I just spotted something that might be of interest to anyone trying to make a bow from lumber yard boards. If you have read The Traditional Bowyer's Bibles, or similar, you will have heard that a thin backing can save a bow made from less than perfect timber. This was a God-send for me when I made my first bows, the hickory plank I got was far from suitable for making self-bow and I am sure that my linen cloth backing made the difference between having a bow and having firewood!
Well, I realise that linen cloth such as I used is not so easy to find, I was lucky that my mum and gran had stockpiled all sorts of fabric, which I was then able to raid.
So here is what I just found.
Biotex Flax Unidirectional 275g - 330mm Wide
http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/pro...bres/flax-unidirectional-275g-330mm-Wide.aspx
This roll of unidirectional flax fibre is 330mm (13") wide and the fabric is sold by the linear metre. The unit price shown is for 1 linear metre but volume discounts automatically apply for larger quantities of fabric.
Please purchase the number of linear metres you require. When purchasing multiple metres the fabric will be supplied in one continuous length on a roll.
Product Description
Biotex Flax woven fabrics are reinforcement textiles based on natural flax fibre and designed for fibre-reinforced polymer composite applications. As a premium natural fibre, flax offers improved mechanical properties over alternatives such as jute, resulting in higher strength-to-weight ratio and therefore stronger, lighter laminates.
Flax fibre can be processed in a similar way to glass or carbon fibre reinforcement and is suitable for use with a wide variety of resins such as epoxy, vinylester and polyester resin, including more sustainable or environmentally friendly synthetic and bio-based systems.
Flax fibre reinforcement is ideally suited to laminating by vacuum resin infusion where the vacuum consolation results in a high fibre to resin ratio and the resin infusion process produces void free laminates with an excellent visual appearance. Flax can also be laminated using a range of other processes including wet lay-up, resin transfer moulding (RTM), press moulding (matched tool), and prepregging.
About Biotex Fibres
Biotex natural reinforcements provide the high performance and easy processing normally associated with glass fibre composites but with lower weight and environmental impact. They are suitable for semi-structural and decorative applications in sectors such as automotive, construction, marine, sports and consumer goods.
Biotex Flax uses a unique Twistless Technology to ensure a high degree of fibre alignment, impregnation and performance.
Composites Evolution, suppliers of Biotex, have exclusively partnered with Easy Composites to make Biotex reinfocements instantly available worldwide. Composites Evolution can be contacted to discuss large commercial contracts.
Unidirectional Reinforcement
Unidirectional reinforcement is suitable for use in a wide range of reinforced composite applications including larger products like boat hulls and vehicle panels and also smaller products like recreational sports equipment including snowboards, skis and kiteboards.
Biaxial reinforcement offers mechanical performance advantages over traditional woven reinforcements because all of the fibres in the reinforcement are running in the same direction; focussing all the strength in that one direction and therefore allowing the unidirectional reinforcement to be carefully aligned as required (in the direction of the load) to achieve the maximum performance from the least material.
When I was actively making bows, I think this would have got me quite excited. Hope it is of use to someone out there
