Thank you all.



Richard - it means a lot coming from you, thank you. I missed not seeing you or Steven up there.



John - the mate with the ebony is from doing the maple negative space on the 1 1/2"dia. wheel at the top of the platen on my 2x72" knife grinder Square Wheel machine, coupled with turning a square of ebony on the lathe to match. The beauty of this joint over, say a flat-overlay join (Locktite 151 Hysol epoxy - I use on my knife handles), is that the glue at the sides is not in peel, but shear, and much stronger.



The shape was created during the glue up.Now that I think of it, it was a lot of things at once in one glue up! Somehow, I got away with it. I need to start taking pictures, so you guys don'e need to listen to my thousand words, but I describe it: First, the boo n bulletwood are generally shaped, of course flattened, and the handle narrows and tip narrows cut in a general profile,but the tips were 1 1/8 wide for about 9". The three pieces of the handle are cut narrow like the handle and the uppermost under the boo is maple, sawn to match the shapes of the fades, feather tapered at the ends. The walnut is next under it, and also feather tapered, then the bulletwood, two pieces previously joined "Z" splice cured, sanded flush. This is cut in an arc on the archer's side, and a piece of cherry cut to the same curvature is mated. Now for what you actually asked: the saiyas are maple, cut as two intersecting curves going from feathered ends to thick of about 1", over the 9" length, and are actually wider than the boo/bulletwood. The ebony is not done at this time, oddly enough, and it would have been easier, though wasteful of ebony.



The glue-up: I set up a2x4 in my vice horzontal, and have already marked the stations [measured, from center], where I want support under the limb sandwich, and where I want the pressure blocks to force the tips up to conform to the saiyas. I started glue-up, with the cherry piece, the bellyside of the handle riser, then the bulletwood glued up core, then the the walnut, maple and finally, the glue is buttered on the boo - which btw is left full thickness in the middle - not quite 3/8" tapered to maybe an 8th soon after the fades. Like a self-powerlam, but I added both maple - [just under 3/8ths], and walnut - [just under 1/4" thick at the center] too, don't forget. Hope that is clear [as mud - not!].



The center is clamped first, then the riser all pieces including power lam, pulling it into deflex to the stations set up. When I got near the ends of the mid limbs, I inserted the maple in-between the boo/bullet, and seated it at the depth I wanted, it left 1/8" showing of the maple saiyas above the boo. Made sure they were parallel, put them up on the pressure blocks at about 1 inch from the ends, pulled down the middle of the curve, clamped it all up. Took 33 clamps, including three 6"ers, the rest 4". I leave it on for at least a full day and then take them off, start trimming w/ a 36grit belt and eyeball.



Much much later, as I started refining the shapes, the tips got reduced, but still more meat than I wanted. That's when I did the ebony tips with the whole bow to deal with on the sander! Fun and games, trust in luck, etc., etc. Then they got reduced even more to their present state, then the carving, and the interesting little ripples in the ebony are really a second set of nocks for the simple stringer I made out of cord. No way you want to jam the razor tips into the insole of the foot to brace it!



I called this "Skele-Tip Bow", even once "Aerospace Tip Bow", but now that I've just said it, "Razor-Tip Bow" doesn't sound too bad.



David - Now that John 'made' me do all that explanation, here is your answer - I don't know. I am basically a newbie to this whole deal.



DaVid