New painted bows

So here's some new bows I put on my website, http://www.bowskin.com/ 

The tillering wasn't the difficult part.The hard part was the painting, so I thought I would share my finds here for aspiring bowyers, or painters that may have similar problems.

 As you can see you can get some wicked cool clean lines and a nice finish when done properly, but this doesn't tell the story of the problems.

Problem #1 Low flash point solvent based paint.
Problem #2 High flash point solvent based catalyzed varnish
ad these together, and what happens is the paint will wrinkle and/or run.

Solution:
A friend of mine does alot of pinstriping and had suggested that when you thin your paint (use mineral spirits) add just a drop of your catalyst to your thinner (bout 3 oz. of thinner). This is supposed to create a nice marrige to the paint and varnish.

 Well after I tried that I seen a little bit better results, but the problem of runs or wrinkles still happened.

 So then I stuck to my old "global rule" of "go slow, little at a time" which equates to, when spraying your sealant, get a first coat on, but make it very light. If you go heavy it will take to long to dry, and it will have a longer time and chance to burn and bleed the paint.

 Ultimately the best choice is to use a paint with the same base solvents that your sealant/varnish/laquer/etc. has, but when this is not an option (as there are not alot of pro paint stores in this area) catalyst additive to your thinner, and light coats are an alternative.

The next theory I am testing is the use of a heat gun to bake certian solvent based paints after they air dry, then try different spray thicknesses to see if it will eleiminate the paint burning wrinkle/run or if it is just a waste of time. The theory comes from comparison to automotive painting. I have heard the paint is baked on before the clear coating is applied. with out knowing the why or investiving a bunch of time reseaching the chemistry and complete physics of solvents pigment vhicles, and heat, I thought I would do an additional trial and error. if anyone cares to add to this, feel free.

Fleshing Beam

For a while now I have had folks asking about the type of fleshing beam I use. it's difficult to explain (especially repeatatively over many phone calls) so I thought I would give everyone a visual.

As you can see, this style is very sturdy, before with the simple three-peice beam in the videos I always had trouble with the beam tipping to either side if my hide was not balanced. this was a real problem. The only way I countered it was having to be right there all the time to pin the hide between my torso and the beam.

 Now with the front of the beam stablized in an "A" frame this eliminates the problem.

The bottom ridge beam complets the frame. I preffer an angle of roughly 40 degrees, but you can make your own to suit your needs. to give you and idea of how high the top of the 4" PVC thick wall drain pipe is, it come about 2" above my navel.

Having your beam at the right height and angle pitch, is key for comfort without breaking your back. as the rough dimension wer listed before for my comfort, your may be different, you can add blocks or cut off from the base at the cak where the bottom and top ridge beams meet. and you can do the same for the "A" frame to adjust for height.

I hope this helps, and happy scraping!