# Walnut and Wenge Recurve bow



## Chemeleon (Sep 23, 2013)

I promised Mike1950 I'd post pictures once I had this done. The walnut is from him, the wenge I ordered from Exotic Lumber, Inc. The little inlaid icon I made on my CNC router, but everything else is cut and shaped by hand. Draws 40# @ 28". I've not yet clocked it to see how fast it fires, but draws and shoots smooth :)

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## Kevin (Sep 23, 2013)

That's superb craftsmanship. Gorgeous!


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## kazuma78 (Sep 23, 2013)

Thats incredible! Do you sell them? My recurve recently broke and im on the lookout for a new one :(


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## Chemeleon (Sep 23, 2013)

I don't plan to turn it into a business or anything, but if someone wants to buy one or two I'm certainly willing to consider it, they're fun to make :). This one's actually going to a friend over in the Netherlands, last one went to another guy I know up in Canada. Hmm...does that make me an international arms dealer yet? :)

They're actually fairly straightforward to build. The main thing is just that you *have* to have a drum sander or wide belt in order to get the laminations that make up the limbs flat enough. It takes just a few thousandths of an inch of variation to throw things out of whack. My very first set last year I tried just resawing the strips on the table saw, looked fine to the naked eye, but as soon as I strung it the limbs twisted badly.


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## kazuma78 (Sep 23, 2013)

Chemeleon said:


> I don't plan to turn it into a business or anything, but if someone wants to buy one or two I'm certainly willing to consider it, they're fun to make :). This one's actually going to a friend over in the Netherlands, last one went to another guy I know up in Canada. Hmm...does that make me an international arms dealer yet? :)
> 
> They're actually fairly straightforward to build. The main thing is just that you *have* to have a drum sander or wide belt in order to get the laminations that make up the limbs flat enough. It takes just a few thousandths of an inch of variation to throw things out of whack. My very first set last year I tried just resawing the strips on the table saw, looked fine to the naked eye, but as soon as I strung it the limbs twisted badly.



I dont have the equipment to make one myself and im getting married in December and then Lynne is moving in with me at Fort Bliss so after being away from her for about a year I will probably be spending most of my time with her so I wont have the time to make one anyways. 

If you would consider selling one or trading for one I would be interested though. Can you make them close to a specific draw weight and length?


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## Chemeleon (Sep 23, 2013)

kazuma78 said:


> If you would consider selling one or trading for one I would be interested though. Can you make them close to a specific draw weight and length?



I've had pretty good luck with that so far; the ones I've built (this included) have all been 68" bows, but no reason I couldn't go shorter if wanted. This one I was aiming for 40# @ 28", and it measured at 40# and 5oz :). The past couple, I came within a couple pounds of what I was aiming for - could have reduced them to be closer by sanding things narrower but wasn't needed. I find it a bit interesting its even possible to target a weight so closely like that, because its somewhere around 0.001" of thickness change per pound of draw.

Being takedown bows with a fairly chunky riser, they're a little on the heavy side, 3-3.5 pounds from what I recall, though I've not weighed this latest one. With that said though, the weight doesn't bother me in the least when shooting, and I think that extra mass helps smooth the firing out a fair bit. These have all been completely still in my hand, whereas some old lightweight fiberglass bows I have around really want to jump when the arrow leaves them.


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## Mike1950 (Sep 23, 2013)

Very Very nice- you made very good use of that wood.


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## kazuma78 (Sep 23, 2013)

Thats really cool that you kind of have it dialed in. The Recurve I used to use was 50# but I would love to have another one somewhere between 50 and 55#. It was a 62" bow and my draw length is 29". Mine was an old bear tigercat. I really loved it. It wasnt a takedown but my uncle had a takedown and loves it. Makes it alot more portable. The weight of my bear is about 2.5 pounds so the weight of yours isnt much off. I like the feel of something sturdy. Something that will last. If you might be interested in making a bow for me please PM me. I would love it!


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## Foot Patrol (Sep 23, 2013)

Puts my wheelie bow to shame. LOL!!!! Great looker for sure.

Bowhunting with a traditional is a goal of mine this year. I am gonna keep my eye on you.


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## barry richardson (Sep 23, 2013)

Man that's nice! I don't bow hunt but I would have one like that leaning up in the corner just because it's a work of art!


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## JonLanier (Sep 23, 2013)

That is some serious craftsmanship!!! 

I like to tell those that hunt with guns, "Your cheating." LOL


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## Treecycle Hardwoods (Sep 24, 2013)

Awesome work on the bow!! If you were to sell one how much would it go for?


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## Chemeleon (Sep 24, 2013)

Not counting the wood (since that can vary so significantly) the material cost for building one is around $150ish, and its probably in the 15-20 hours of labor range. So probably, at least $350 and up depending on wood and how much I feel like making a bow at that time :). I know custom ones from other bow companies online look to run around $800 and up, though personally I think thats a bit too pricey.


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## TMAC (Sep 24, 2013)

That is true craftsmanship. That would be a great tutorial if you would be willing.
Tim


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## Treecycle Hardwoods (Sep 24, 2013)

TMAC said:


> That is true craftsmanship. That would be a great tutorial if you would be willing.
> Tim



+1 to that


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## Chemeleon (Sep 24, 2013)

Treecycle Hardwoods said:


> TMAC said:
> 
> 
> > That is true craftsmanship. That would be a great tutorial if you would be willing.
> ...



To be honest, they really arent that difficult, but I'll run through my general steps :)

Unless you're using a single solid piece of wood, glue up your blank, I like to do one large curve with two stripes of stringing like in this one. You want to orient the wood so the faces are to the sides. While I dont expect a riser of this size to flex any really, that just reduces the chance of a weak growth ring popping off.

Clean up the glued up blank. I've been doing 2" thick limbs, so need a 2" thick blank, but you can get narrower fiberglass if you want, the limbs just have to be slightly thicker to account for it.

Draw out your side profile for the riser on the blank. I then hog out most of the sight window with a dado stack while the blank is still square and easy to hold against a miter gauge. After that, take it to the bandsaw and cut out the profile. For the flat surfaces the limbs mount to, I just bandsaw close to the line, then sand flat on the edge sander, but you could be more precise and cut on the table saw with a miter gauge if you wanted.

The actual shaping of all the curves and whatnot, I use a Kutzall fine carbide disc on an angle grinder, http://www.kutzall.com/kutzall_products_categories.cfm?category_ID=13 . They're not real cheap, but they're *great* for rapidly hogging away material in applications like this while still maintaining control. Finally, I shape the arrow shelf by hand with a sharp chisel to give it a curve rather than leaving it flat. After that, I just sand things a lot with the ROS working up to around 220 grit.

Last step for the riser, other than finish, is to drill the holes for the limb hardware. I use a kit from Bingham Projects, simply because when I priced things out, it cost the same or less than buying the knob, etc separately. I strongly recommend using a self centering drilling jig for this, as it makes it a *lot* easier to ensure the holes are in a nice straight line, and thus that the limb stays straight.

All that's left then for the riser is the finish and sticking on the little fake fur patch for the arrow shelf


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## Chemeleon (Sep 24, 2013)

I've found for limb weights, the chart bingham has has been fairly accurate for me so far: http://www.binghamprojects.com/Bow%20Draw%20Weight%20Chart.pdf Following that usually gets me within a couple pounds of what I'm aiming for, but I cant guarantee that'll be true for everyone, maybe I'm just lucky.

Anyway, you're going to want two pieces of fiberglass from bingham, I've been using their ULS Bo-Tuff fiberglass. I use a piece of black for the back of the limb, and clear for the front, that'll make up 0.083" of your total limb thickness. The remainder I split between a strip of hickory, and the deco layer. For these two, you *have* to have a drum or wide belt sander, as their thickness has to be very uniform, or your limb will either twist or not bend evenly.

I start by gluing up whatever pattern I want for the deco layer, then resaw strips a little heavier than half the remaining limb thickness. I then take it to the wide belt, and sand everything good and flat until it starts getting quite flexible. I then resaw and sand a piece of hickory to make up the remaining amount of limb thickness I need. Why hickory? Just because its a traditional bow wood, and I have a bunch of it, I suspect quite a few others would work fine too.

The last part you need to make for the limb, are the edges, these go inbetween the hickory and deco layers at the riser end of the limb. They're roughly 10" long, 1/4" thick tapering to 0" thick for these 68" bows I've been building, you might need to shorten them slightly if you go much shorter on the bow. I just plane a piece of wood to a little over 1/2" thick, and cut it on the bandsaw on the diagonal. Then I flip the pieces back to back so the cut sides are out, and use double sided tape to hold them together forming a rectangle. This way I can feed it through the sander a few times, and clean up that bandsawn side and get two wedges that are pretty much a perfect match.

Now for the glueup...

I use Smooth-On epoxy since it seems to be what nearly everyone recommends. Some people say you should put the limb in a hotbox after things have been clamped for awhile, but it doesn't seem to be required, and after I nearly burned my shop down doing so, I decided it wasn't something I cared about :).

The important thing, is you have to get things clamped very evenly, even a little bubble or gap could result in a useless limb. When I first started, I came across the suggestion of making a two sided form, and then using a piece of firemans hose inflated with an air compressor to provide the clamping force. I asked the local fire dept, and they gave me a good sized chunk of hose (about 3-3.5" diameter I think) for free that they were throwing out. Some rubber cement, metal band clamps, and pvc end fittings cap the ends of it, and I stuck an air fitting in one end to inflate it from.

So with your "clamp" made, you need to cutout a plywood form, 3 sheets of 3/4" ply work well, use the first as a template to route the others and be sure the faces are kept flat and square when assembling.

On the outside faces of the fiberglass, put a piece of wide masking tape on - it keeps epoxy from sticking, and lets you mark things out easily later. Put a piece of plastic wrap in your form, then the black fiberglass, coat with epoxy, hickory, epoxy, wedge, epoxy, deco, epoxy, clear fiberglass. Fold the plastic wrap over, and then using more masking tape, wrap things around at either end, and a few spots along the middle. I lost one limb glueup because after I walked away, the layers slide slightly, the masking tape helps keep that from happening. 

Then lay your fire hose on top, put the second form piece in place, and bolt it together. I just use some metal strapping and allthread run through the sides of the form to hold it together. You want an inch and a half or so gap for the air hose to fill. Once everything is secure, inflate the hose to 40-50 psi and let it sit. Four hours is "probably" enough, but I leave it overnight just to be safe.

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After you remove the limbs, look them over, make sure things look good, no twist or the like, then mark the taper you'll be cutting. It should start just a hair beyond where the riser would end on them, and taper to about 7/8" wide at the end. Cut slightly outside your line on a bandsaw, then use an edge sander to clean it up so you have a nice straight line for either side. A little hand sanding to break the edges of the fiberglass is good too, that stuff gets sharp. 

Now like you did for the riser, mark and drill the holes. Drill from the back, as if you drill from the front, your holes will be at a slightly different angle than the ones on the riser, makes it harder to assemble.

For the tips of my limbs, I like using buffalo horn - it takes a nice shine, and can be bought on ebay as knife scales cheap. Scuff the final 2" of the limb and the mating side of the buffalo horn, and then epoxy on a 2" piece of buffalo horn and clamp it tight. You'll probably be forcing out a slight bit of curve at the tip, so be sure you have a good strong clamp.

After that's cured, cut/sand it to your shape, and then use a 1/4" rattail rasp to cut the string groove. I go across the front of it first, then the two sides at roughly a 30-45 degree angle from it, trying to keep the sides positioned the sane. Just keep working it until you get a nice curve to the groove.

Finally, wipe 2 or 3 coats of finish on the limbs (protects but more importantly, seals things so it cant give you fiberglass splinters) and then assemble the bow :)


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## Chemeleon (Sep 24, 2013)

Well, that ended up being a lot longer than I expected :) Feel free to ask any questions if something isn't clear though.


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