Author Topic: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)  (Read 22134 times)

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Offline leonwood

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Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« on: November 07, 2018, 06:27:21 am »
A few months ago I got this really crooked piece of laburnum with a huge reflexed kink right in the middle from my friend Pinaka Longbows. The stave was already cut with a bandsaw so my width was pretty much set at about 1.2 inch max. (Stave pic below)

I first started to get the sapwood down to three rings. This worked really easy with this piece of laburnum since it has a nice crunchy darker layer between the sap rings.

Now I knew that much reflex would almost be impossible to keep in a self bow but it felt like a waste to just steam it out. Then I remembered Simson’s osage fivecurves and decided that this was the perfect stave have a go at that!

So I cut a caul for the deflexed parts out of some pine and steamed the deflex next to the handle in. I used my old reflex caul to steam in the reflexed tips. This was done in four sessions in about a week. Left it to rehydrate for another week and started tillering.

Now this stave has quite a few knots and most of them where really brittle and some even crumbled out so I drilled them out on the belly and inserted some laburnum plugs from another piece I had lying around. After first brace I had to correct one of the deflex curves because they where to uneven for my liking. Then after reducing the width at the tips I had to do about eight! heat corrections to get the string alignment right. I don’t think I ever used so much heat on a bow to get it to shoot!

Finished it up with buffalo horn tip overlays and arrow pass.
The handle is really rounded so decided on a simple wrap to make life easier. Wrapped it with a strip of leather and a cotton shoe lace and that came out way prettier then I expected, sometimes the easy way out is better;-)

Specs:
Wood: Laburnum
Length: 64” ntn
Draw weight: #50@28”
String: 8 strand fast flight
Tip Overlays: Buffalo horn
Arrow pass: Buffalo horn
Handle: Cow leather strip combined with shoe lace

//stave



// profiles







// braced




// handle








// details









// fd

Offline simk

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2018, 06:35:56 am »
Wow - that bow just leaves me speechless!
--- the queen rules ----

Offline Del the cat

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2018, 06:45:02 am »
Stunning :)
Del
Health warning, these posts may contain traces of nut.

Offline BowEd

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2018, 07:27:49 am »
Great vision to see what was there for a bow Leon.Nice work!That can take forever with all of the reheatings but looks like it was well worth the effort in the end.
BowEd
You got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.
Ed

Offline Bayou Ben

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2018, 07:36:40 am »
That wood sure is pretty and you did it justice with your craftsmanship! Another finely executed plan.  Great job!

Offline ohma2

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2018, 08:06:45 am »
Thats a good example of seeing what the wood wants to be.nice.

Offline rps3

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2018, 08:09:18 am »
That sure is a pretty bow. Sometimes you feel like youre never going to get it right with all those heat corrections, but it is all the more satisfying when it works out.

Offline hoosierf

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2018, 08:40:26 am »
Awesome bow and I bet she has good cast. Great unstrung profile and tiller. Well done.

Offline S.C. hunter

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  • does a possum have enough brains to tan his hide ?
Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2018, 09:44:40 am »
WOW, that is most impressive work. Really great job on a stave that to be difficult to work, but you showed who was boss.
Steve

Offline AndrewS

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2018, 09:48:52 am »
Wow, that looks great.

Offline DC

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2018, 09:58:31 am »
+1 to all the previous comments, that's a beaut!

Offline Badger

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2018, 10:04:05 am »
   Beautiful job on that one, you knocked it out of the park! I bet she is a screamer.

Offline High-Desert

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2018, 11:05:12 am »
That is a very cool bow. That’s an inspiring bow.
Eric

Offline simson

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #13 on: November 07, 2018, 11:06:02 am »
Hi, master of curves!
That is what we like to see, hard work but a beautyful result. And you've got more weight out than I estimated.
I like the profiles: stave, unbraced, braced and fd - this is showing the really masterful work.
Congrats! Will be a good candidate for the BOM.
Simon
Bavaria, Germany

Offline stuckinthemud

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Re: Laburnum five curve (pic heavy!)
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2018, 11:18:17 am »
There's a laburnum growing wild near me I've been debating cutting or not cutting, that bow may have just tipped the balance. Absolutely stunning, I love it.