Sugar Maple D Longbow

[Robert Pougnier]

This is my latest bow. It's sugar maple harvested in 2021. Very tight grain and growth rings, took a little bit more set than desired but has not been heat treated. The stave had a dog leg on one side and some reflexed kinks on the other so tillering was very slow due to the many crooks and kinks. It has a working handle.

Specs: 52# at 27". 69.5 inches overall, 68.75 ntn. 1 3/16" inch from handle through midlimb, down to 3/8" at the tip. 18oz mass.
Set immediately after unstringing is 3/4". Down to 1/4" at rest.
Horn tip overlays and a cloth handle wrap with buckskin borders. I put a bit of padding under the wrap to increase grip comfort. Finish is one layer of tung oil, the 2 of spirit varnish and a top of paste wax. String is 18 strand b55 Dacron.

Thanks for looking!

[Robert Pougnier]

Detail photos

Last photo is of the dogleg unbraced

[bentstick54]

I have never made a bend through the handle bow, but everything about yours looks great to me.

[Bob Barnes]

I agree.  Your bow has taken very little set, has a great tiller, and the workmanship shows experience.     I have only made a few bendy handle bows but never a narrow one.  It looks like it would be pleasant to shoot. 

[Hamish]

That's a pretty good result, for maple. That's very low set considering it is relatively narrow, and doesn't have a tempered belly.

Got some nice character in it. I don't see many tree stave maple bows, mainly just board bows.

I'm curious to if the bow has much handshock? To me it looks like the tips are a little stiff, but then the unstrung set profile clearly shows there is no excessive amount in the inner limb stress/ set. Tips are narrow too. This makes me think it would feel like a nice shooter, with good cast.

[willie]

@ Hamish
sugar (or sometimes called rock) maple is up there with the better whitewoods.

@robert
did you plan for a circular tiller? sometimes bendy handles can start bending, more than planned, in the handle area during the last few inches of tillering.  If you were thinking of heat tempering, I would considering the middle third (thru the handle area)

Like the primitive look!

[Del the cat]

Sweet...
Del

[Pappy]

Good looking bow, very nice work, beautiful wood to boot.
 Pappy

[Robert Pougnier]

It's my 3rd maple bow and It's also my 3rd attempt at a D bow.

@willie I used the elliptical profile on p.274 of TBB vol1 as a guide for the tiller profile. Last D bow was too bendy at the handle section and I spot treated it that way.  I was more careful this time around and like the tiller better. There is some near handle character that throws off the tiller picture just a little.

I have had issues with chrysals on the belly previously that appeared after heat treatment, so I decided to wait on this one.

The hand shock is pretty minimal since the tips are narrow.

I've been trying to keep mass in mind (and a scale handy) while tillering more recently. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but my bows seem to come in on the heavier side. The wood is mostly around 8% moisture. This one "should" have been around 13-14oz according to the formula. But I feel like had I lightened the tips even more it would have been to whip tillered. And going narrower mid limb would have been risky.

I'm not sure how much knobbiness and character in a stave can add weight, or how significantly wood density affects that within a species. I've hear tight ringed hard woods are not the best as the early/late wood ratio is high. I think this tree was at least 40 and tight ringed for sure. I am working on a group of staves that I harvested years ago and my wood selection criteria has evolved since. This stave has quite a bit more character than is visible!

[WhistlingBadger]

That's a great looking bow.  Does that little  dog leg have some kind of wrapping on it, or am I seeing something that isn't there?

Anyway, looks like a sweet shooter.  I have a Rocky Mountain Maple bow ready for tillering, and I'm excited to see how it shoots.

[Robert Pougnier]

Thank you! No wrapping, it's just left a little thicker right at the bend.

Just did some more shooting with it this morning and it's definitely an easy sweet shot! No increase in string follow as of yet.

[willie]

@willie I used the elliptical profile on p.274 of TBB vol1 as a guide for the tiller profile. Last D bow was too bendy at the handle section and I spot treated it that way.  I was more careful this time around and like the tiller better. There is some near handle character that throws off the tiller picture just a little.

Did your spot treating help? Its an interesting method for tillering and I hope you can share more about the pro, cons and results.

just how much to keep the handle stiffer was an interesting discussion a while back, at least when it was about warbows.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,69818.0.html

[Pat B]

Nice ELB, Robert.