# Bow build for Josh (FINISHED!)



## Apex Predator (Apr 14, 2010)

I hope you folks aren't tired of build-a-longs.   I was posting this one on another site and thought I may as well paste it here as well, since I have lot's of friends over here.

She will be my Cumberland straight longbow model.  She will have an ebony riser with an osage canine accent.  Josh supplied the osage.  Here are the riser pieces laid out.







Notice my plexiglass template.  This is mainly used to lay out how I want my accents.

Next I find the grain on each piece so that I layout the riser for the most strength.  Notice how I draw lines on the cut end so that I can tell at a glance the grain is proper.  The grain is really hard to see in the ebony.  Then I cut each piece down to just over 1 1/2" wide.  I want them the same width when I start to laminate them together.  The thin piece will be used for accents behind the riser and on the tips.






I then cut my arch on the osage and sand it close to the line.






Then I trace the osage to the ebony and cut it outside the line.











Next is a lot of fitting until no light shines between the pieces.  Tomorrow you will see the next laminating step.


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## J.D. Squire (Apr 14, 2010)

Looking good and I never tire of build alongs. I actually look forward to them.


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## ngabowhunter (Apr 14, 2010)

Oops I did it again. That was my post above. J.D. Squire and I work together and he forgot to log out and I thought I was logged in. lol


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## Elbow (Apr 14, 2010)

*Looking good....*

Nice woods! Can't wait to see the finished product!
El


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## TNGIRL (Apr 14, 2010)

It is so interesting for our bowyers to do build-alongs for the rest of us!!!!! No other time can we understand more fully the hrs and patience it takes for you to craft a single bow. And for the end product to be the beautiful quality arra flinging machine you create is most wonderful!! Marty, I really like the ebony wood....it's so dark and this bow is planning on being great already. more please!!


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## C.J. Pearson (Apr 14, 2010)

Your Build Alongs are boring and put me to sleep!!

Just kidding Marty, Actually I love watching your work of art unfold. This looks like it is going to be a real beautiful combination of woods. Looking forward to following along.


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## threeleggedpigmy (Apr 14, 2010)

C.J. Pearson said:


> Your Build Alongs are boring and put me to sleep!!
> 
> Just kidding Marty, Actually I love watching your work of art unfold. This looks like it is going to be a real beautiful combination of woods. Looking forward to following along.



Marty, I am up here in Woodstock too.  If you need me to take care of your light work.
  Just kidding CJ.


Just like CJ said, I am looking forward to it also.


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## eman1885 (Apr 14, 2010)

that  wood combo is gonna be killer. what are your plans for the limbs?


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## Apex Predator (Apr 15, 2010)

The limbs will be figured cherry.

Here I am using my plexiglass template to see how the canine accent will look.






Off to the bandsaw!  I use this sander to take her to the line that I drew.











Glue lines look fabulous!






Now I use my riser to draw a line on the cut-out piece of ebony.  After the first test fitting I can see some high spots.  I mark them like this and take it to the sander again.  Lots of back and forth fitting and sanding here.






I have the pieces fitting well, so now I lay my template back on top to see how everything is gonna look.






Time for the second laminating stage for the riser!











150 degrees for four hours ought to do it!  Stay tuned!


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## RUTTNBUCK (Apr 15, 2010)

The build alongs are great!! Keep em up!!................Can't wait till I can watch mine come together!!


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## C.J. Pearson (Apr 15, 2010)

Man that is gonna be one pretty bow. I cannot wait to see it completed


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## Jake Allen (Apr 15, 2010)

The way you have those glue lines tight on both sides of the riser is nice.

I am thinking thru how I would attempt to bandsaw, and sand the wood with no draft. Well, you make it look easy.

That riser is going to have some good weight to it.
Looking forward to seeing it come to life!


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## jdrawdy (Apr 15, 2010)

Looks very nice.  Sure is gonna be nice when its finished.


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## F1Rocket (Apr 15, 2010)

I for one, will never tire of viewing an artist's work. Thank you for taking the time to share this, Marty.


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## Apex Predator (Apr 16, 2010)

This morning I started by sanding all the glue boogers off the sides of the riser.  Then I layed out the riser with my template again.











Now it's off to the bandsaw!






Then it's time to sand the fades.  I start with the belt attachment on my combo sander, since it has 50 grit paper, then move on the the spindle attachment for finer work.  The Rigid combo unit is the most used piece of equipment in my shop!  For $200 it's a must have for the serious hobbiest or amatuer bowyer.






Notice the piece it's attached to.  It's square to the sander and has an aluminum surface.  This backing piece allows me to get the end of the fades super thin.






A little hand sanding at the very ends, and it is ready for glue-up!  The riser will stay on this sanding block until ready to lay-up the bow.  This will protect the very fragile fade-out ends.


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## Al33 (Apr 16, 2010)

Man, I love your pictorials Marty!  No doubt that is going to be another awesome bow from your hands.


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## pine nut (Apr 16, 2010)

Yep, I agree with Al...another awsome bow and I like your pictorials too.  Your clever use of jigs an such shows how talented you are as a craftsman.  Beautiful work!


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## Apex Predator (Apr 17, 2010)

This morning it's time to start on prepping the lams.  Here they are all layed out.  The cherry is awesome!  It will darken and the grain will pop when under the glass.  I start by carefully measuring each lam at the fat end.  These are always very close to what I ordered, if not exactly.  I record all the data in my book for future reference.
















I then sand the ends of both lams together so that I can join them into one lam.  This is for all except the belly lam, which will stay in two pieces.











When I flip the top one over it should mate to the first one.


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## Apex Predator (Apr 17, 2010)

I've drawn lines on my bench to use as guides to make sure I glue them together parallel.






I use a quality CA gel and an accelerator to join them.











I want the joints as tight as possible for asthetics.  You could have a gap here, and it would work fine because they are normally right behind the thick part of your riser.  I like tight lines myself!






Next is sanding the edges of the lams to knock off the splinters.  These can get trapped between lams, or under the glass and will look horrible if not taken care of.


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## Bowana (Apr 18, 2010)

Looking good!


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## CallMaker (Apr 21, 2010)

Man, that's going to be one great looking bow.

Ed


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## Apex Predator (Apr 21, 2010)

I appreciate all the kind words!

My glass came yesterday, so this morning I am prepping everything for glue-up.  The belly lams have to be trimmed down some in length.  I tape the back side of the glass to keep off the smooth-on.  







Then it's time for a dry run.  I clean all the lams with acetone, and stack them on the form in proper order.  For this bow it will be glass, cherry, boo, boo, riser, cherry, and glass.  This cherry is awesome, and quickly becoming my favorite!











I put the pressure strips on top, and with hand pressure determine if the riser fades are going to fade like they are supposed to.  I don't want any gaps here at all.











You can see a shadow where the lams over-hang the riser in the last photo.

I have to pick up an extra bicycle inner tube and another seam roller today, and should then be all set for the lay-up.


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## pine nut (Apr 21, 2010)

You are not only an excellent boyer but also an excellent teacher.  I could have all those jigs and tools a I would never be able to make a bow as well as you.  That my friend is a gift you are blessed with!


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## TNGIRL (Apr 21, 2010)

Marty, we still gotta talk about a bow for me!!!! Gotta have a little handle tho for sure!!! This one is going to be beautiful!!!!


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## Apex Predator (Apr 21, 2010)

Time for lay-up! 

Here is my method for glue-up, which I don't think I've shared much of.  It's really hard to take photos cause you are covered with epoxy!  Don't really want to ruin my camera.  Here you see the smooth-on all mixed up, a 1" wallpaper seam roller, and a wooden stick.  I dab the epoxy down the lam and then roll it out with the roller.  Works well for me.
















After the roller, I eye-ball the whole lam looking for this, a dry spot!  Can't have those.






After all the bottom lams are buttered and stacked, I butter the riser bottom and clamp it on top of the stack.  I make sure the center is indexed to my form.






Check out this cherry with smooth-on applied.  This is close to what it will look like under the glass.


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## Apex Predator (Apr 21, 2010)

Now I fold the plastic wrap over the bow from each side and secure the whole works with a couple of wraps of electrical tape.  I'm careful here not to trap any plastic wrap between the lams.











Next I place the pressure strips on top and start wrapping bicycle innertube clamps.  I use lots of rubber here folks!  About 7 strips per side.  A typical bike tube will yeild 2-3 strips depending on the diameter of the tube.  I pay special attention to the fadeouts here.






Then I set up my oven.  It's a simple affair, but works great!  During the colder months I will use four 100W bulbs.  When it's warmer, like now, I use four 75W bulbs.  My timer is a $6 job from Lowes.  I want 140-160 degrees here for around five hours to set the smooth-on epoxy.  My cover is made of pvc and plastic/foil water heater insulation.
















Medium-rare beef is what we are shooting for!    It takes about an hour to get up to full temperature.


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## Apex Predator (Apr 22, 2010)

This morning I took her out of the form.  Here is the blank with all the excess epoxy on the sides.  I've always been one to use too much, but I sleep good after putting one in the oven.  It only takes an hour, or even less to clean it up.  First the bandsaw, then the belt sander.
















My favorite part of bow building is cleaning up the blank and peeling the tape!  This one looks really good.  Perfect glue lines and zero air bubbles under the glass.

I'm really liking the wood combos Josh chose!


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## rifleroom (Apr 22, 2010)

I can't wait to see her finished Marty!


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## Apex Predator (Apr 23, 2010)

Next step is to mark the center of the riser. I use my fancy centering jig here to mark the center of the riser.  Then I stretch a line that bi-sects the center, then mark the tip centers.
















Then I mark the top of the limbs 3" outside the fades, and make marks on either side of the tip centers for a 5/8" wide tip.   I draw a straight lines from mark to mark.






Then I take it to the belt sander and take the limbs down to the line.  After sanding there will be small fiberglass splinters on the edges, so be careful handling the bow.






I then take another little jig I made and make lines parallel to the limb edges on the last 10" of limb.  I then taper the last 10" down to these lines at the tips, until my tips just fit in my nock groove line drawing jig.  Lot's of jigs huh?


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## Apex Predator (Apr 23, 2010)

I draw my lines with the little line jig in place, and then I cut shallow grooves.  I progress through the grooves with three tools in order.  I start with a tiny jewlers triangle file, then to the tile saw blade, and finally the chainsaw file.  The three steps allows me to make any needed corrections each time I move up to the bigger tool.






This lady now gets her first stringing!  Alignment looks good, the bottom limb is just a little stiffer, and she draws 65@29.  Perfect for this stage of the game.  I want her to be around 8# over my target draw weight, cause there is limb timing, tiller, and limb narrowing ahead.






Here she is with a little too low of brace.  Need to find a little shorter string before I continue.






Now its time to build my overlays.  I use my belt/spindle combo sander for this.  The fence I use is square to the sandpaper.  I thin pieces of osage and ebony for the overlays.
















I will laminate the overlays on tonight.


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## LongBow01 (Apr 23, 2010)

Man that looks awsome!! very informative buildalong. What type of glue do you use for the riser?


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## Apex Predator (Apr 23, 2010)

Smooth-on epoxy for the riser, the laminations, and the overlays.


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## Apex Predator (Apr 24, 2010)

I rough up the glass under the overlays with 80 grit by hand, then clean all the pieces with acetone.  Do a dry run here to make sure everything mates well!  Sometimes you have to get creative in your clamping.  Overlays want to slide all over the place.  When using two pieces it's even worse.  Then it's on to the smooth-on.  Like always, I use too much! 





















My three headed monster supplies a little heat.  I just want to keep everything nice and warm for several hours while the epoxy cures.


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## Al33 (Apr 24, 2010)

Pinenut hit the nail on the head Marty, you are a great teacher to boot. I know it takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to stop so many times in the process to take photo's then re-size and upload them not to mention narrate them in tutorial form. Outstanding job just as you do on your bows. Man on man this one is going to be a looker for sure!!! Thanks again!!!!


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## frankwright (Apr 24, 2010)

That is going to be a beauty. I have really enjoyed this "show and tell". 
It looks like you have it down to a science but it is still a lot of work.


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## Apex Predator (Apr 24, 2010)

I enjoy it Al, or I wouldn't be doing it.  I'm afraid it's getting to be automatic.  All my customers have been asking for a build-a-long.  I should probably print some of the better ones.  Maybe I'll write a book, after I gain some more experience.


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## C.J. Pearson (Apr 24, 2010)

Wow Marty, what a BEAUTIFUL work of art. Someone is going to be very happy with their new bow. That Cherry is beautiful. Probably wouldn't show very well under that black glass that I like.
A good friend of mine from Virginia said it best about your bows. Probably one of the most under rated longbows out there. Once enough folks get them in their hands and get to shoot them the rest will be history. All I could say to that was AMEN!! 
Keep up the good work!! Your creations never cease to amaze me.


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## Apex Predator (Apr 25, 2010)

Today I cleaned up the edge of the riser and tip overlays first.  Then I start to work on the tips.  I carry my string groove across the overlay on the tip.  Then I start to shape them.  First I have to narrow the tips, being carefull not to sand all my groove away.  I continue to deepen them as the tips width narrows.  Here are some photos.






I got on a roll and forgot to take some photos!  I used my free standing belt sander for most of the tip shaping.  Then I carefully sanded the joint with a dremel and then sandpaper by hand.  Here are the tips 80 percent complete.
















Now to work on the riser overlay.   I use my 1" belt sander to thin the bevel some, then I tape the glass and dremel up to the tape.  Hand sanding finishes them out.  The joint on the tips get the same treatment.

Here are some before and after photos.


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## Apex Predator (Apr 25, 2010)

I got some work done on the riser as well!  I'm gonna hate to put a piece of leather on this one.  I'm really diggin' it!


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## longbowdave1 (Apr 25, 2010)

looking great marty!


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## frankwright (Apr 25, 2010)

That handle is too pretty to cover in leather. I would send it out to be checkered!


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## Apex Predator (Apr 25, 2010)

I agree Frank!  I've got some checkering tools, but need lots of practice.


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## longbowdave1 (Apr 25, 2010)

marty, that riser deservres to be seen, you have done some great work there, and i would be a crime to cover it! 

NOTE TO JOSH: ASK MARTY TO LEAVE THE LEATHER PIECE OFF!


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## Dennis (Apr 25, 2010)

That is a awesome bow and thats why ive got my second one on order from him just a couple more months


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## Apex Predator (Apr 28, 2010)

Not a lot to show right now.  I've got her hand sanded down through 150 grit.  After 220 grit I will fill the pores in the riser, then time to spray.


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## longbowdave1 (Apr 28, 2010)

that is looking geat marty!!!!! going to be something else when the finish is sprayed on, josh you are one lucky feller to get a bow like this!


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## rifleroom (Apr 28, 2010)

Marty that is going to be a beauty!


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## Apex Predator (Apr 29, 2010)

I've got her sanded through 220 grit now.  Here she is after the first coat of CA (super glue).  This will fill the wood pores to give the riser a nice level look after spraying.  I will sand this down with 220 grit.  Ebony and osage aren't particularily porous, so this one coat may be enough.  Some woods like wenge or walnut need quite a few leveling coats.  This photo shows how dark the ebony will be under finish.


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## LanceColeman (Apr 29, 2010)

Smooth Marty....reeeeel smooth. I getta kick out of your fit and finish bro. I've seen 1000 dollar bows that don't have half the time and effort placed in their finish as you do.

BTW thatsa sweet wood combo bro.


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## baldfish (Apr 29, 2010)

Absolutley Gorgeous


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## Apex Predator (Apr 30, 2010)

When sanding down the super glue, you can easily see the low spots that need more sanding, or another application.


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## Barry Duggan (May 2, 2010)

Got an update on this one Marty?


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## Apex Predator (May 3, 2010)

She's done!  Just waiting for the sun to come up, so I can take some good photos.


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## Apex Predator (May 3, 2010)

Here she is folks!


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## rifleroom (May 3, 2010)

Marty... OUTSTANDING! That is a beuatiful bow!


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## Apex Predator (May 3, 2010)

Here are a few more photos!


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## dm/wolfskin (May 3, 2010)

Too pretty to take outside Marty. Good looking bow. Mike


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## Hunting 4 Him (May 3, 2010)

Thats awesome, gerat job.  Ward


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## BkBigkid (May 3, 2010)

Again a Great looking Bow Marty 
Love the colors


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## jdrawdy (May 3, 2010)

Absolutley amazing.  The only problem is that is too purdy to be draggin through the swamps chassin them pigs.  Love the colors.


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## longbowdave1 (May 3, 2010)

marty,
 another flawless bow of the highest quality! looks great and i'm sure josh can't wait to get it!

dave


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## Barry Duggan (May 3, 2010)

Professionally executed Marty. Nice color combo.


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## Bubbaforsure (May 3, 2010)

Nice job Marty....Center accent looks like a lighting bolt!
Pretty cool stuff.....


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## Dennis (May 3, 2010)

Words do not do it justice it is just Awesome


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## SELFBOW (May 3, 2010)

#32 is outstanding. I think when you hit your age # it should be a special bow.......maybe for me


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## pine nut (May 3, 2010)

Marty, you better save the patterns for this one!  I see you making another several of them.  I've always liked ebony and this combo is out-dadgum-standing!  As always your workmanship is also outstanding.  Let me know when you're taking orders again.


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## Al33 (May 3, 2010)

That bow oozes with class. Great job Marty!!!!!


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## Cottontail (May 3, 2010)

You do some great work man thats nice. Congrats.


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## D.J. Smith (May 3, 2010)

Just like all the rest, It's a good looking bow.


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## C.J. Pearson (May 3, 2010)

Oh Marty,, man what a beautiful bow. Once again you have produced another beautiful bow


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## frankwright (May 4, 2010)

I love that lightning bolt accent stripe. Really beautiful bow.


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## coaster500 (May 11, 2010)

Real nice


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## 2wheelfoster (May 11, 2010)

That is a beautiful bow. Bet is shoots as good as it looks to!


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