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making a simple short recurve with hand tools only.

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Pappy:
Looking very good so far.Can't wait to see it finished. :)
   Pappy

a finnish native:
Thanks Pappy!
well, I'm back. I got the bow strung, but predictably I concentrated too much on the bumpy limb and did not notice that the straight limb was bending too much near the fades. (In a normal pyramid bow that bend that you see would have been fine, but since my bow has it's widest spot in midlimb there wasn't enough wood near the handle for a normal fade bend). I noticed a small chryshal near the handle in the straight limb when I was looking at the bow when I first strung it. Fortunately it is not deep at all, so I think I'll manage to fix it.
I decided to add some reflex into the bow and heat treat the belly, since this wood is better in tension that compression.
Hope to work on it more today.
This wood smells fantastic when heat treated. nice and spicy :P. And I love the colour that it gets too.
The pics:

[attachment deleted by admin]

JackCrafty:
Very interested in this build along.....looks good...and interesting choice of wood. ;D

a finnish native:
thanks.
This is one of the only woods here on the arctic circle that one can build a self bow from, and I my self have made my best bows from this wood. I am a Little worried about those chryshals though... I have never tried this design before, but I remain optimistic. ;)

a finnish native:
well.. that optimism is now long gone. The bow held, but developed terrible chryshlals near the handle where the power emerges from towards the tips. the design was not fit for this wood. Have made several bows from European Bird Cherry, and they have held fine without chryshals.
Lessons learned: this wood is great for bows, but they have to be of a certain design. This would be that they would be more or less of a pyramid design. With quite wide limbs.
I'll see if I can fix this, but only as an experiment. But hey! It's only wood, and there is plenty more from where that piece came from.

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