I have to replace wood bows of my 1928 Rugby. Locally is hard to find skills for wood blending. I have been offered laminated. But there are different offers. Laminated cutting the "C" shapes from flat plywood and gluing several layers to meet thickness, or cutting thin slices of wood and bending them over a pattern to meet curvature, gluing layer to layer.
Somebody can give me an advise about the issue?
I think that importing bows will be unpracticable/very expensive.

Back in May, Don Shilling posted that Mel's, PO Box 179 Jeromesville, Ohio, 44840 419-368-3226 sold replacement hard wood, steam bent bows for $25.00 each. I have not seen any posts from members that have purchased any of these bows, but it is a place to start. I had replacement bows made from plywood and while they look just fine and do the job" STYLE="text-decoration: none; border-bottom: medium solid green;" HREF="http://search.targetwords.com/u.search?x=5977|1||||job|AA1VDw">job, they are not correct, original type bows. When they are covered you can't tell what they are made from. I paid a lot more than $25.00 per bow, so I'd give these guys a call.

Gary Warden
Atlanta

Member Jack Malpass put me onto "Mel's" as they made Bows for him and I saw the great looking Bows that Mel's had made in Chickasha, OK...I would check what the shipping charges would be to Argentina...As for my 1923 Durant I have glue lam bows that we made years ago and they are still going strong, we made the strips from Hemlock and there is as much wood wasted in sawdust as is saved, we worked for three days making a split form press with the 4" raduses and about 30 pull-down bolts to make the press, and then you have to be quick getting the messy glue on both sides of all strips and aligned then sandwitched before the glue sets...Maybe there is a better method in glue maminating but at the time we had no source for steam bent Bows and thought this to be the answer...Anyway good luck....Bill

Gary/Bill:

Thanks a lot for your advises, I am trying to get in contact with Mel. That will be for sure, the best option if I can afford importing from US.

Best regards

Ricardo