Bow #2

This bow deviates in one significant way from the failed bow #1. This one has a wood back. The first one's back was dry wall tape. Also, the first bow is made out of Red Oak. This second bow is made out of Ipe for the belly wood and Hickory for the backing reinforcement. 

As of this writing, I am about 1/3 into the project. And I have been at it for almost two weeks. This time my bow woods, both of them, are hopefully going to benefit from the fact that Hickory and Ipe have a pretty straight grain. 

The dimensions of this bow are 68 inches x 1 1/4 inches x 1/2 inch approximately.  Of that 1/2 inch thickness, the Hickory back contributes 1/8 inch. The Hickory board from which the backing strips came was 3/4" thick. The 1/8" strips were quarter sawn from it and thus are 3/4 inch wide. Since a 3/4 inch wide strip won't cover the back of a 1 1/4" wide bow, I decided to get a little crazy and laid two strips butted up against eachother as a backing strip.  However, two 3/4 inch strips are 1/4 inch wider than the 1 1/4 inch Ipe plank. On top of that, my Hickory strips, to be butted up next to eachother are not 68 inches long. I could only reasonably cut strips long enough for half the length of the bow. 

This makes for a tricky glue up of 4 Hickory strips to the back of the Ipe. In fact, its nearly impossible for a two handed person. 

So, I made a jig that holds everything in place while the strips are glued on. Actually, the jig I made is only long enough to do half a bow at a time. 

I'll provide some photos in the next installment so you can see what things look like.