I just finished my bamboo back and belly ASL. This is my 3rd attempt to make this bow. I poured over this site and others, along with many print resources to familiarize myself with features and construction. The bamboo is from cane I had gotten from the hardware store, laminations are paired tapers of bamboo plywood, and a center continuous lamination of ipe that is tapered. Ash wedges are in both tips. Bubinga is the riser. The bow finishes out 66" and 39@28". At this point there are about 150ish arrows through it and limbs are holding a 2" backset. I plan to make another attempt to improve upon what I have. For one I need to score some better quality bamboo. The center lam with a taper is not needed,just my 2 pairs of bamboo should have taper. My limbs as is are wider than usual for this type of bow. Tempering is getting better as I become more familiar with the material. This type of construction is prone to taking on set. My form has about an 1.25" backset built in.

That look real nice! did your limbs take any extra set?

Sorry, should have read the text more carefully. Still looks nice!

Looks like you did a very nice job

That's a good looking bow. However that isn't backset, that's string follow/or set. Backset would have the limbs bending away from the belly.

Waht kind of bamboo are you using, and how wide is the bow?

Nice job. I knew what you meant. Reflex,deflex, set,and backset are often turned around. That is a good looking bow and I am sure you are getting it all worked out. I like that you got the bamboo nodes centered too. >>>----> Ken

Nice! I love a bamboo back and bellied bow.

Thanks for the comments all. I am unsure of the species of bamboo, my form has backset built in, the limbs took set that is more than an ASL string follow. Since I had so much thickness taper my limbs are 1.25" wide and narrow down to 1/2". I had targeted 1.125 limb width. One challenge is the nodes interfere with a graceful bend in the limb. Previous attempts revealed it was not a good idea to get too fine on the tiller,perfect being the end of the good.

Are you able to make the limbs a little wider? Will your material allow that?

It's REALLY difficult to build a 66" bow drawing 28" with limbs that narrow and not get set.Especially when you don't have any glass, or sinew or something similar on it.

Bows like this are fun to make and challenging but the truth is much better belly materials are available and they are much easier to work with.

Neat bow!

Yes the nodes are much stiffer. I make every effort to reduce the thickness under the node.

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