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Congratulations to Justin Snyder for July's Laminate Bow

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OldBow:
Congratulations to Justin Snyder of St. George, Utah
for July's Laminate Bow of the MonthFrom Justin:
Boo backed Ipe 50" TTT and 48 1/2 NTN 50# @ 26"
Just over 1" wide from the grip out to 16" from center. The last 9" is a constant taper to the 1/4" tips. It has a 4" rigid handle with another 1 1/2" of fades. The static recurves are 6".
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,7923.15.htmlJust the right size for crawling around in the pig thickets of Florida.  It is a little on the petite side isn't it.  As skinny as it is and with all those curves I should have called it Super Model Bow.   I made sure I got it to full draw and square to the camera so you could see it well.
I had a couple of pieces of Ipe about 27" long.  Ipe is a beast to bend and I wanted tight recurves on this one so I had to get creative.  I cut a kerf cut 5 3/4" long into each limb tip. I then steamed it and bent it around my form. I have tried the kerf cut before and wound up with a tiny air pocket at the bottom of the cut so this time I cut and bent a thin piece of yellow heart and put it in the cut at glue up. I had to glue some of the recurve in because Ipe doesn't want to bend and wouldn't hold the tight circle I wanted. The recurve pattern is a 6" circle  so it is plenty tight.   I spliced the pieces with some deflex in them. When I glued it up I wasn't sure if I had enough deflex so I glued in a little more.  I couldn't get the bamboo to match the super tight radius of the recurve so I cut it just short and put on a 6" long yellowheart overlay. It has taken about 1/2" of string follow.
the handle wrap is horse leather sewn with yellow string to match the yellow heart accents.  I actually had string groves comming around and meeting on the belly of the bow and a groove comming down the belly of the recurve. After tillering it most of the way I started taking off the extra weight at the tips and took them out with the intention of redoing them.  The string lines up great and no matter how many times I pulled it they stayed right down the center of the recurve so I shot it.  The string still stays centered so I left it that way. Better to be lucky than good. I tried to bend the boo but it always snapped right before I got what I wanted. I thinned it down to 1/16" thick then boiled it, steamed it and used dry heat but it always came out straight.  It seams that dry only makes it stiffer while wet meathods had little effect. I know you can bend the heck out of the smaller stuff when it is young and green, but I don't think it even bends real well when it is older.
 Do you think it ought to get the job done in the swamps?   I can shoot it from my belly.
Pretty Cool, Huh
-"wow! now thats a short bow! at first it looked like hickory and i almost winced. tiller looks great!" -The Burnt Hill Archer
-"Wow!! Thats awesome...I draw 26"..... .....Brian
-"thats cool brother, even though i've only made three bows so far(that have made it past tillering). i think ipe is aweome wood.hard as heck to scrape but well worth it.now dont get me wrong, i like osage also. however ipe is unbelivable wood,like osage." sailordad
"Hey Justin, you surely got a nice bend going on that little guy " -NOMADIC PIRATE

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The Singing Bowyer:
Congrats, Justin! Heck of a bender.....  A well deserved win! ;)

Dustybaer:
congratulations justin, beautiful bow (perfect for my draw) scary bend and perfect tiller.  oh, and interesting fletching too  ;D  love the way you did the recurves.

david w.:
that bow amazes me.  Justin you have skills :)

Justin Snyder:
Thanks Chad
Marius, thanks I think.  ;D I was wondering how I got away with that worn out arrow so long without any comments.  Ill bet that arrow has been shot at least 3000 times. The fletchings have been shot by other arrows and abused so much that there isn't much left. Notice how much taller the top fletch is than the bottom.  The bottom has been worn down to half the height. They still fly good though.  ;D
Thanks David......    Justin

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