Author Topic: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)  (Read 5230 times)

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Offline Hilongbow

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Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« on: February 27, 2020, 02:09:44 am »
Aloha all,

This post is lengthy, so feel free to grab some snacks (-P or just skip ahead to the pictures.

I grew up in Central NY, and when I was in college my parents moved to Putnam County (southeast part of the state). Their property was 11 acres in a beautiful forest. My mom's family was from that area, going all the way back to the 1700s. If anyone is familiar with the area, the town of Briarcliff Manor used to be an estate owned by my ancestors, who were so wealthy that their occupation was listed on the census as "gentleman." I'm also a descendant of the Van Buren family, who all lived and are buried in that area. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you feel about history (lol)), I am not descended directly from Martin Van Buren but one of his siblings, so no royal blood here.

The family moved north to Saratoga long ago, when my grandmother was a toddler. My parents moved to the Putnam area solely because of my dad's job. By total coincidence, the property they purchased was located in an area my mom's uncle used to hunt, around 50 years ago. All this is just to say that although at the age of 20 I had probably never even heard of this area, I have some pretty solid "ancestral" ties to it.

I will make a quick note here that this same uncle used to take me out to look for arrowheads as a kid every time I visited, and sparked a lot of my interest in primitive archery. I actually found a nice point last summer while walking some fields with him, which was the first time I had ever found a complete piece. He also gave me an antique drawknife, spoke shave, and some mint condition old hand cut files and rasps a few years back, which I use all the time.

My parents property was 11 acres of beautiful hardwood forest, mostly consisting of various oaks and cherries, white ash, and maple with a few shagbark hickory and a massive (over 4' DBH) tulip poplar. In 2011, remnants of Hurricane Irene passed through and downed a tall, straight, white ash. At the time, I had taken some interest in woodworking, and wanted to cut the tree up for lumber. Sometime before that, the uncle mentioned above had made a comment about how Native Americans used to make bows out of ash and hickory. I had very little experience with archery outside of a kid's compound bow, and whatever dozens of limbs I wrapped a string around as a kid. I certainly had no idea how to make a bow. A quick internet search told me that I should cut a long section, split it, and remove the bark.

I cut an 8' section, split it into quarters, and removed the bark with a hatchet. Due to lack of knowledge, I didn't spend any time lining the splits up to avoid knots, and my hatchet took many chunks out of the layer below the bark. I threw all of it in the basement to season.

After these preparations, another quick internet search convinced me that making a bow was too complicated and I lost interest. I wasn't doing much archery at the time so I just didn't have the motivation to learn. Over the following winter, I cut one of the quarters into small boards, and made a speargun out of another in preparation for my move to Hawaii. I left the other two full size to leave my options open for what to do with them another time.

Fast forward 5 years (to 2016), and my passion for archery had been reignited, and I had been making bows for a couple years (g**ss bows and BBI). My parents decided to follow me to Hawaii, and it took some serious begging but I managed to convince them to throw the 2 remaining pieces of ash into the shipping container and not into the bushes outside. When the staves arrived, I was disappointed in how I had treated the backs, and with how many knots there were. I put them to the side and continued making bows with the other materials I was used to. Also, I really liked bows with shelves and didn't care to make a selfbow with a shelf, so I was in no rush.

Then, in 2019, I made my first BITH bow, a 52" BBI. It quickly became my favorite bow, I couldn't stop shooting it (until it delaminated). I would be in the yard until midnight shooting a haybale in the dark. My thoughts turned to my ash staves. It was time to use one to make a bow.

I cleaned up one of the staves, and worked it down to (nearly) a single growth ring in the heartwood. This gave me some perspective on what I had to work with, in regards to knots and grain.

But then I went online. "Ash bows need to be long," it said. "Ash bows need to be wide," it said. "Ash hates humidity," it said. "Ash bows need to have perfectly straight grain." In my mind, lots of requirements to make a hunting weight, durable bow with ash. I have no interest in lengthy bows, too much jungle here. I don't find wide bows particularly appealing. We average 60-70% humidity year round and frequently have days where the air is so super saturated that even on hot days our floors are wet from condensation. The stave I started working on did not have straight grain, and had several large knots. Maybe it wasn't time after all.

So I asked around here and was able to get some osage in a trade. Osage can handle being short, narrow, and snakey, and doesn't go limp in humidity. The bow I made from that stave is my absolute favorite bow so far. I am frequently out in the yard until after midnight, shooting the haybale in the dark. At one point, I only had 1 arrow and took so many shots that I wore the lawn down to a mud path (which after months of coaxing still has not regrown). My experience with that bow helped me accept that you really need to let the stave tell you what kind of bow it will be. I accepted that a stave may laugh at your preconceived notions of what kind of bow it should become, and that you need to let go of them to build the best bow possible. Now it was time to re-visit that ash stave.

With all of this history, this stave took on some serious sentimental value. To set myself up for success (in other words, to prevent heartbreak (lol)), I restarted this project with one goal: to shoot an arrow (literally one single arrow) from full draw without the bow breaking. Whatever design adjustments I had to do to get to that point, I was willing to do, even if it meant ending up with a bow that I had no interest in shooting or hunting with. Really, it was a way to give purpose to a piece of wood that traveled 5000 miles and spent nearly a decade in a basement or shed. Let the shavings fly!

To be continued in about 15 minutes, I am going to put pictures in the next post.

Offline Hilongbow

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2020, 02:31:27 am »
Picture time!

This is what I came back to:











Some portions of the internet would tell me that this stave couldn't make a bow. I wanted to try anyways. I had nothing to lose, because I'd either end up with a cool bow and a cool story, or a few pieces of my favorite kind of firewood. Only one of those options can be re-purposed for the other.

I made it as wide as I could. Knots limited me to 1.75". Here's a picture of the one that prevented me going a full 2":



Some might suggest keeping the bow even wider, and going around the knot. The belly side of the knot was solid, but the part inside the limb was rotten, and I didn't think I was good enough yet to have a tension strong wood with a compromised belly. Or maybe I still hadn't truly accepted letting the stave dictate what kind of bow it will make. Who knows. I cut it off.

Here is a picture of the stave around 2" wide, before reduction to the final front profile:



The far end of the stave (sorry, it's a bit blurry) has a knot dead center, so I cut the bow just beyond it, at 62". I figured that part of the limb would be stiff enough to handle a knot there. This also removed the deflexed end of the stave.

I decided against a BITH bow, because I had read that ash's low compression strength could spell disaster if I narrowed the handle and let it bend, and I didn't want a 1.75" wide handle. My draw for this type of bow is 25" and I kept the handle and fades/dips short, around 6.5" total. Unfortunately, that knot was worse than I realized and I ended up cutting the bow to 59.5" ntn. Hopefully still long enough to bend to 25", but a reduction in target draw weight was in order. I was hoping for about 40# at 25", but really didn't care what the final draw weight was. I figured that as long as I kept it low enough to prevent massive amounts of set, cast would remain acceptable with appropriately weighted arrows.

To be continued (in another 15 minutes or so)

Offline Hilongbow

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2020, 02:45:31 am »
Roughed out, here's what we're looking at:





There was a healthy dose of reflex, hopefully enough to offset the set it would take and end up with a straight bow.

EDIT: Forgot to insert this picture here


After tillering to maybe about 10" of pull on the long string, I did a heat treat. This is my first attempt at heat treating. I figured with our humidity here it would help. Anyone ever try this setup before? I went very slow, letting the limb get hot all the way through but not letting the back get too incredibly hot. The belly got a nice toasty color, but no char. I then did a few heat corrections to help line up the string at brace (sorry, no pics). I didn't bother adjusting the prop twist, its only about 20 degrees or so from end to end.

I never pulled past 40# for the first bit of tillering, but after it started taking some set I stopped pulling past 35#. A lot of set started developing in the spot where that huge knot was (on the bottom limb), so I had to adjust carefully and avoid letting it get too bad. The top limb took nice even set along its length.
At 24" of draw, the tiller seemed a little off. It looked even, but there was a lot of handshock and noise. The top limb was over 2 inches longer than the bottom (from having to take off that knot on the end), so I shortened the top limb by about half an inch. This didn't completely fix the tiller, but made it a lot better. A little more scraping and sanding to get out the tool marks and it was time to shape the grip and finish this thing up.
« Last Edit: February 28, 2020, 04:24:00 pm by Hilongbow »

Offline Hilongbow

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2020, 03:25:58 am »
Here is the final product:













Top limb:


Bottom limb (back):


Bottom limb (belly):













And of course, full draw!






Some pics of the handle. I just love the grain on ash, especially on contoured areas.









For anyone curious about that speargun I mentioned earlier that was made from the same tree:



And with my favorite fish, aweoweo:





Final specs:
59" ntn
42#@25" (picked up about 5# from piking it, holding its profile and weight after a couple hundred shots)
1.75" to a little beyond mid limb, tapering to .5"
top limb about 2" longer than bottom
String nocks about 1.5" behind the back (string follow/deflex)
Watco teak oil finish



This has been a bit of a journey, but mission accomplished. If you read through everything, thank you! I hope you enjoyed and could relate to some or all of it. It is part of what makes this obsession ::cough:: I mean addiction ::cough:: I mean hobby so rewarding. Unfortunately the finish for this bow revealed extremely fine but also quite numerous chrysals from the fades to midlimb, but I don't plan to shoot it much anyways so it should last quite a while. For anyone else looking at a similar design, go longer or wider, or both!

Thanks especially to everyone who has shared so much information to help folks like me accomplish our goals. I couldn't have done it without the hundreds of hours scrounging this forum for knowledge.

I'd also like to give a shout out to my uncle for inspiring me for as long as I remember to be inquisitive, appreciate primitive technologies and bushcraft, and for being generous with tools and materials like wood, flint/chert, antler, etc. He's even growing a couple osage trees on his old farm in NY that I may get to use for a bow someday. He has been such an important part of my extra-curricular learning that I even wrote my college application essay about him (we were asked to talk about a hero, role model, whatever).

Aloha and thanks again for following along!


Offline Hilongbow

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2020, 03:28:30 am »
One last thing to mention: I have 1 more stave from this log, and its long, wide, and as far as I can tell, straight grained with no troublesome knots. I decided to play with the lower quality stave first, for better or worse. I'm going to reflect on this build for a while and decide what to do with that one. Perhaps you'll see a bow from it on here in the next couple years.

Offline Del the cat

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2020, 04:59:01 am »
Great job, some lovely character on that bow... great story :)
Really tells of the journey, the perseverance and how there's a time for both you and the wood. :)
Del
Health warning, these posts may contain traces of nut.

Online bjrogg

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2020, 05:36:48 am »
Great job. Loved the story. It’s amazing sometimes how much both a person and a stave can grow after the stave is cut. Glad you lost interest in the beginning. The speargun was the better choice at the time. Now that you have both cured and aged perhaps that stave that’s been waiting will tell you what it wants to be. I look forward to seeing it in the future and more from you to.
Welcome to PA
Bjrogg
A hot cup of coffee and a beautiful sunrise

Offline leonwood

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2020, 06:39:02 am »
Great story! This is what building bows is all about for me. Makes the bow a keeper too I presume!

Offline George Tsoukalas

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2020, 07:41:57 am »
Nicely done! Jawge
Set Happens!
If you ain't breakin' you ain't makin!

Offline johnfolchetti

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #9 on: February 27, 2020, 08:28:12 am »
Great story. Nice tiller. I am from Putnam County, currently live in Patterson & work in Brewster. Would like to connect with your uncle & with you if you are ever back this way.

Offline aznboi3644

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #10 on: February 27, 2020, 09:58:21 am »
Nice and thanks for the great story.  Good looking fish.  I love seafood

Offline Hawkdancer

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #11 on: February 27, 2020, 11:28:06 am »
Nice work!  Great tale!  Don't overdraw and keep her finish sealed!  She should last a long time!
Welcome to PA!
Hawkdancer
Life is far too serious to be taken that way!
Jerry

Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #12 on: February 27, 2020, 12:51:59 pm »
Aloha braddah' :)

Very nice work on a stave I would normally tell you to run away from.
Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.

Offline hoosierf

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #13 on: February 27, 2020, 03:04:26 pm »
Shaka brah!

Offline medicinewheel

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Re: Ash Character Bow - With a LONG story (and pictures)
« Reply #14 on: February 28, 2020, 12:38:56 am »
This is a really nice bow! Great work!
Frank from Germany...