has anyone made any recurves using Bingham projects?

[JonD.]

Recently for some reason I've had the hankering to get into traditional archery. I bowhunted with compounds for several years until I got married and this just kind of dwindled off until I quit bowhunting all together. So anyway the bowhunting bug has bit me again, but this time I want to go with traditional equipment. I looked at several old recurves on e-bay, and bid on a few, but was unsucessful. Then something caught my eye-- it was plans to build your own recurve. Well after searching I visted Binghams Projects and decided I will try to build my own recurve.  Has anyone else had any luck with this?

[beerhunter]

I picked up one of the cherry/hickory bows of E-bay that you finish sanding for 60$. Its the best 60 bucks I've ever spent now the compound stays at home and the long bow comes out. I'm now looking for a Osage bow blank now. I want to do a Osage with bamboo reflex bow. You can pick up the ceder blanks cheap on there also.

[gulfdaddy]

You may also want to check out Rudder Bows on line. They have a variety of bows in various stages of completion. The Bower's Den is another good kit place to visit.
A couple of months ago I got the bug myself to try a more primitive angle to archery and looked at a few "build-alongs" at the Bowery's Den.  I ended up buying a 12 dollar red oak board at Lowe's and made a nice 50# flat bow that shoots amazingly well.  I have since learned to make the string, cut some river cane for arrow shafts, cut some broad heads from metal strapping and am hoping to kill a turkey this spring season to get feathers for fl etching.  Now won't it be a kick in the pants to take a deer with homemade stuff?
Look at the bamboo backed hickory reflex/deflex bows at Rudder Bow.  Not re curves but good shooters.    good luck Gary

[JonD.]

Thanks a lot guys. I'm definitely going to try to build my own recurve for starters, and as gulfdaddy said I'm going to try making a self bow next. It sure sounds like a lot of fun to try to take a deer with all handmade equipment!! Thanks for the website info.

[a45gunslinger]

JonD, I've found all of those websites very helpful. You may already know about the Traditional bowyers bilble  Vol. 1 - 3 . these came in handy also Volumes 1&2 more so than the last..Good luck- Kevin
       

[JonD.]

No,  I had no idea there were such books. Thanks a lot! I'll definitely look them up and try to get them.

[Rev Buck]

[img]I've made several takedown recurves using Bingham products.  They give great service and the process is a lot of fun, a good way to start in bowbuilding.  Here is one I made which I donated to a Wild Turkey Federation banquet (sorry about the quality of the pic).  Rev 

[JonD.]

Nice bow Rev Buck. My blueprints and plans came in the mail yesterday. I can't wait to get started!!

[JonD.]

Binghams plans and prints are great. I decided to go with the take-down as well. (I already had the material for the limb press in my garage-- what I had was too small for a one piece recurve ) Also, to save a little more, I will make my laminating oven out of board insulation rather than plywood and aluminum foil. I already have my riser block made up with the limb fade-out angles cut and limb mounting hardware installed. Right now I'm waiting on my limb materials to arrive in the mail. I'll try to get some photos.

[JonD.]

Got my limb materials and have glued one up and placed it in the hotbox today. It seems like it will turn out OK so far. I'll try to get some photos of my limb press and heating oven for all who may be interested in trying this yourself. Check out Bingham's: http://www.binghamprojects.com/


Here's some very helpful links about making a laminated bow:

http://home.rochester.rr.com/rlm/Bow/Dons_Bow_Building_Page.htm

http://www.geocities.com/salampsio/glass1.htm

[JonD.]

Here are some pictures of my almost finished take-down recurve project. I broke my first riser trying to string it.  :-[I placed it between two pieces of round stock that I tack welded to a welding table, and then used a come-along to try to flex the limbs to put the string on. My thought was that this would be like putting it in a bow press. Well, it didn't work and I was sick after I had shaped on the riser for a month, a little at a time.

 Binghams projects is excellent in service and has everything you need to make your own recurve bow. This has been fun:

My heat box. This required to set the epoxy that is used in recurve making. I tried to be cheap and just use a sheet of underlayment insulation with the foil on one side. This does work, but it won't hold up for very long, if anyone decides to try bow building go ahead and use the plywood lined with aluminum foil like the instructions say to do.



My limb press with air hose(this is a fire-hose) installed. The limb laminations are glued and placed in this, and then the hose is inflated pressing the laminates together tight. This is then placed in the heat box and sits for 6-8 hours to cure the epoxy. A bit of advice: do not use PVC pipe fittings for this, only steel ones and make sure you test it in your hotbox before you glue up a limb-- I learned the hard way-- I was able to save the limb, but with a lot of headache that could have been avoided.


A picture of my first riser that I broke. This one was white oak and mahogany laminated together. It took me about a month to shape this one, a little at a time. I was sick when I broke it. The second one only took me a couple of days, the wood is solid red-oak and is not as pretty but it looks well enough.


Here are pics of it almost finished with the 2nd riser. Specs are 64" AMO 60lbs at 28"draw. Left-handed as you can see. I still need to add the limb tip accents, finish filing the string groove, remove the protective tape from the limbs and give the entire bow a finish sanding and then aplly polyurethane. I'm still debating on whether or not to lightly stain the riser and limb wood first.

[a45gunslinger]

Very Nice! I can't wait to see the finished pics- Kevin

[JonD.]

Well I finally got it finished,( along with a dozen honey-do's) Now comes the real test: and that is how does it shoot? here are some pics:









And last but not least, here is the next one that I've started with a walnut riser...

[JonD.]

Well, the bow shot great. I got my wife to put the string on it while I pulled it with the stringer. After shooting 25 or so arrows and putting most of them in the lung area of my 3-d target, I got her to help me unstring it. She got the string off the limb, and I was letting it down when the riser snapped and the limb smacked her in the face right under her eye. The whole side of her face will be bruised bad. Needless to say, this is my last dealings with bow building. I threw it all away, if I decide to still go with traditional archery I'm going to just buy one and be done with it.