Coca Cola's Buildalong thread

[Coca Cola]

Finished roughing out my bow today. I did it with the angle grinder outside since it was so warm ( 50). Boy am I glad I did that, even outside there was alot of dust. Cleanup was a breeze though ( pun intened)


I learned alot about the hunk of wood I am trying to make into a bow.

^^See, it looks like very little early growth, at least I thought it did.

^^ See that little sliver at the top right. That is the only late growth in that entire limb. I think the other stuff is early growth because it was much more splintery when I started to round the edges. This really worries me.

Speaking of rounding the edges. I started to do that and finished up with only 1/3 of the bow done. I tried to get the limbs moving directly after roughing it out, and they werent moving at all. So I decided to make it more of a D shape belly to get them moving more. Unfortunately I ran out of time. Here are pics of where I am at right now.



Last pic is of the area I rounded the edges and gave a slight D shape too.

[Coca Cola]

Crrrrrraaaaacccckkkkk, thats the noise my bow made when I pulled it alittle too far when tillering. .............

Well that would be a reasonable excuse.

What actually happend was I was rounding out the corners with a file, when I heard the crack. Limbs hadnt even been bent once and it still broke. Right as the home stretch was coming up I heard the noise no bowyer ever wants to hear. To add insult to injury it was the last section of the bow I had rounded off and gave slight D shape so I had just spent some time doing that.. Well thats bowmaking. I learned from it though, you can break a bow with out even moving the limbs, lol. It was fun. Now what should I do for my next bow .

area outlined in black is the crack.

Its just far enough from the tip so I cant make a bow out of the remains. I dont think I can glue it back together. I think I will try anyway

[BT]

Dont that suck!

You need a blank

[royden]

That sucks Coca Cola

I've been watching your progress and was real interested in checking out your final result.

Great attitude about it ... already past the problem and looking for solutions

rc

[Coca Cola]

Bought a new board today. I also bought that rasp you were talking about smj. It really rips the wood off.

My new board is red oak. The grain is overall better then the last. It has about 3 or 4 run offs so I will back it. I shrunk the handle dow to 8 inches because on my last one 10 was more then enough. I think I will do a Hickory handle made from leftovers of the last bow I think I will put a .25 inch strip of red oak in top of it to give it some contrast. It 66" long and 64 NTN. Hopefully pics will follow once I find my camera.


Here we go, found my camera. The pic of the grain is the belly of the bow. It has more run offs then the back.


here is a pic of the end. I was having trouble getting camera to focus so I said screw it and this was the best I had . It isnt really verticle enough but the rings are thicker then my last so hopefully this will turn out better.



I was thinking of buying a hickory backing and glueing some r/d in it to sort of "practice" for future bows.

Wow the stick and string forum is really flying lately.

[Coca Cola]

Ok I roughed the bow out on friday. Today I realized one limb was thicker then the other by 1/8 because of measuring errors . I had a heck of a time getting them even. I also Glued on a hickory riser block with some TB III.

The board by itself doesnt have all that bad of grain. When roughed out into a bow its runoffs doubled . Hopefully it will survive unlike my last one .

Pics, Any comments?

[smj]

I think you could use a spoke shave.

I have a Kunz -

www.traditionalwoodworker.com/default.php?cPath=2_135

Some like Stanley -

www.mysimon.com/Tools-and-Hardware/9015-11020_8-33187523.html

[Coca Cola]

What exactly do they do? I figure they take off wood. Just faster then my surform?

[smj]

Yup, they remove wood. Don't know they take wood off faster than the surform, but they leave the wood a lot smoother. They are great for cleanup, or reducing, finishing to the point of cabinet scrapers or sandpaper. I think you would like one... Most bowyers of natural wood do! I'd not try to use one with glass lams.

[Coca Cola]

Cool, I will look into it. Caddying starts any time now so my funds will be alittle deeper.