Walnut and Wenge Recurve bow

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Chemeleon

Administrator
Matt
Finished this one up this past weekend, it'll ship out to a friend over in the Netherlands once I get the case for it built. Curly English Walnut and Wenge wasn't a wood choice I'd have picked my, but it turned out to be a great mix. Draws about 40# @ 28".

Riser profile was cut on the bandsaw than the shape roughed out with one of those Kutzall carbide grinder discs (great for freehand hogging out wood) followed by a lot of sanders. The icon on the side was done with the cnc - I'm not good enough at hand cutting inlay, and that sort of thing is why I built it :).

bow3_done1.jpg bow3_done2.jpg bow3_done3.jpg bow3_done4.jpg bow3_done5.jpg
 

Rob

New User
Rob
That is beautiful. It looks like the limbs are separate? Held on by the knobs in front? How do you control the draw poundage? Do you give classes. I shoot a compound bow and it would be awesome to be able to build my own bow.
 

Steve_Honeycutt

Chat Administartor
Steve
Matt,

You have been missed. Oh, the bow looks great. I'm not sure I would take this to the woods. It sounds like you have the CNC well tuned to do such a detailed inlay. Did you reinforce the limbs with fiberglass?

Steve H.
 

Chemeleon

Administrator
Matt
Thanks Steve - I've been lurking, just been a busy summer and kept forgetting about the chats. I wouldn't say the CNC is well tuned, as it does have a little slop, mostly due to being MDF based, but its within acceptable parameters for now. Of course, I have plans to build one or two better ones in the future :)

The limbs have black fiberglass on the back, clear on the front, and attach with a combination of one through bolt/knob, and one alignment peg. Mostly that's for transport purposes (these are fairly large bows) but it has the nice side benefit that if I mess up a limb while building, I'm only out that one limb, not an entire bow. Draw poundage is controlled by the limb thickness when you build it, I've found http://www.binghamprojects.com/Bow%20Draw%20Weight%20Chart.pdf to be fairly accurate for figuring out what thickness I need.

I've not really considered classes - given how much time I spend waiting on epoxy, I'm not sure it'd be a real practical thing to teach as a class. Its mostly a couple hours work, then wait a day for epoxy to cure, repeat a few times, then waiting for finish to cure. Its really not that hard to do though, I basically just looked at pictures of a bunch of existing bows, and drew up templates for something that looked similar to them. I get the fiberglass and epoxy and whatnot from www.binghamprojects.com. They also sell kits and plans and whatnot, but imo its not really needed. The important thing, is you *have* to have a drum or wide belt sander to make your limb laminations, it takes a very very small variation in thickness side to side to cause the limb to twist. There are also several archery forums with lots of bow building threads such as http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=125
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Very nice contrast in the choice of wood. It certainly looks like a lot of work to refine to such a degree.
 

Rob

New User
Rob
I'm a bow hunter and shoot a compound bow. This is so beautiful and I love shooting bow, that I want to put it on my to do list. Unfortunately my to do list is long.
 

CaptnA

Andy
Corporate Member
very nice looking bow! I started off shooting my dad's long bow, moved to a recurve, then a compound. Now I find myself wanting to go more simple again.
 

merrill77

Master Scrap Maker
Chris
Man, my kids would be happy if I'd make them a real bow. Looking at that beauty makes me want to do it (and keep it for myself!).
 

Gofor

Mark
Corporate Member
Beautiful craftsmanship. My dad made my brother and me a couple longbows back in the late '50s, one of lemon wood and the other purple heart, both laminated with "panther glass". About 30lb pull. Must admit, those were a far cry from this work of art. Shooting compounds now, but may consider traditional in the future.

Go
 
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