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. 

[Robert Pougnier]

@Willie

So that's an interesting question. In my impatience to get to work again I flexed the last D bow while it was too dry (just 18 hours after heat treating the handle/fades) and it developed a compression crack right at the fades. That was three weeks ago. I've now sinew backed it in hopes of moving the center of balance slightly away from the belly. It's been two weeks since that and it's since taken a half inch of reflex and I'm almost ready to do a patch over the belly. I'm going to put a string back on it in 2 more weeks and see how it goes. I was pretty bummed to get a crack, it seems like the vast majority of mistakes I make are from rushing processes and wait times that are pretty important! The last D bow is a fair bit shorter though, 60" ntn, and I plan on tillering it to 40# at 27" once the sinew is cured. I'm hoping it survives into a decent shooter.

The method itself though, spot heat treating, seems to work and be pretty versatile. I've corrected tiller a couple times with it successfully and I think it's a great tool.

[Robert Pougnier]

Thanks Pat!