Finally somethine worth posting - two bows completed!
Well, these two bows were a bit of a learning experience. I decided to take a break from straight up board bows to try my hand at some bamboo backed bows. These are made from pre-tapered blanks and strips of bamboo that I purchased from David Knight. I decided to try pre-tapered blanks just so I could look them over and see how he gets them down to shape. I was thinking the same thing for the bamboo. Now that I've seen how it's done I'll get my hands on some raw ipe and raw bamboo which I'll then get all cut and planned down to size and start on some more of these. Both bows came in a little underweight, mainly because I had to refinish them no less than two times before I was able to apply an acceptable finish. The subsequent scraping and sanding I'm sure contributed to a loss of weight. That and the shooting in of both probably relaxed them a little bit as well. I tried finishing them first with spar urethane which wouldn't dry on the Ipe which wasn't sealed with anything. Next I tried lacquer using a sanding sealer and a brush on and then spray on lacquer. That yielded a terrible finish. Constant problems with either runs and drips or when using the spray, orange peel and sags. So, I finally stripped everything off, applied some no-wax shellac and then followed up with 5 coats of wiped on oil finish. The oil finish is an ultra-low VOC finish called Bioshield Hard Oil #9. This oil is composed of linseed oil, tung oil, and castor oil along with some other miscellaneous stuff. It has almost no odor and wipes on easily and yields a really nice gloss sheen. Once this has cured a few days I'll follow up with another Bioshield product which is a natural wax that can be buffed to a nice shine.
The first mumtaz new (Winter Solstice) bow. It is 64" NTN, 25# at 26". Ipe core with bamboo backing and a hickory power lam. The handle is maple, wenge, and paduak with the same combo repeated on the tip overlays.
Unstrung profile
Handle
Handle detail - love the swirly grain on the paduak (the orange colored wood)
Tip overlay
Full draw
The second bow is my bow. It is 64" NTN, 35# at 29" (I was hoping for 40#). Ipe core with bamboo backing. Handle is bloodwood, wenge, and cherry with the same combo repeated on the tip overlays.
Handle - the cherry has some lovely rays in it but they're hard to see in these photos
Handle detail - these photos don't do the bloodwood justice - it looks amazing!
Tip overlay
Full draw
Other than coming out underweight, I'd have to say for once I'm actually fairly pleased with myself about the end result. I know now that the next ones I make will be even better. My next three bows are going to closely resemble the bows on this page: http://www.salukibow.com/15.html