fitting hatchet head on handle not simple. the rounded shape at the bottom of the head has to be inlet into the handle. a difficult maneuver for amateur woodworker. not too happy with it. I think I'm going to try to use my Dremel with a small sanding drum to shape it for better fit. vinegar bath did a nice job on the head. very little pitting. gotta get the handle fit right to do this project any real justice now.
Been busy in the shop
- Thread starter Jamie
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I love getting caught up with this thread. Jamie you are a true craftsman. If you ever need to lighten your load of bows let me know. I am always here to help out. 
thanks, Q. I'll keep that I mind. 
not much to do in the shop today. Had to drive Nancy for an endoscopy procedure this morning, early. home in time for lunch, but I'm still watching clear coat on camo paint job to dry until tomorrow, unless I can work, but I'm losing hope. so, I finished up the handles and sprayed them, sanded and polished up the hatched head. I wound up changing the shape of the handle for the hatchet a little to make fitting the head simpler. not much curl in the small handle, but by pure luck, the only piece I had big enough for the hatchet with the correct grain orientation has wonderful curl. cut out my leather for bow handle between coats of finish. sew it on tomorrow and find a wedge to mount the hatchet on handle.
not much to do in the shop today. Had to drive Nancy for an endoscopy procedure this morning, early. home in time for lunch, but I'm still watching clear coat on camo paint job to dry until tomorrow, unless I can work, but I'm losing hope. so, I finished up the handles and sprayed them, sanded and polished up the hatched head. I wound up changing the shape of the handle for the hatchet a little to make fitting the head simpler. not much curl in the small handle, but by pure luck, the only piece I had big enough for the hatchet with the correct grain orientation has wonderful curl. cut out my leather for bow handle between coats of finish. sew it on tomorrow and find a wedge to mount the hatchet on handle.
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Well crap.
It looks ok, I guess. I’m more of a “it’s been dropped while wading through a swampy feed lot” kinda of a guy anyway.
It looks ok, I guess. I’m more of a “it’s been dropped while wading through a swampy feed lot” kinda of a guy anyway.
in that case, I have a pair of boots you may be interested in...
swampy barn lots I can live without for the rest of my days. jesus tap dancing christ, what a fiasco. good times.
swampy barn lots I can live without for the rest of my days. jesus tap dancing christ, what a fiasco. good times.
my new hatchet sharpened and ready to go. blade was in pretty decent shape, only one small nick in it, so it sharpened up nicely. I'm really going to try to make myself use it.
got the shelf, strike plate and handle on the bow today, too. happy to finish up these projects. my "weekend" is over now. gotta paint tomorrow and sunday. I won't intrude on my customers on the holiday, but I have to work every dry day now.
the string on it is my tillering string, so I'll make a new string for this bow, add some Mink fur silencers, and sew a tip protector on the bottom nock. this bow is quiet and is easy to shoot. just what the doctor ordered. last group from 22-23 yards.
the string on it is my tillering string, so I'll make a new string for this bow, add some Mink fur silencers, and sew a tip protector on the bottom nock. this bow is quiet and is easy to shoot. just what the doctor ordered. last group from 22-23 yards.
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Looks awesome Jamie! It appears to shoot far better than you are capable too!
yea, pretty much. they practically have to shoot themselves for me to group arrows where I'm looking. Like Hoot always said, "...some people can make 'em, some people can shoot "em. Miller, you should keep making them." I sure miss having him around.
I sure miss having him around.
That's a great looking bow, Jamie! Well done, sir. Maybe it's been asked in this thread before... But would ever consider building one of these bows for a TOOzer?... for the right price, of course.
Yep Hoot is the best - we stay in contact but hard for me to visit - remember you and Nancy at the Hoot shoots - and the canoe course - good timesyea, pretty much. they practically have to shoot themselves for me to group arrows where I'm looking. Like Hoot always said, "...some people can make 'em, some people can shoot "em. Miller, you should keep making them."
when it gets this hot and humid I tend to cut my work days short. start at daylight and quit when I run out of shade. I just cannot take the heat working outside like I used to. it's even too hot to fish around here. So, I'll spend some time working in the shop with the A/C cranked. I like shooting the 66" bow so much that I'm getting on with making another one, but a little heavier this time. I joined two pairs of sister board billets yesterday, cut out two pieces of bamboo backing and rough tapered them with drum sander. tapered the cores(leaving them a little heavier so I can make weight this time), did the final tapering on one backing by hand, and got one blank glued up today. gonna be lots of short days for me in the next couple of weeks, so I hope to be shooting one of these within a week or so.
close up of "Z" splice I use to join board billets
I was able to orient the the two ends such that the knot will be in the handle sandwiched between the bamboo and the riser. a knot like that in any part of the working limb will not work, and will render an otherwise excellent quarter sawn board useless for anything but a riser.
close up of "Z" splice I use to join board billets
I was able to orient the the two ends such that the knot will be in the handle sandwiched between the bamboo and the riser. a knot like that in any part of the working limb will not work, and will render an otherwise excellent quarter sawn board useless for anything but a riser.
I think the only thing I haven't covered in this thread is some detail is fitting the riser blocks on these BBO blanks. so, let's fit a rise to our blank.
the first step is to mark the center of a riser block and trace the long, gentle deflex arc that goes through the handle section of the blank. I do this by simply putting the blank on the edge of the riser block and tracing the curve, saving as much of the thickness of the riser block as I can. that chunk missing from the right side of the riser block will be cut away later when I cut out the handle side profile.
then I affix the riser block to a chunk of oak. the oak block acts as a "handle" of sorts while cutting out the arc on the band saw and while sanding it to perfectly fit the blank for a nice thin glue joint. I use turner's tape. Have to give a shout out to Switchitter for turning me onto turners tape. it's the cats ass for this. Turner's tape is VERY sticky double sided tape that still lets go when you make it.
moderate clamp pressure attaches these together so tightly that you cannot pull it apart by hand. well, I can't, anyway.
cut out the arc with the band saw, leaving the pencil line.
I set up my 6"x48", 9" disc sander for using the belt in the vertical position. the wooden table is sitting on top of the small table that is used for both what I'm doing here and for using the disk. The surface of wooden table is more than twice the size of the original equipment. needs to be this big for moving the riser block back and forth along its entire length.
I sand this carefully to the pencil line, then check the fit by putting the blank and riser together and holding up to a bright light source to see where light is coming through the joint. I very slowly sand the places where no light is coming through (the high spots) until the fit is as perfect as I can make it. sometimes it only take one or to minor corrections, sometimes it ten or more. patience necessary here as it can be a little aggravating. this time it took three little corrections and about two minutes. I've spent half hour on fitting a handle because I got a little impatient.
the first step is to mark the center of a riser block and trace the long, gentle deflex arc that goes through the handle section of the blank. I do this by simply putting the blank on the edge of the riser block and tracing the curve, saving as much of the thickness of the riser block as I can. that chunk missing from the right side of the riser block will be cut away later when I cut out the handle side profile.
then I affix the riser block to a chunk of oak. the oak block acts as a "handle" of sorts while cutting out the arc on the band saw and while sanding it to perfectly fit the blank for a nice thin glue joint. I use turner's tape. Have to give a shout out to Switchitter for turning me onto turners tape. it's the cats ass for this. Turner's tape is VERY sticky double sided tape that still lets go when you make it.
moderate clamp pressure attaches these together so tightly that you cannot pull it apart by hand. well, I can't, anyway.
cut out the arc with the band saw, leaving the pencil line.
I set up my 6"x48", 9" disc sander for using the belt in the vertical position. the wooden table is sitting on top of the small table that is used for both what I'm doing here and for using the disk. The surface of wooden table is more than twice the size of the original equipment. needs to be this big for moving the riser block back and forth along its entire length.
I sand this carefully to the pencil line, then check the fit by putting the blank and riser together and holding up to a bright light source to see where light is coming through the joint. I very slowly sand the places where no light is coming through (the high spots) until the fit is as perfect as I can make it. sometimes it only take one or to minor corrections, sometimes it ten or more. patience necessary here as it can be a little aggravating. this time it took three little corrections and about two minutes. I've spent half hour on fitting a handle because I got a little impatient.
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after I'm satisfied with the fit, I remove the riser block from the oak block by forcing a large chisel between the two and prying them apart. the tape always sticks to the oak block, but I don't know why. it comes off pretty well, leaving only a little adhesive residue behind. lacquer thinner or acetone takes it right off so it's clean for the next time.
with riser free from the oak block I clamp it in a vise and drag a toothing iron over it by hand. the toothing iron creates tiny furrows in the work piece. a glue joint prepared this way cannot be starved of glue no matter how tightly you clamp it. toothing iron is mostly used in a plane body, and is often crowned. the reason for crowning the iron is so that it can be used to make things flat. we use curved tools to make things flat, flat tools to make things curved. I use a toothing plane to do the final tapering on the bamboo backing. toothing plane acts more like a scraper than a other woodworking planes that raise curls, but I digress.
time to mix up some glue and clamp it up. I glued up the other riser yesterday. I'll remove clamps and use them for this one.
with riser free from the oak block I clamp it in a vise and drag a toothing iron over it by hand. the toothing iron creates tiny furrows in the work piece. a glue joint prepared this way cannot be starved of glue no matter how tightly you clamp it. toothing iron is mostly used in a plane body, and is often crowned. the reason for crowning the iron is so that it can be used to make things flat. we use curved tools to make things flat, flat tools to make things curved. I use a toothing plane to do the final tapering on the bamboo backing. toothing plane acts more like a scraper than a other woodworking planes that raise curls, but I digress.
time to mix up some glue and clamp it up. I glued up the other riser yesterday. I'll remove clamps and use them for this one.
didn't do much work in the shop yesterday, but I did draw up a new handle with a slight locator grip. I actually just manipulated my existing handle pattern to keep everything as close to the same as possible. the lower half of the handle is identical. after I fooled around with that for a couple of hours I tracedd the patterns and did the last of the band saw work to cut out the rough shape of the handles.
took this pic this morning before I got on with tillering the one with new handle. made pretty quick work of it, too. just got done shooting it for the first time. 54lbs at 28 1/2" now. very quiet, stable, and shoots well. I'll have some minor corrections to make along with narrowing the nocks, which will cost me a pound or two, plus sanding. I should still make 50lbs easy with this one. I like the new grip. not sure I love it yet, but it will feel different/better with leather on it.
took this pic this morning before I got on with tillering the one with new handle. made pretty quick work of it, too. just got done shooting it for the first time. 54lbs at 28 1/2" now. very quiet, stable, and shoots well. I'll have some minor corrections to make along with narrowing the nocks, which will cost me a pound or two, plus sanding. I should still make 50lbs easy with this one. I like the new grip. not sure I love it yet, but it will feel different/better with leather on it.
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You sir, are a master.
I’ve told you I beat the curse of Asbell. It’s still beaten and just today I showed Mason the secret to the witchcraft. So simple. Can’t believe I let that book put me in a funk for so many years. Mason suddenly shot his bow really, really well too, and was able to enjoy doing it vs fighting the thing. I suspect this little deal would greatly help with the shoulder problem that slowed your shooting in recent years too.
I’ve told you I beat the curse of Asbell. It’s still beaten and just today I showed Mason the secret to the witchcraft. So simple. Can’t believe I let that book put me in a funk for so many years. Mason suddenly shot his bow really, really well too, and was able to enjoy doing it vs fighting the thing. I suspect this little deal would greatly help with the shoulder problem that slowed your shooting in recent years too.