10 Years of Bow Building With Bamboo Taught Me This...

my name is CR ramond I make bows today is all about bamboo how to use it when building with it and more importantly how not to so first we have to answer the question what is bamboo it's a miracle material and as a matter of fact it is the fastest growing plant Panda's favorite food pound forp pound stronger than steel with an exceptional tensil strength bamboo covers a multitude of bow making sins it comes in different forms and you can use it in different ways from fiberglass bows to 100 lb self bows smooth shooting recurves accurate long bows I'm telling you bamboo does not get the credit that it deserves if you have built bows without bamboo and then incorporate it into your bow making you realize the miracle material that it is bamboo is technically grass but we build with it like it's w today I'm going to give you everything you need to know of how to use bamboo in bow building from bamboo backed bows to ndless Bamboo bows to laminated bamboo to fiberglass bamboo bows we're going to cover it all we're going to build multiple bows to test out a couple of ideas and see how bamboo performs in different scenarios today's sponsor is gentle bands check out these amazing Rings gentle band offers reimagined bands for men mine is a Tungsten meteorite ring now tungsten is very tough and meteorites from space my favorite thing about gentle band is the attention to all the little details even their packaging is phenomenal and every ring is signed by the Craftsman who made it and it's really cool because you get to find a ring that matches your personality and with their great selection you can guarantee to find something that fits you perfectly you may be thinking well Kramer you work in the workshop isn't that dangerous wear ring well it can be if you're using a power tool oh they've thought of that too check this out they have these chains and you can wear your ring on the Chain whenever it's inconvenient to wear the ring on your hand and a really cool thing about the chain is it looks fantastic you can just wear it normal wear your ring and then you can pop the ring off throw it on the Chain wherever you don't want to wear the ring the chain is great gentle bands is offering something very generous code Kramer 25 gives you 25% off when you go pick up your ring go to Gentle bands.com just check the link in the description thank you Gentle bands for sponsoring today's video first let's cover laminated bamboo laminated bamboo like this is multiple pieces of bamboo glued together this allows you to get bigger boards or bigger pieces of wood out of single piece of bamboo Bamboo grows circularly and so when you cut off different slits of that it has a crown to it if you want a flat board you generally are going to need to have some sort of laminated bamboo as a matter of fact if you have a board there's actual Boards of bamboo generally it's laminated or you can get it in these little strips like here that I use for bow making this is phenomenal for core material on fiberglass bows I've used it a ton but does it work as a backing for a bow if so it's really flat and it would be great and I have a theory about this but I've actually never used the laminated bamboo as a backing so let's try that now [Music] [Music] I'm using a hickory Stave with a bamboo backing this is a bamboo slit and I am most concerned that the joints on the bamboo will not hold the bamboo will hold it's just a matter if the joints and the splices are going to be strong enough for the tension [Music] on [Music] if you're interested in making a board bow like this I've outlined it in other videos links in the description I hope those can help you [Music] [Music] [Music] this here is me thinking let's add some tip overlays no not tip overlays fingertip overlays in order to make this bow look cooler why well because we can [Music] [Music] now [Music] what I discovered building this laminated bamboo backed bow is that where the laminations come together where it spli together that's where it would lift on the back of the bow the bamboo is still extremely strong just the joints on this type of wood are not good under the tension of of a bow bending the result is that the bow broke on me off camera and it broke right where the bamboo was spliced together there was another spot that started to lift earlier and I put some CA glue in it to try to hold it down but I think it's too much I think it potentially could work but I don't think it's the best option I don't think it's worth it for a self bow in order for this type of bamboo to work well I think you need to be able to sandwich it between two other materials so it's more of a core material in a fiberglass bow and I've built a lot of these with no failure on the bamboo conclusion laminated and spliced bamboo is great for core material but not good for a backing or a belly definitely not the belly next we'll build a nodeless bamboo bow what does this mean well we're going to flatten this bamboo to make it look like the laminated bamboo but it's going to be one solid piece drum Sanders planers belt Sanders all work to flatten it the difference is the time it'll take you to do the job 1/8 of an inch right around 1/8 of an inch seems to be perfect for a bow backing you'll see here the nodes that are gone but the transition where the nodes were those cause no problems Bamboo's different than wood we don't have to follow grain we don't have to follow a growth ring as long as it's one solid piece it works well a common question is though why why would you want to do this instead of just having normal bamboo backing leaving the nodes on and everything well one thing is Aesthetics this couldn't make it look better or more like the way you want it the second thing and I think this is the most common reason is because you want to add a decorative backing so maybe you want to add to a snakes skin backing it is easier to do that with a flatbed bow than it is with the nodes on a full piece of bamboo that's the number one reason is going to be looks the performance will be similar and arguably the tillering is a little bit easier because you don't have to accommodate for more mass where the nodes are some people will say this method is a little bit weaker potentially to leaving the bamboo full size but I have no proof for this [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so tillering this bow has actually been I think a little easier than the noted bamboo and uh let me show you it on the tillering tree real quick double check here but I think we are done with this one as far as tillering goes it's 24 in it's 26 it's 28 in let's go a little further so 29 in is 40 lb 29 in is my draw length so let's see how it shoots yeah so far this is shooting really good I'm I'm liking this and fast I've seen other people make nodeless bamboo bows but this is actually the first one I've done and I really like it it's fun to build if you're wanting to do a decorative backing or something like that I think this is a a great option so what about a bamboo slap for self bow making most slats come rough one side which is the back of the bone is crowned and that's where you'll find the nodes the other side is generally pretty rough there are a few places where you can order them pre-fl flattened I find it quite useful to match the nodes up evenly on either side so most of them come 72 in but you'll notice on this side the node is real close to the edge where on this side it's not as close so what I could do here is trim this side down so the node is the same distance from The Edge as the opposite side this isn't necessary but it'll make it visually easier to tiller because the bow tends to bend less where the nodes are and if it's kind of symmetrical on both sides it makes it easier visually I've matched nodes up and I've also made buzzer I haven't with success next should you pre- tiller the bamboo before you glue it to your belly material this is another one where I've done both methods I have found that you can make a good bow either way but it also makes sense that if this is tillered evenly it's bending pretty nicely then after it's glued to a piece of wood that Wood's going to be more even and you're going to be able to have consistent bamboo line and then a consistent wood line a couple ways to do this I've done literally tillering this like it's its own self bow but once this gets real thin it bends really well so another thing you can do is put a string and actually bend it the opposite direction I've seen this method done a lot and you're just kind of bending it looking for an even bend you just don't want one part way stiffer than another the next thing to know is how much to flatten it down and how to do it best way to do it is on a belt sander that seems to be the best method to remove material I also like to bring it down all the way to the sides of the crown when that's just very feathered thin is probably my favorite for any bow that's below 50 lb if you're getting uh up heavier like on the 100b comos I will leave a little bit extra there maybe an eighth of an inch a problem I see people do sometimes is have way too much bamboo on and that'll weaken the speed of most bows because bamboo is not great at compression but it's great at tension so you definitely don't want more than half the bow bamboo some people can be concerned when you see these marks in the bamboo those marks are totally fine and actually don't affect the performance at all and if you don't like visually how they look you can get some sandpaper or a scraper and just sand down a little bit and it'll kind of smooth out that whole area but the little the little marks do not affect the performance of the boat it will not break in that area where if you had an oage bow that had a a growth ring violated like that you'd be in a lot of trouble and then like we showed earlier you can absolutely sand the nodes off if you don't like the looks of them I haven't made many bows like that I generally keep the bamboo all intact on the back but making something under 50 lbs wouldn't really worry me to do that bamboo is a great bow backing it is a good core material and it is a bad belly material and the only time I use it as a core material is going to be with fiberglass bows or you could say it's half of the core if you're splitting 50/50 bamboo and wood but as a belly material tested that a few times it's a nogo now fiberglass bow building with bamboo this one's deep but here are a few Basics most bows have multiple pieces of bamboo generally two pieces of bamboo and two pieces of fiberglass if you have clear fiberglass there's generally going to be another veneer in there so you have two pieces of bamboo two pieces of wood and then two pieces of fiberglass to make up one limb so either four or six pieces of material now the bamboo can be straight bamboo or it can be tapered bamboo depends on the bow style the Bow's performance the Bow's goal and so on on this bow I've tested out uh bamboo wedges near the handle and that actually worked out really really well it didn't provide a cool wood design aspect but performance- wise that's great you'll see here again bamboo on the top bamboo on the bottom comes together fiberglass on both sides now as far as bamboo goes to compare to Maple in the limbs I think Bamboo's much better performing I've even tested out Osage in the limbs the nice thing about bamboo is that as far as performance goes it it seems to be a little bit more forgiving it feels smoother a little bit faster I tried to reinvent the wheel a little bit and try different core materials and bamboo is just fantastic now Olympic recurves we'll use often something something like ceramic foam in the inside which is nearly as strong as carbon fiber but it's a little bit lighter and there you really want a light Lim today's video is not about that today's video is about the bamboo I personally like to use really low grit sandpaper something below 60 in order to thin it out to the thickness that I like so that there's little tiny grooves in the bamboo when I glue it up I find that this holds really well and I haven't had any problems with it the other nice thing about that is it allows me to remove material quicker on the drum sander before I glue it up just saving a little time I've got these spliced laminated slats that tend to work really good as corn material but I've also flattened full thick single pieces of bamboo use that as corn material it works great as well I haven't noticed any difference in those two uh as far as one being better than the other so that's big picture bamboo in all sorts of different methods it is a fantastic material not necessary for bow making but I've enjoyed using it a lot because because it's made me look better than I am so thank you for watching it's wild to me that other people are interested in Bow making like I am it's it's weird like I'm a I'm a weird person I like baking bows and then there's actually somebody else in the world who likes it too I don't know that's weird I guess I'm just saying thanks thanks for watching I hope this was enjoyable for you today say shadow proof I'll see you on the next video