Let's get this fired up!
Did a little forum browsing today after quite the hiatus...
It's too stinking cold here to get fired up. We have over 12 in. snow blazing 7 degrees.and weren't used to it :scared:
Quote from: Crooked Stic on January 27, 2026, 04:43:29 AMIt's too stinking cold here to get fired up. We have over 12 in. snow blazing 7 degrees.and weren't used to it :scared:
Ya you guys got a hell of a winter storm back east and it went clear to Texas in the south. it's going to hit 50 degrees this afternoon here today in Oregon. but it has been getting into the high 20's at night this last week. Next week back to rain again for us. :biglaugh:
I'm just finishing up a set of 70# ILF limbs that has a twill carbon back. i used it right over the .040 glass and thought it would bump the poundage up a bit, but it didn't effect the draw weight at all compared to just using the same stack with .040 glass. :dunno: :dunno: That sure seemed strange to me. I ended up with 65# instead of 70#.
This happened two days ago but there was no post for it yet, ha.
Blew up a nice wonky character stave out of hawthorn. It was doing really well with tillering and bending mid limb nicely with very different rates of reflex per limb so it was tricky but going well.
was pulling under 50 at the 20 inch mark and i was interested in a 60 pound bow so i was routinely tillering down those last inches of draw. Well i was working the limbs between tillering and checking progress and BAM one of the pin knots on the front was in a cluster of three and they were about 2 inches off the fades. Just a bit too stiff yet to bend there and it split the limb from fade to a few inches under the tip.
Happens once in a while,I am sometimes too impatient and too heavy on the bandsander with 36 grit paper.
.020 carbon twill adds no stiffness. Can count it as part of the stack. Kirk if you added it to the stack you are right should have done the same as adding .020. As part of c the stack no
Quote from: Crooked Stic on January 27, 2026, 07:31:07 PM.020 carbon twill adds no stiffness. Can count it as part of the stack. Kirk if you added it to the stack you are right should have done the same as adding .020. As part of c the stack no
Other carbon i've used always added a bit of draw weight to the same stack height. That's why it surprised me. :dunno:
Bowyering is weird sometimes :bigsmyl:
Quote from: Crooked Stic on January 29, 2026, 08:12:13 PMBowyering is weird sometimes :bigsmyl:
Amen brutha..... Amen. :notworthy:
I loaded up 20 caulking tubes with EA 40 this morning. I buy mine in 2 gallon kits, and it fills 20 tubes almost perfectly. In the past i refilled the tubes that i have already used, but its a hassle getting the old plug out of the tubes undamaged. The new tubes are pretty cheap.
The cool part about doing this is that your epoxy has a longer shelf life and only see's the air twice before mixing. 1st time loading the tubes, & second time when you use it. It also makes it real easy to get your 2:1 mixing amounts. 2 pumps of A to one pump of B.
Even if you buy your epoxy in smaller quantities, this is hands down the best way to dispense your epoxy without exposing the whole can to the air each time, and don't have to worry air born dust contaminating your epoxy.
If you want to try this yourself, the trick is cutting the tip of the tube off before filling them with a putty knife. that, and making sure the stuff is warm before doing it.
IMG_6160 (1).jpg
Kirk i have seen you discuss this a few times and man i cant wait to try this out. Ill get around to it on my next ea-40 purchase
Quote from: dbeaver on February 01, 2026, 03:52:14 PMKirk i have seen you discuss this a few times and man i cant wait to try this out. Ill get around to it on my next ea-40 purchase
Once you give it a go, you'll be glad you did. The one thing I didn't mention was when you are using these caulking guns in warm weather, always put a piece of masking tape on the tip when you are done, and never hang them with the tip down. I made a hell of a mess learning that one a couple years ago. :biglaugh:
Sprayed my first few gloss coats ready to sand and a matte finish. Birdseye maple & Wenge.
Nice looking gloss finish. What type of clear coat are ya using there? :thumbsup:
Btw. Nice job on the off sett I beam wit( that footed riser block.
Quote from: Kirkll on February 15, 2026, 07:21:34 PMNice looking gloss finish. What type of clear coat are ya using there? :thumbsup:
Btw. Nice job on the off sett I beam wit( that footed riser block.
A two part component urethane auto clear , it doesnt usually turn out that good first time got lucky but sanded it in the end and finished it matte. Iam building 3 of them with the last of this mosaic i had.
I told a friend I was gonna try my hand at leather work and make some arm guards, he instantly requested a hip quiver so I thought I'd give it a try.IMG_2982.jpg
Very nice! Tell me you're not a beginner.
I started leather working when I wanted a leather grip for my longbow.
Dave.
Beginner? heck no, I did make an arm guard before attempting this.
I was running low on hard rock maple lams, So i ran into town and picked up a piece today and i'm all stocked up for awhile now. i found some nice straight grained stuff too. :readit:
IMG_6189.jpg
Ice storm got us bad, over 12,000 without power, 13 days without power and 30 days without internet for me and TV streaming in North Mississippi. We had over 1000 line men from other states come and help us.
Had to cut our way out wit chainsaws to the Hwy. .
My 160 Acers has a lot of clean up to do, trees down everywhere.
1994 ice storm it was 30 days without power for me.
Hate to hear that Mark. We went through an ice storm a few weeks ago but not nearly as bad. Ice is the worst.Hope you can get back on your feet soon.
Yup ... I saw the National weather and that arctic storm looked pretty bad back there. We typically get at least a couple of serious ice events here in Oregon every year about this time of year, but we are having just the opposite here. It's going to be 60 degrees tomorrow, the flowering plum tree is in full bloom, and tomorrow im going to mow the grass believe it or not...
Strange weather year.
That's tough being without power so long. Hopefully you had a generator to help keep things running a bit. Kirk
Working on it Pat
No Generator for me Kirk, I stayed with my sister
here is a photo of out last big ice storm. this was a 50 year old pussy willow that was about 6' at the butt, and half of it fell on my wood shed. doesn't look very big in the photo, but it was large!
IMG_6022.jpg
We had about 1000 power line polls down it the County
Quote from: Mad Max on March 01, 2026, 10:16:11 PMIce storm got us bad, over 12,000 without power, 13 days without power and 30 days without internet for me and TV streaming in North Mississippi. We had over 1000 line men from other states come and help us.
Had to cut our way out wit chainsaws to the Hwy. .
My 160 Acers has a lot of clean up to do, trees down everywhere.
1994 ice storm it was 30 days without power for me.
That's rough 😕 I had a couple days without power last December and thought it was as bad as it could get. Can't imagine 13 days.
With that last big one we had we were without power for 10 days. I had rented a generator right after the storm hit and got lucky. The drive into town was like a skating rink. :o :o :o but those generators were all gone in the time i was there picking mine up.
We are pretty self sufficient here, and have a wood stove for heat, and propane cooking stoves. but the rough one is no water. Our well is 300' deep and runs a 3HP pump that's over 200'from the house. There is no running that pump with a portable generator pulling that kind of amperage through 500' of 8 gage copper wire. So i had to make water runs now and then.
The cool part about it was that the insurance company covered my generator rental cost & fuel along with repairs to the wood shed and tree removal. That tree was too big for me to handle solo leaning on a building.
48 years ago today Marcia and I got married and we celebrated today by voting and sharing a box of Puffs because we've been sick for almost a week. On the mend now but not quite there but the marriage is still strong. :thumbsup:
Congrats on the 48th anniversary! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: We are hitting 42 years in August.
Hope ya get to feeling better.
Thanks, Kirk.
Fought this grip cover for two hours. Really makes a person appreciate a Hill style grip!!
But, only had to start over once. :biglaugh:
Yes Sir, leather grips take a bit of practice. Different leather stretches differently depending non thickness. Every one is a bit different. It took me awhile to learn to pre stretch the leather around the grip I was wrapping first before making the seam cut, and leaving just enough space to pull it tight without stretching the slots out too much.
What type of leather punch are you using for your stitching holes? And what type of lacing?
I just finished an abstract project that was a bit more time consuming that I thought it would be.
Many Years ago my wife bought me a very cool looking copper weather vane for Christmas that I put up on our garden tool shed. But we had a bad wind storm and a tree fell on the shed. It spared the weather vane, but destroyed the shed.
So I built a new shed with a gambrel roof to simulate the old barn look, and had planned to build a cupola for the weather vane in the shop, but I got side tracked and forgot about it. So the weather vane has been hanging up in the shop collecting dust, and getting seriously tarnished for almost 25 years now...
So last week it caught my eye, and I took it down off the wall and knocked the dust off it. This baby needed some serious copper cleaner to polish it up right, so I ordered several different kinds before finally getting it done. It still took a lot of elbow grease with steel wool to get the years of build up, but I can share the stuff that worked best if anyone is interested.
Finally I used a product called "Ever Bright" for a clear coating with heavy UV blockers in it to keep it from tarnishing so quickly. VERY expensive stuff btw... but I was impressed with the clear coating. It Might make an excellent high gloss bow finish, but I'm not sure about its flexible properties.
Anyway.... Here is the finished product.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/zn2A4bRXYghTUg7s6
Quote from: Kirkll on June 16, 2026, 10:06:59 PMYes Sir, leather grips take a bit of practice. Different leather stretches differently depending non thickness. Every one is a bit different. It took me awhile to learn to pre stretch the leather around the grip I was wrapping first before making the seam cut, and leaving just enough space to pull it tight without stretching the slots out too much.
What type of leather punch are you using for your stitching holes? And what type of lacing?
I use the same diamond shaped one that I use for saddle stitching other projects. Waxed artificial thread. It's too fine of work to use a leather lace.
I'm going to try some shark skin on an upcoming ASL project.
An easy pattern for a handle wrap is to put 3 or 4 wraps of masking tape around the handle where you want the handle wrap to go. Then carefully with a sharp razor cut a line down the center of the tape on the back of the bow. Unpeel the tape in one piece and transfer to the leather. when you cut out the leather see how it fits. You may have to remove a small bit of leather from either side of the center line cut. Once you have cut out the leather you may need to wet the leather to help it form to the handle.I use a baseball stitch to secure the wrap, stitching first then go back tightening the stitch as you work along the stitch line.
(https://i.imgur.com/4NBaoy1.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Ob8pDre.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xLnqN4Z.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/etgDmTV.jpg)
...and if you don't already know, leather stretches more across the hide than it does along(head to tail) the hide.
I actually made a pattern like that but it's a little wonky when there's a locator. It's the reason for the second try! :biglaugh: the second patern got me on target though.
I'm aware of the grain and stretch but didn't think about it on this. Thanks for that reminder 🙂
I'm going to try some fish skins on a future project.
It will be wonky sometimes because of the irregular shape of the handle but you can wet the leather to shape it to the irregular handle shape. Use contact cement to glue the handle wrap all around but not on the back where the stitching goes. Once the glue is set trim the parts on the back so they almost meet. You can moisten this area before stitching and it should help draw both parts together. A thin piece of leather the same color as the handle wrap placed under the stitches will help hide any gap down the stitch line.
Quote from: Longcruise on June 18, 2026, 01:39:26 AMQuote from: Kirkll on June 16, 2026, 10:06:59 PMYes Sir, leather grips take a bit of practice. Different leather stretches differently depending non thickness. Every one is a bit different. It took me awhile to learn to pre stretch the leather around the grip I was wrapping first before making the seam cut, and leaving just enough space to pull it tight without stretching the slots out too much.
What type of leather punch are you using for your stitching holes? And what type of lacing?
I use the same diamond shaped one that I use for saddle stitching other projects. Waxed artificial thread. It's too fine of work to use a leather lace.
I'm going to try some shark skin on an upcoming ASL project.
Here is the one I use, but they have many others out there to choose from. I like the straight chisel cutter on this design.
https://www.google.com/search?q=leather+chisel+punches&sca_esv=3750d84e3b6f83f6&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS764US764&hl=en-US&sxsrf=APpeQnttGPBC6U6oHgwytEg4AYFBnWJx_g:1781883609157&source=univ&udm=28&ved=1t:6869&ictx=111&biw=1112&bih=702&dpr=2#ip=1&sv=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
I have several sets of those but I've just gotten into the habit of marking my points and punching each one. Sometimes I'm going through three layers of leather and it's easier to punch through one at a time and of course easier to go around curves. Mostly it's just my habitual way of doing it.
Quote from: Longcruise on June 16, 2026, 04:12:50 PMFought this grip cover for two hours. Really makes a person appreciate a Hill style grip!!
But, only had to start over once. :biglaugh:
Looks good.
Next time for less fighting of the leather staying where you want it and fitting. Start with the leather a bit bigger than necessary in height. And several inches longer wrapping aroundz get a pair of 2" binder clips. Soak the leather in water. Soak up the excess with a rag. Wrap the leather around the handle and clip into place with the binder clips so the seam is down the middle of the handle. Now stretch and rub the leather into place, reclining as needed to hold it tight. Once you content with where it's at. Let it dry. After it dries you'll have marks from the clips where to trim the leather. Trim so there is about a 1/8" gap between sides. Now you can punch holes and sew into place. I like to lightly dampen the leather before sewing on so it can shrink into place and when it gets damp from hand sweat, it'll loosen to the same point you tightened it into the handle. Done right it won't budge without any glue.
Kyle