I'm doing my first cinew/ rawhide backed juniper. I'm using hide glue. I always kinda figured titebond was too brittle. It's ostrich tendons I'm using.

seen some amazing things from PMF, "poor man's fiberglass" using just wood glue and layers of cloth.

Don't use poplar man, that bow stacked up on him (its a very light wood so it has no strength in compression). Use a real dense wood and back it with something like the fiberglass or sinew.

@@kramerammonsarchery I went to Menards tonight and managed to find a nice piece of maple with the grain running pretty much straight through the long way parallel to the margins. Also picked up the glue you recommended and the fiberglass drywall tape. hope to start next weekend.

Kramer Ammons I noticed on my bow I actually made a mistake, but it hasn’t created any issues yet. I cut string nocks on not only the sides of the tips, but along the back of the bow too. If i cut them too deep along the back, I could have cut completely through the growth ring. Now I know, this is why bowyers make tip overlays - so they can have string grooves along the back of the bow, without cutting into the growth ring, but into the overlay instead.

Kramer Ammons you’re welcome! I make tutorials about this sort of stuff so I can appreciate how much effort you put into it! Keep up the awesome work!

Kramer Ammons , didn’t think you would be watching something this old. There is something else you can delve into. Look up the chart of bimetal materials, you will find that temp has the least affect on carbon fiber and most on fir, so if you put those two together the bow would change significantly with temp change.

@@kramerammonsarchery yep about fiberglass drywall tape, you might get prettier results easier going "poor man's fiberglass", is strips of cloth instead of the drywall tape, same TiteBond type 2 or 3 applied with a squeegee paddle. built up 5-6 thin layers it starts getting really strong, may even add some draw weight without adding a bunch of real weight. laid smooth will be easier to fill and sand smooth for painting, or do the top layer of cloth with a color or camo design. another idea not done much now, a paper canoe. if you can borrow one a couple weeks, invert on saw horses, plastic wrap layers bottom up (like shingles) with thin coat vegetable oil to keep the original canoe/mold clean, it gets layered up 1/4" thick with newspaper and wood glue. after its set and popped loose, add the gunwales, corner blocks, seats and cross brace(s) with wood. so simple a child can do it, after 1/8" built up, some sanding, after 1/4" built up sand again and use couple layers cloth for the harder skin. it just might be possible to build a recurve bow limb the same way, 5-6 layers of newspaper, a layer of cloth, then 4-5 layers newspaper, a layer of cloth, then 3-4 layers newspaper a layer of cloth... then 2-3 of paper then cloth... as it builds up to the backing its getting more cloth, then finish with 3-4 layers of cloth as its back. now... imagine taking a 56-58" long 2x12 cutting the bow shape, a positive and negative of the curve, glue some inner tube to its faces, and using many furniture clamps for the lamination process to give it some compression. it'd take experimenting (do I start with 8-9 layers of paper first?) to come up with different approximate draw weights, cutting+clamping in the wood center handle+brace section being the "easy" part when it's strung to 2/3 or 3/4 of its strung curve, so it's not trying to suicide itself when its unstrung. the wood glue loses most of its weight when it dries, it wouldn't be horribly heavy when finished. edit: if the draw weight were wimpy starting with 5-6 layers paper, sand the belly smooth and start adding to the belly, like 6-7 layers paper then layer of cloth, then go 7-8... working it like that can make it pretty "correctable" at whim, could be a real bonus if this process is viable/doable.

@@kramerammonsarchery Diamondback rattlesnake.

Thanks for your answer Kramer. You had a fair influence on me! I am now completing my fourth bow and I do understand the utmost importance of tillering amd TAKING OUR TIME. All the credit goes to you and your passion for bows. THANKS A LOT! (M.G.,Quebec, Canada)

I'm doing my first bow and it's black locust..... I don't want it to break on tillering hahaha

How would you stick that to wood? And then why not just make a PVC pipe bow?

Kramer Ammons no problem. i bet you could make one judging from your knowledge. everything would come together and aid you in such an endeavor

Kramer Ammons ill be rootin you on brotha!

They make limbs entirely of carbon fiber, they are typically minimal deflection. It will work but it’s going to add a lot of draw weight to your bow, and if it’s too thick it’s could cause issues on the belly (extra compression). Unless it’s paper thin I’d avoid it, that is unless you have a large supply and want to experiment. You might be able to make a very thin limbed wood bow with it and that could be something unique. If it’s thicker than 1/16 I’d choose a good wood for belly compression and play around with it as an experiment, it would be more a hybrid limb at that point since you would be getting soo much of the draw weight from the fiber it wouldn’t really be “backing”.

Carbon fiber doesn’t like to stretch much, so I’d also go with a longer bow to minimize your issues, more length makes stiffer limbs less of an issue. Hope this helps.

Jonathan Wilfred Michelin an Osage board bow? I don't think that will work without backing unless you are very lucky and get straight grained osage boards. But otherwise, having really narrow limbs is a good thing. most of my bows have extremely narrow limbs that make up for that by getting thicker at the tips to maximize speed. I usually wrap sinew or cut a notch and then glue on wrapped flax fiber soaked in wood glue to make a nock that allows the string to sit without slipping off. or you can custom make the loops to be the exact right size so they don't slip down the bow.

If it’s your neighbor’s sofa you should.

Yep

I had this idea a bit ago. Haven’t tried it because I can’t find the non preglued, but if you’ve tried it let me know

I've thought about this as well. Did you ever try it? thanks

the drywall tape, or cloth (poor man's fiberglass) gets pretty darn HARD when locked up with the wood glue, so its not really a "softer" material when its done.

Hey, I am guessing that maybe not all regions are the same? I can get bamboo in many areas where I live. I just have to look for it.

Try Home Depot etc.. Have a look in the gardening section for a bamboo pole or a set of bamboo blinds in the curtain section.

@@modelnutty6503 okay, thank you for your answer!!

@@stegmonjurvinweirdt1834 I live in the netherlands, bamboo unfortunately is not really common here...

Depends on the amount of time $700-$1000 for a custom bow. By the time you add materials , labour cost , warranties , admin time , medical , holiday pay etc... Most would most likely earn more in a trade as plumber , carpenter , electrician etc... There is a reason why Chinese bows are cheap AVG wage is around $100 a week and the work week is way longer than 38hours.

What did you expect from a video teaching us about bow backings?