Another longbow build-along...

[BT]

I love Cocobola.
Makes a great looking bow

[smj]

red said:

Beautiful...thanks, stevej. I ordered an armguard, finger tab and stringer. As we get closer, advise me on arrows so that I can order those as well. I know most of the companies make a "traditional look" aluminum. Do you have a favorite?

Believe it or not, I am a carbon guy. I don't shoot aluminum anymore... I just like carbon better - durability. I have been shooting the GoldTip Traditional shaft. They have a good shaft for me, but there are a host of other shafts out there. I should probably take a look around and see if I can find a cheaper shaft out there... I've not looked for a while! But, yes, we will find a shaft for your bow when we get there. Until the bow is made I don't know how it will shoot. I can guess, but why guess on what might be the wrong shaft?

Last - if any of you are actually building a bow along with this - one last word about wood...

We cut up an ipe board and tried to get a couple bows out of it. My rule for flexing the belly board as if you were stringing a bow has proven to be a good pre-build rule. For example, the 2nd ipe board that made noise at flexing - I put it on my jig and lookie what happened :




You hear a lot about how to treat your belly wood during the course of building a bow. Some of what you hear is bunk. Some is meaningful. I think it very meaningful to stress - slightly - the belly wood before building a bow. Of course, if you are going to use a jig like mine, defects tend to show up all by themselves - but still - anything you can do to not end up waisting time on a board is a good thing in my book! (build a bow and have it blow up right away, you might see my point!)

[red]

Correct, I almost forgot that the GT Traditionals were carbon...sounds like a good choice. Anyway, hope everyone is enjoying the build-along. Great pics you are posting with nice detail.

[Greg Krause]

awesome. I am following along. I may head to the lumber ard this week and see if i find something that looks promising

[smj]

Hi all - I have been way sick the last week. The kids came home with croup from school - and of course I got it. Today I am feeling a bit better, and really wanting to get going on this build along again. Since I use things like jointers and band-saws I fear heading in to the garage to work on this stuff when the head is in a fog and my nose is running all over the place! Anyway, with any luck at all, I've turned the corner and starting Monday should be able to get stuff going again. I also had 4 bows in the que that needed to have some glue work done before moving forward with this bow, too. These are now behind us, so this should heat up quickly just as soon as I feel good enough to put my fingers at risk again! We need to deal with some bamboo, which will see the jointer first, and then worked down by hand. I just have not felt up to doing the work required... If you do it wrong, you loose a finger tip or have to start over with a new piece of bamboo! Anyway, sorry for the delay!

[red]

Hey stevej....glad to hear you are starting to feel better. Any bow is certainly not worth the risk of losing a digit. Looking forward to following along with the next steps when the time comes...take care and get some rest.

[smj]

skipmaster1 said:

awesome. I am following along. I may head to the lumber ard this week and see if i find something that looks promising

skip - I am absolutely positive that we can get you through the tillering part of this! By all means - go pick up a board! Just make sure you get a clear board with straight grain. Would you be putting a bamboo backing on it as well?

[Greg Krause]

smj said:

skipmaster1 said:

awesome. I am following along. I may head to the lumber ard this week and see if i find something that looks promising

skip - I am absolutely positive that we can get you through the tillering part of this! By all means - go pick up a board! Just make sure you get a clear board with straight grain. Would you be putting a bamboo backing on it as well?

I was at home depot yesterday and I did find a few pieces of red oak that were 1x2 and straight grain, with no run offs for at least the first 7'. I almost bought some. would that be a good choice? I am headed back there this week.......I can pick it up.

[BT]

smj said:

Hi all - I have been way sick the last week. The kids came home with croup from school - and of course I got it. !

Funny....after you said this , I have found a half dozen people that are down with the same symptoms
Flu? .... whatever....seems to be going around

Glad your feeling better buddy

[smj]

Croup is what the kids brought home, thats what the doctor calls it anyway. I had the flu shot, didn't help with this. My oldest daughter kept swimming right on through being sick. My youngest daughter ended up home for 3 days... Being an old man, this about killed me! I can only take so many days with a high temp! I don't think the eldest daughter ever got the fever like we did... She is going to State for swimming next weekend, so, I think she did well!

Skip - red oak should make a fine first bow. I will do a red oak bow as a part of this as well. Should be a lot of fun! The way I feel tonight, we will start tomorrow.