This is a continuation of the thread "Ready to glue up White Birch"

These are some of the pieces going into the glue up.

Those pieces glued up and in the press

I started using this method of glue up about 35 years ago.I find it an inexpensive way to make a form for an experimental bow and than for many more bows.

This form has been used for well over 100 bows.

The oven is very simple but efficient. It also stores in small spaces.

There are many ideas but I keep it at 155 to 160 for 6 hours.

Do your poultry at 180.

And remember this.

Will continue this. - - Marc

Thanks for the update. Very interested in the final results.

Thank you for posting.

Looks like an awesome bow. I love the woods and by the looks of that form it will be a sweet, smooth shooter!

Keep going Marc ,, Minds all 3 what’s that ??

Just had a question about the clamping. The cross straps are made of angle iron and under those is a strip of cold rolled steel and under that is a strip of 1/4 rubber which lies on all surfaces that are being glued.

The sign is at my work bench. It has nothing to do with the project. - - Marc

ps. I wax the form, the rubber strips, and the steel straps with car wax - makes for easy disassembly. - - Marc

Is the oven just the tarp over the form?

MP

I like your style. Can’t wait to see the finished product.

Well this is an informative thread for sure. Saved to favorites. John

To answer the oven question. I use a 4 ft electric baseboard heater that has a temp control on it. I put that between 2 cement blocks and set the form on the blocks. This I cover with the tarp (I use 2) and as you see in the picture I close the ends leaving a small opening at the bottom at one end and at the top at the other end. Some warm air escaping draws in air at the other end and lets this whole thing breath but it will hold a constant temp. The heater cycles about 4 deg. I do lay the tarps on the form but that still gives an airspace around the bow itself. - - Marc

That sure is striking! I am enjoying it. Jawge

Marc, I like your press form, with those bolts , I think it would keep better tension on glue joints, better than rubber bands and no air pressure in fire hose. Looking forward to finish.

Cool :-) JF

That is going to be fantastic! I believe I have the right environment for it.

Scott, The trouble is, if you ever laid it down in that environment you would never find it again, think I'll keep it.

It has been cold here in Pa I can't imagine what Wisconsin was like the last few days. - - Marc

Today it came off the form and I was able to get it cleaned up and limbs cut.

I cut the sight window out before glue up and also the grip profile so at this time it only requires clean up.

I'm always glad to see all the accent lines showing and all glue lines are nice and tight.

That is beautiful Marc, thanks for this thread.

The splice was glued up, cut, and ground into.025 veneers.

Next will be overlay and tips glued on than carving and tiller.

more coming later. - - Marc

Very nice..

Nice

In the above post after ".025 veneers" I should have added "before glue up". - - Marc

That’s a sharp bow!

Beautiful

That is going to be spectacular.

That is a stunning bow. I would love to have it just as it is. >>>>------> ken

Man that’s going to be a sweet rig. Nicely done.

Very Nice

That looks fantastic but what about "Marc of the PAW" lol. Thanks Marc, those are words of wisdom. Steve

Nice. I like the symmetric flair in the riser and the limb splices.

Slick!

adding the splice to the limb is nice. All WB would have been too much

Gets better every day !

The bow was strong for the first time today and with the tiller close but much to do with the shaping we did shoot it. When I say we I mean a few of the fellows in a group called Penn Archery Works Bowyers Guild. During the winter months we get together each Saturday and build bows and work on archery equipment. Today there were 7 fellows with 3 working on bows, 2 doing arrows, the others doing laminations and helping others.

This picture is some of the fellows looking over the subject bow after it was shot.

By the way, the fellow on the left is holding the first bow that he ever built which he finished today and also shoot.

The next time I have pictures will be of the finished bow and I don't know when that will be.

But I will be back. - - Marc

If you have never seen this guy's bows first hand, the photos don't do them justice.

I was wrong, this isn't the finished bow

Just a few pictures to let you see the progress.

Filing, sanding, checking, looking, - filing, sanding, checking, looking.

Marc

Ooo-Wee on the bow.

Penn Archery Works Bowyers Guild, sounds like a great bunch of folks. Congratulations to the fellow with his first bow build.

absolute beauty!

And I’ll add a “wow oh wow” Lance

NICE!!!!!!!!!

Stunning!! Nice work.

How about sharing the source of the Birch.

Jim, The White Birch is a man made product and is available as riser material from Kustom King Traditional Archery. - - Marc

Really a great looking bow,Whats the length and weight.

The length is 60" and the final weight is yet to be determined but I planed for 45# at 28". I still need to do the final tillering. - - Marc

Wow! That will be one beautiful bow. What a fascinating process and I like the pic of the group of you guys getting together and shooting/building bows. Sounds cool. What a way to spend the winter! Have a blessed evening.

fantastic looker for sure.

Marc I always liked your PAW bows. This one is beautiful! Thank you for sharing and posting photos.

beautiful bow and novel idea on the pressure clamps.

Be curious to know what the bow weighs. I'm assuming that impregnated birch is relatively heavy giving a solid and stable feel in the hand.

Great workmanship thanks for posting.

Great Build! Love the contrast and beautiful workmanship. What are you using for the black wood?

To answer the questions about wood and weight. The black wood is a product made by Cousineau Wood Products called DymaLux. The use of the man made Birch and the DymaLux does made the physical weight of the bow heavier. Deerfly did arouse my curiosity so I weighed the bow and it is 1.9 lbs. It does give a nice physical weight to the bow. - - Marc

Marc were you able to use the Dymalux for your splice wood in the limbs also? The bow is truly a work of art!

Marc, that is one heck of a beautiful bow! Thanks for posting this thread!

Marc, One more question and I'll leave you be (sorry you bow has impressed the he$$ out of me, lol). What woods did you use for your interior lams?

Koohool :-) JF

That is a sharp looking bow with those colors/shades.

This picture will help me answer the above questions. At the riser fade-out there are 10 lamination's. Starting at the bottom (on picture) is black glass. Next (#1) is Maple which I used so I could outline the black limb, (picture 2). #2 points to 3 accent strips which also act as speed strips. One of the white fades out at 1 1/2" after the riser fade out,another at 3" and the black at 4 1/2 from the riser fade out. #3 points to the compression side of the limb which consists of .030 carbon. 2 SpectraPly 2/1 tapers laid opposing each other, the veneer, and clear glass.

Hopefully that answers the question about interior lams.

The limb splice was made with face grain SpectraPly..

The limb with white maple outlining the black glass.

My tip style. - - Marc

Fantastic. Thanks for taking us along. That bow is beautiful from tip to tip.

WHOA, she's a dandy, can't wait to see the finish on it. John

Back up

Beautiful bow. Great job.

Pretty cool....

Beautiful as usual Marc. Can't wait to see it in person.

I have had questions about 1) Does the carbon embedded in the center of the limb help any? and 2) Why have two 2/1 tapers opposing each other, because that makes a parallel?

1) We know that carbon works best under tension. The design of this limb brings the carbon from the middle of the limb at the fade-out (where it is helping to transfer stresses to the riser) to within .015 of the glass at the tip. Lets see how this is done. #1 in the picture is a 2/1 taper lam and #2 points to a black and 2 white accent strips which are .022 each so they total .066. 1 1/2 inches from the riser the one white fades out, 3 inches the other white fades out and at 4 1/2 the black fades out so now the carbon is against the 2/1 taper lam and that lamination is reducing at .002 per inch so the carbon is moving toward the tension side of the limb to the tip. #3 points to the carbon at the riser.

2) Two 2/1 tapers opposing each other does make a parallel but if I only need let's say 32 inches of a 36 inch lam that means that I can slide those 2 lams one way 4 inches and they become thine or 4 inches the other way and they become thicker. That gives me the ability to easily adjust the limb thickness for the weight bow that I want. I do all my limb thickness at the fade-out.

For those who asked I hope that clears it up somewhat. If not ask again. - - Marc

I should add that tomorrow I will be taking pictures of the finished bow strung and drawn and give some of the details. - - Marc

Thanks for the build along and the eye candy, beautiful work. Thanks also for the limb design lesson, that type of information is hard to come by.

The finished bow. I said earlier that I would be tillering for 45#. I could do that with a full traping of the limb but I did just enough to outline the black glass with the maple.

The finish on the bow is Defthane Polyurethane clear satin.

I still don't know what the man made white Birch is but it does work and finish nice.

What the bow looks like unstrung.

Marc ... that bow is absolutely stunning. You're an exceptionally gifted craftsman.

That bow is SWEET!

And braced. I found it seems to like 7 3/8 brace height best.

And drawn hehere by Shawn, known on here as smj8322.

I guess I'll let this thread fade away now and have fun shooting the "Blair Alaskan"

Really cool bow! Chuck S

Looks good Marc, Hope to see it in person, some day, take care.

Beautiful Marc, as always.

Marc wouldn't take a picture of me at my 31" draw but the bow is smooth and fast.

Very Nice...

I love the satin finish. Great job once again. Thanks for sharing. John

This is very attractive and unique. Man, its Cool looking-like fresh snow and frozen peppermint schnapps. :)

Beautiful work. Thanks for sharing and God bless!

I had the privilege of shooting this bow and it's performance is equal to it's beauty.

I like it!

well isn't that a really nice bow. Very well done marc of PAW

ttt

To answer a question I received - - Marc

The top 4 are recurves, 5 is a R&D long bow, the bottom an ILF that I played around with. - - Marc

That’s a sweet looking bow.

WOW!! They are all great looking bows.

Beautiful looking bows Marc, was nice seeing you at ETAR. Take care, Jeff

Slick

That is a sweet looking bow like to own one like that!!!

My story and I'm sticking to it. - The bow in the above build along was to be mine but somewhere along the way I met a fellow who wanted it so I let it go and regretted it immediately. About 2 months ago my regret drove me two build a replacement except it ended up being 3. This is just to share the outcome.

Top - 60" Blair (low wrist) 45# @ 28"

Middle - 60" Blair (high wrist) 50# @ 28" This has double carbon with woven carbon.

Bottom - 15" ILF riser with 2 sets if limbs BlackMax recurve 43# @ 28" Long bow carbon and foam core 64" 49# @ 28" (PAW)

The splices to be a bit different.

No don't ask, thay are mine. - - Marc

Beautiful bows, outstanding work sir!

Your tempting me brother! Nice.

Nice LB

Congratulations, Marc , they look outstanding, still some decent days to shoot them, good luck, but stay warm.

That's wild 'wood' :-) nice work. JF

Exceptional and unique. Thanks for sharing

Once again thanks for this thread Marc ... the more I look at your bows the nicer they become

These bow wood combinations have to be among the best looking I have ever seen. Super job.

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