stiffness to the boo giving it abit more snap. It can also help drive up the draw weight by a few pounds. Good section on tempering in the Bowyers Bible #4. Usually the belly wood is tempered. But I've heard and seen pics of bows where the boo backing is tempered before glue-up.

[smj]

May 8, 2009 20:16:18 GMT -5 red said:

Isn't Tonkin Bamboo supposed to be the best for bow and fly rod building applications? Some of it is tempered.

Hey Red ! Yeah, Tonkin bamboo is great stuff... However, I think you would find it hard to come by - or at least - hard to afford if you can find it. Also, finding it in widths that we want for bow making is probably hard to come by as well. A quick google didn't turn up anything we could use for making bows. One source, www.foreverbamboo.com/BAMBOOSLATS.html - sells bamboo slats - moso bamboo, and these are only 1.75 " wide. Again, probably not what we want. Finding quality bamboo can be a rather interesting quest - at least from what I've found. Cheap bamboo, or the wrong variety, sold as a cheap alternative or being sold as something else (fraud), simply does not hold up. Most of the failures that I've seen on bows I've made come from bamboo failing - not the wood of the bow. There are several types of boo that are considered very good for bows - the Bowyers Bibles cover that well, I'll look it up some where along the way as this build progresses. (If I look it up, I'll be certain to get it right! The type is specific, and there are alot of varieties that all sound about the same - yet are not the same so far as making bows.)

If you have the heating strips, you can temper your own bamboo. I caution you about trying to temper belly wood. It can be done. However, some -make that all - wood will twist and bend when heated up. The tensions in the wood tend to come out when the wood is softened with heat. I've played a bit with my heater and found that I made more work for myself than any benifit I might get. Of course, maybe I was doing it wrong? I certainly don't know all the answers! I've had good luck with hickory, most of the time, other woods just seem to turn into interesting twistys.

[smj]

So - once the bamboo is thiner than it was, and the curl is taken down enough to get the inside of the boo flat, you can lay a pattern on the back of the boo and trace the outline on. Of course, you want to look at the nodes and try to get the pattern to match up to the nodes for the best look. Longer distances between nodes is better... Bigger boo, or larger diameter, will give a bamboo slat with the greatest width. As you can see, if you thin the bamboo to much before laying out the pattern, you might end up with boo that is to thin to use for the bow you wish to make.


Also take note that you are not done thinning the boo yet - you want a uniform thickness, maybe with a slight tapper to the tips. What you end up with after 3 passes on the jointer is this -


So - we will just get the bamboo flat to the point that we can lay out the pattern, and then thin the boo the rest of the way once it is cut out. Note in the photo above, an edge view, how the boo is thicker to the left and thins as you move to the right... Boo does not grow uniformly, so you have to make it that way by being very careful about jointers, sanders, and so on. More to follow folks!

PS - you can take off as much as you like per pass on the jointer. However - if you try to take to much it will leave pits. Pits can not be filled. Most of the time, pits will happen at the nodes. Between nodes, you are only taking off material on the edges of the sides. Then you hit a node, and take off material all the way from side to side. Chunk! Pits appear! Right on the nodes, where most of the breaks happen - that I've seen. So, take off a bit less, make a couple of passes, and for the last pass, make it a very thin pass, just to be sure! Note in the second pass photo, the near end, there are a couple of little "chunks" out of the boo. 3rd pass, nice and thin, cleaned it up. Chunks scare me!

[red]

Lots of good information...great pics too. Always fun watching one of your build-alongs.

[smj]

OK - We lay out the pattern on the now smooth side, the inside of the bamboo, trace the pattern and cut it out. You want to check the pattern to make sure it is still straight, not curved to one side... The old string down the middle works well! Then cut the pattern out. I use a band-saw. You should end up with something kind of like this -


Make sure you got the pattern the right way around on the bamboo for which ever hand you want to shoot with. You won't make many of those mistakes... You want the flat inside, or glue surface, toward you.


So, if we check the bamboo for thickness, at the middle and out at the tip, we see that we still have around a quarter inch of thickness. Note that at the middle, the boo does not look as thick as at the tips... Keep in mind that bamboo is round. The slat you work with has a radius, so the thickest point is shown best at the cut out for the rest, and also at the tips. Still, keep those trusty calipers handy to keep up on how your work is progressing!
Mid bow -


Tip -


I like the tips closer to 1/8th of an inch, so you can see we have a bit more work to do here! The middle I will leave at about 1/4 inch, and taper it out to the tips. But I don't have time to do this today, so it will have to wait a bit! Stay tuned....

[BT]

This is really great detail

[lukin4sunrise]

I am really enjoying the show now that BT made it possible to see the pictures. I would love to try myself perhaps during the winter months. SMJ do you have a general figure for the cost to make and as you are experienced, how many hours of labour as well?

[smj]

May 12, 2009 14:49:24 GMT -5 lukin4sunrise said:

I am really enjoying the show now that BT made it possible to see the pictures. I would love to try myself perhaps during the winter months. SMJ do you have a general figure for the cost to make and as you are experienced, how many hours of labour as well?

Hi "Lukin" - I guess I didn't know the pictures weren't coming up! Thanks BT for taking care of that...

As to cost - a board can be fairly cheap, or a bit on the pricey side. A hickory slat - there is a place in Fort Collins where I can buy 0.5x2 inch hickory boards at what ever length I want. You pay by the foot - and you can look through tons of samples until you find one that is clean and has the grain you need: whether a backed bow or a self bow. It takes some time to dig through the pile and find what you want. If I remember right, the cost is less than $1 per foot. You can even check if it is bent to any side! Then there is something like ipe. (http://www.woodsthebest.com/ipe_decking/ipe-wood.htm) Buying one board down at Budget Home Center costs around $30 for a six foot board. I cut that in to three bow boards - so about $10 each. Pick with great care - if you get the wrong board it might bend or twist on you when you cut it up. (Hickory is evil that way, which is why I like to buy it already cut up. Don't even ask about osage...) Bamboo can cost around $12 to $15 plus shipping. Here's the dig - you will have to pay for extra long shipping, so the shipping can run $12 or so as well. Buy in quantity - like 6 at a time. Shipping runs about the same and usually you can get a quantity price. Do not just buy the cheapest you can find - it might be of lesser quality with respect to making bows - and fail early in life. For a first bow, your wood must be clean, or clear, and have straight grain. The bamboo should be of good quality for making bows. So, board, bamboo, shipping, so far $36 to $66. You will need a grip block. This, too, has some cost but you could buy your hickory board an extra foot or more longer and call it done. Chop off the end and glue it for the grip. OR - you can get the fancy hardwoods for the grip, and pay what ever the wood shop thinks a 12 inch long 2 inch wide .5 to 1 inch thick board is worth. Usually you buy a nice board for around $20 to $45 that will allow you to get 4 or 5 grip blocks out of it. (Depends on the wood, right. Good Ebony - figure half a years wages.) Glue - you can buy a pint for $12. Enough for a couple of bows. Some old antlers for nocks, or a bit more of the grip wood. String. And all the sandpaper you need - you know - shop costs. You have to figure some shop cost in to it as well. Bandsaw blades, sanding belts, table saw blades, maybe a new rasp or cabinet scraper or something like that. Really, that's about it. Tools are a one time expense to get, a bit of upkeep for those that have parts that wear out. If you have the shop already, not a big deal, is it?
Anyway - I figure it costs me probably $75 to $125 to make a bow. It really depends on the wood - if I decide to order wood from a bowyers supply house - how many bows I get out of the board I buy - if I have to run out and buy new saw blades and sand paper - new can of glue - so on. The cheapest you could make one for, the type that I make, is probably around $50 but rather plain.

From Rudderbows -
Hickory belly stock : $22.00
Argentine Osage belly stock: $54.95
Unplaned Bamboo Backing Strips : $16.00
Barrel Tapered Planed Bamboo Backing Strips, heat tempered : $39.00
Riser Block (grip) : $10
Pre-Drilled polished English longbow horn tips : $29.99
Standard wood Tip overlays : $4.00

So - on the cheap: $52 plus shipping
On the spend it, its only money : $133.94 plus shipping

Add to this the cost of shop materials.

Let's see, you also asked about time to make one... Honestly, I don't know how to answer that. A really good woodworker is obviously going to get done a bit quicker. If you, when you, mess up something you have to figure out how to work around it. I figure 25 to 40 hours per bow - over a long time. I think the trick to is to work a little, let it sit and think about it a while, then work a little bit more. Most bows are ruined by someone who gets tired of waiting!