[b0w_bender]

I've had this idea rattling around in my head for a long time and so finally after sketching it out I went and bought some Russian plywood and got started. Yes this is made out of a very high lamination count birch plywood. I didn't count them but I'm guessing there is somewhere between 30 and 50 laminations in this bow. I think it will hold up but if it doesn't I'll always wish it had It's still in pretty rough shape I still have another 50 hours of sanding and finishing before it's ready for the show room. I wanted to make sure it didn't blow up before I put all those hours into the final finishing. You can see from the drawing that initially I wanted a shoot through riser but in wood the outer part would have been too thin so I abandoned that idea. Being a finger shooter I wanted a bow that was extra-long. I had these Martin elite limbs which were perfect for what I was looking for. In the final iteration I'm planning on cabling it with the Martin X-system which uses the shoot through cables. I think that will minimize the torque on the limbs and save me from having to add an ugly cable guard.

Here are the specs of the bow so far. After finishing and new cables these may change a bit
Axle to Axle = 46.5"
Draw weight = 50 Lbs Max
Brace Height = 7"
Total Weight = 5 lbs
I’ll make this my indoor bow or heck who knows perhaps I'll just toss it on the wall and look at it.

I would love to hear what color you guys think I should stain it. I'm thinking a bright color like Purple or Green or orange something like that. Art Nouveau typically used bright colors so that would be in keeping with the period. Anyway let me know what you think. Oh and I'll be posting a bunch more pictures.

 

[b0w_bender]

I used a whole bunch of different tools to cut it out mostly a band saw and my Shopsmith. I used the Shopsmith with a router bit to do most of the cut outs and I also used a Rotozip bit to clean it up a bit. Now the fun begins where I spend the rest of my life trying to get it all smoothed out with sandpaper. Oh and then I'll need to apply some sort of finish. Oh and yes I used every single clamp I had in the shop to glue it up.

 

[b0w_bender]

Here are the posts from the previous thread, in order, Thanks to all for their kind words…

Amazing

Wow!

It all starts with an idea! It looks like you've done a great job, hope it shoots as well as it looks.

That's pretty damn cool :thumbs_up I agree not to hid the wood. In my eyes that would be a shame, BUT it is your project and it looks great so far.

That's awesome!! :thumbs_up Please post lots of pictures.

 

[b0w_bender]

Very nicely done! I like the red/orange color. I also like the fact you are using two pieces of wood, that is what I am doing with my take down riser I am building. What kind of wood are you using for this? I chose aspen for its ease of carving.

It is Russian birch plywood. It is very similar to Apple-ply. It came in a 5 foot by 5 foot sheet. I bought it in 3/8" thickness because it was cheaper per sheet. $39.00 I then cut out 5 sheets and glued them all together for a final thickness of 1.75" I then added another layer in the middle to make up for the past center sight window. There are 7 laminations in the 3/8" sheet. That is a total of 42 laminations.

 

[b0w_bender]

Once again thanks for the kind words…

Simply amazing

That is a thing of beauty!!!:thumbs_up

Awesome!

WOW,That is cool.

very cool, but don't let Hoyt see it or they'll be coming after you for infringing on a CM design or some such rubbish.

That's sweet!I think a light stain and clear coat would show all the detail better than the bright colors.Very nice work sir.

Id say the same as ^^^. I like the look of the wood grain, make it a beutiful work of art. A light stain and clear coat would just look amazinnnggggg

that may just be the coolest bow I have ever seen , awesome, thats art!

 

[b0w_bender]

OK I have most of the sanding done. Of course every time I look at it I find another small section that needs more sanding but at some point I'll need to just start the finishing process. I've decided that despite the fact that as the wood yellows purple will tend to look more brown I'm going with the purple stain.

I realized that I hadn't posted any 3/4 views so here are some of those:

 

[b0w_bender]

Here is one of the steps I took to help me ensure both sides of the bow matched in the design. I drilled small pilot holes through the riser and that made it a lot easier to transfer the design to the other side.

 

[b0w_bender]

After messing around a bit with my photo editing software (GIMP 2.8) I found by messing around with the hue\saturation I could get some colorization going. Not sure but I kind of like the orange.

 

[b0w_bender]

Some more quotes from the previous thread, Thanks

Au Naturelle looks much nicer than the colors (which my daughter described as art nouveau Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Very, very cool design though. Looks like something from http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php

 

[b0w_bender]

Once again thanks for the kind words…

Simply amazing

That is a thing of beauty!!!:thumbs_up

Awesome!

WOW,That is cool.

very cool, but don't let Hoyt see it or they'll be coming after you for infringing on a CM design or some such rubbish.

That's sweet!I think a light stain and clear coat would show all the detail better than the bright colors.Very nice work sir.

Id say the same as ^^^. I like the look of the wood grain, make it a beutiful work of art. A light stain and clear coat would just look amazinnnggggg

that may just be the coolest bow I have ever seen , awesome, thats art!

 

[b0w_bender]

Here is the the Bow in it's current state. I went with the purple simply because I like purple. I have shot perhaps 2 dozen arrows out of it and it shoots great but there are some issues: Some how when I setup the jig to drill the stabilizer hole I got it off and now it points to the left slightly instead of straight out the front. It doesn't really affect the accuracy but it looks kinda stupid so at some point it'll probably get pissed me off enough to rip it our and re-drill it. Another problem is the site window. It should have been cut a little deeper the sight pins don't stick out far enough to suit my preferences so I may end up carving it deeper too. Lastly it's real hard to see the blemishes in the sanding when there isn't a finish on the bow. Now that I have it finished it's real easy to see where I should have worked a little harder on it. I sanded on it for nearly 2 weeks but it just isn't as good as I would like it.

Ah well perhaps next February when I'm real board I'll take it down again fix everything and re-finish it. We'll see...

 

[B.Hunter]

I'm speechless!
That is a beauty!!

 

[Veni Vidi Vici]

That is incredibly Bad A!!!!! Nice job!

I love that you went with a shoot through system. No cable guide rod to screw up the looks

 

[oldschoolcj5]

looks great! I know you found a few things you would like to do better, but that is one NICE bow

 

[aread]

That's a beautiful bow!!!

With modern CNC, there is no reason that couldn't be a production bow. It would probably sell, at least in a limited run.

Great job!!

Allen

 

[b0w_bender]

Here is a picture of me shooting the bow. The bad news is that much as I had expected at the onset of the project plywood is not a very good building material for bow handles. :mg: I'm starting to see separation in the plywood just above the handle. Basically at the bottom of the site window. I think the plunger insert is what is holding it together. The failure is that in plywood you have 90 degree grain every other lamination and it just doesn't hold up to the vibration and flex. So although it looks really cool, I now have a very labor intensive paper weight. Well the good news is that I now have a pretty good idea of the dimensions and angles required should I decide to rebuild it with hardwood and all vertical laminations. I got about 100 arrows through it before it failed. I had hoped that it being only 45 pounds and the arrows being 500 grains that the stress would be limited enough but alas it was not to be.

Ironically in this 6 arrow end I actually hit and broke 2 nocks so it was shooting great right up until the failure.

 

[BigShow]

Beautiful work.

 

[mdodraw29]

That sucks, so much work and the bow came out nicer than anything I've seen out or a factory.

 

[Martin Archery]

That sucks, so much work and the bow came out nicer than anything I've seen out or a factory.

Except maybe the 2006 Rytera (Martin) Triad :embara: