Congratulations to Darksoul from Wageningen, the Netherlands for his Backed Bow Win!!!
From DarksoulHey guys.
Here's my latest creation I finished this week. It's a design with severals features I've playing with in my head for a longer time. It started about two months ago, with preparing the laminations. From there on, everything went relatively quick (at least for me) and without major problems. The bow is pretty much exactly what I had in mind before I started the project. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together
It's a BBI (bamboo backed ipé) trilam. The core is a lamination of bubinga. The design is a reflex/deflex, with approximately equal amounts of reflex and deflex. The bow has about ½" of set (deflex) when relaxed. It has a tiny bit more after some shooting, maybe 1" or so. The reflex is 2" in the top limb, and 1½" in the lower limb. I originally glued in equal amounts of reflex in both limbs, but tillering changed that. Possibly because I strung it too early, stressing the lower limb more than the upper, causing a bit of set in that limb. The difference in reflex of both limbs was quite annoying when tillering. Since the upper limb is reflexed more, that needs to be reflected in the braced bow as well. It even needs to be (slightly) visible in the full drawn profile. I think I did pretty well on the tiller, but I'm not sure.
The bow is meant for target shooting. The drawweight is 47#@28". Right where I wanted it to be. A pleasant weight, which allows for shooting for hours on end. The design of this bow is FAST! Man, this bow hits hard for sure! I've never been more accurate with a newly made bow. This is currently my best shooter for sure. No handshock at all, really quiet, and the arrows fly exactly where I want them to go to. Although the bow is pretty assymetrical (top limb is 1" longer, top limb has ½" more reflex, arrow rest is 1½" above the exact center of the bow), it draws very nice. Even if the tiller may not be perfect, I'm not changing it. The way she shoots tells me not to mess around with her anymore.
The handle is an eye catcher for sure. I had the idea for such a handle for about two years or so, but I finally decided that THIS would be the bow for it. I'm not going to tell my secrets for making such a handle It was time consuming, to say the least. But the result looks even better than I'd hoped in advance! It flows, it moves...I like it! The woods in the handle are wengé and hard maple. To complement that black and white pattern, I used some zebrawood tip overlays. The tips are about 9 millimeters wide. It has a very gradual taper to the tips, so I personally think there's very little excess mass in the tips.
Stats:
66" NTN
47#@28"
Thin (less than 1/8") bamboo backing
4 mm parallel bubinga core
Ipé belly of max. 7 mm thick
Limb width max. 32 mm (1¼")
Handle length 30,5 cm (12")
Hard maple power lam (18" long and ¼" thick)
Wengé and hard maple handle, zebrawood tips
645 grams physical weight
Congrats! here are some of the nice things people said about your bow!"Very nice job. At first glance I wasn't sure I liked the handle. After I looked at it a bit more I really began to love the way it looked. Very Cool. I like to see new ideas, and that is a new one to me. Great job. Also tiller looks great to me." -Rick Trojanowski
"Oh yes...I love the checkerboard handle, a work of art in it's own right." -Del the Cat
"Wow, those are some tight glue lines. I've never seen a handle like that before, great work! You have a gift!" -Cameroo
"Wow! What a bow, the handle is really amazing. How you ever dreamed something like that up is beyond me. Let us know when you are willing to give the secret up!" -nyarrow
"That bow is beautiful. Outstanding work. The riser is truly a work of art. I know you're proud of it and you should be." -Bighornangler
