Pushing ahead. - Part 1

After the challenge I had the other day chasing the ring, I studied the two boards carefully.  The wider 1 x 3 board has a ring that could work, however due to the way the board was sawn, I would likely have a very light bow when finished.  I want a bow with a minimum draw weight of 45 lbs to keep it legal for hunting in Alberta should I choose to use it for that.  So I have decided to proceed with the build with the board as is.  With the fiberglass tape backing it should be a decent bow with decent draw weight, and seeing as this is only bow #2 in my bowyer career I will be happy to get another working bow.

The other board is going to provide a real challenge.  The grain twists and undulates and the one end of the bow has grain run of like you wouldn't believe.  Not sure why I didn't notice this in the store. It may also end up very light, but seeing as it will be a standard tapered long bow any working weight is good for a first go. Anyways that board is going to sit idle while I complete the mollegabet bow.

Once I made the decision I went ahead and marked out the bow as exactly as Mike describes in his youtube series called "How to make a high performance longbow for under $10"

In this video series, Mike uses very few tools to keep the cost down so just about anybody can follow along and build one of these.  As this is my second build of this exact style of bow I took some shortcuts using power tools.

I used a circular saw to cut just outside the lines on the the end static limbs right to the line where the fade starts.  Then all I had to do was rasp away the corners left behind and bring the edges to the lines with a rasp and box plane.  What took me 3-4 hours of rasping on my first bow took about an hour to complete this time around.

I have modified Mike's plan on my bows as I didn't like the feel of the handle.  On my first bow I glued a block of maple on to increase the size of the handle.  This time I went and found a block of Paduak for $3.29 and glued that to the belly side of the handle.

More pics and progress to come in part 2. (handle, fiberglass backing)