Experimenting With Building A 1/3 Bow

Now the bow's off the form. The process is to cut to length. taper the limbs, tip overlays, and fingertip overlays go on. Then we can finish the bow. Should the upper limb be longer than the lower limb? I think so. I've tested even, and I've tested with a longer limb. And when you're going for smoothness, a longer limb, anywhere between/ in and 1 and 1/2 in seems to be acceptable. I like to go about a/ inch on a reflex deflex design. And that is going to help with the tillering because the taper of the bamboo is the exact same on both limbs. So they should bend evenly right now, but with a longer upper limb. That's enforcing our positive tiller now. So that later it not only shoots better, but it's easier to tiller. [Music] All right, glue is cured. Okay, the bow's together. All the pieces are glued on. Now we need to just do the tip overlays. We'll test the draw weight and the tiller before we start shaping the handle. Okay, let's check how the bow is looking. So, right now I'm in experimental mode. I'm trying different lengths of the bow with a similar design to see how they perform. This is the third one I've done. I've done a 66, a 64. This one's a 62 in. This is how it's looking. Now, we'll need to tiller a little bit um because the bottom limb it's even or betting a little bit more than the top limb. But we have a 30 lb draw weight. So, I think I'm going to reduce the length a couple of inches to increase our draw weight. First thing is I was wrong with the tiller. I had the bow flip backwards. I always have the top side on the right. Anyway, I had it flipped around the we had a positive 1/4 in tiller on the top side. So, everything looked good there. So, what I'm going to do is reduce an inch and a half off of each side, giving us three inches shorter of a bow, and that should drop us down to a 59 in bow. Okay, I'm just going to play this out at 2 in and see where the limb tips are in relation to the handle. You see, I'm not wanting to sacrifice performance by making it a heavier draw weight. And where the limb tip ends in relation to the handle when you do a straight line on it when it's not strung plays a big role and how it shoots. So if it had more reflex coming this way, I'd be able to remove more of the limbs. But 2 in should not be a problem at all. As a matter of fact, I could go more. Yeah. You know, why not? Instead of the smoothest shooting bow, let's make this a combo. It's still going to shoot really smooth, but let's make it short. So, hopefully we can have a heavier draw weight, but also test out a new length I haven't done with this design. This is different than the shatterproof archery bones. If you want a really good reflex deflex bow, check that out. I'll leave links in the description to Shadowproof Archery. I designed that bow to feel like a traditional bow, but have fiberglass on it. So, the handle's more traditional, uh, like a wood bow, but it is fiberglass. We're going to actually take this one even shorter than that bow and have less working limb to see what happens. This is the original bones right here. Pretty sweet. Reflex deflex. You can come up with theory, but what I found is even better than theory is testing. So, by doing a specific bow shape and then testing it at every inch or every other inch and seeing how it shoots gives you the best design there is. This is all sparked recently with a custom order I had. He wanted something similar to the bones but a little bit longer. He wanted to be smoother. So, I started testing out all these links and I just haven't been able to stop yet. I'm still testing out lengths to figure out what is the length if you're not optimizing for speed but smoothness that does the best. Now, I don't think the shorter length is going to be extra smooth. I just wanting to raise draw weight on this one since I've already tried three or four different draw lengths above the length of the bones. There's an idea that there's a a best bow and that's not the case because everybody prefers a different style. Everyone has a different hand shape. So each riser can feel better for some people, not as good for other people, different draw weights, better for some, not for others. And then you've got your personal preference. What's more fun to shoot for you? What gives you the enjoyment, the nostalgia? There's no oneizefits-all. I used to think more that like this bow is better than this one. And the more I've built bows, the more subjective I realize that is. I just say this one's better because it's what I prefer. I just took off the fingertip overlay because I want a different [Music] [Applause] design. escape. is what I call a one-third design. The riser is one/ird of the bow and each limb is the other third of the bow as far as the length ratio goes. Let's see how it's bending. It will no doubt look a bit goofy right now because of the blocky handle. But we'll get that taken care of. And I think Oh yes, it looks perfect. I think we've maintained a good tiller. Checking 6 and 7/8 6 and 1/2. So maybe a little steep positive tiller, but we're in a really good spot. Since we have a good ratio of it bending, we can see how it's bending. As we draw it back, looking good. We removed 6 in 3 in off each side. Redid the tip overlays. When it was 6 in longer, it was a 30 lb bow. What do you think it'll be right now? Measure from the back of the bow to 28 in. It's that mark right there. 47. 47. That's a big surprise. I thought it would be about 10 lbs, not 17. That's great. Okay, I'll exercise it a few times just because I haven't moved the limbs yet. Um, I wouldn't want to judge that positive tiller too soon without moving the limbs quite a bit first. Um, but since it looks so good and so close already, I can go ahead and move on to shaping the handle and getting the riser perfect. Because if the riser was ready right now, I could go ahead and shoot it to see how it feels. So, let's get the riser ready first and then after that, final tillering. And this bow is looking great. We're really close to making a short but hopefully really smooth bow. So to shape the riser, what it looks like is to find the center and then measure from there everything. So I'll measure up to the arrow shelf and then down to the deepest part of the handle. I'll make my marks. I'll start by cutting in the arrow shelf first for a really good solid reference. And then I'll start shaping the entire riser. Now I'm doing most of this just well all of it by eye and by my marks on belt sanders, rasps, and saws. This process will take me maybe about two hours from start to finish. I'll probably stop around hour, hour and a half mark before final sanding because I like to shoot it as soon as I can. So, let's do that right now. doctor. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Everything's going as planned. Let's see how it's bending and let's take a shot before we do the final finishes. Yeah, it's looking really good. How's it looking to you? Okay, we'll test the new draw weight. We're at 46 lb and we should be right down to 45 lbs after shooting it a little bit and final sanding. This the tiller is like like dead on. Like if I had to choose one, it's right there. Yeah, that feels really good. Like better than I expected. But why is that? So, we can test it in a little bit. It doesn't appear by my eyes to to feel very fast, but it's really smooth for I'll reme-measure, but I think it's a 56, maybe even a 54 inch bow. Yeah, that's great. Okay, let's shoot it through the chronograph. I'm going to draw it to about my uh lip and that's about 28 in. My normal draw is about 29 when I come all the way back. I've got a 449 grain arrow with a 45lb bow. 172 173. Not bad by any means, but not the fastest bow. Definitely is a smooth shooter, though. All I have to do now is final sanding and uh spray finish, and that's it. So, I'll do that off camera. And here is the final reveal. I am more than pleased with how this bow turned out. I did a brown D97 bow string with white accent in it. I really like how that ties it in to the white tip overlays and the white writing on the bow. The finish is fantastic. I really like this really dark way wood. It also shoots better than I thought it was going to. I'd totally make this again for somebody else. This specific bow right here is going on my website, kramermans archery.com. Check the links in the description to all the good stuff. So, if you want this one, you can pick it up. And with that, let me know what bow you want me to make next. And I'm looking forward to the next one. I'll see you guys soon. Have a great day.