Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Lehtis on December 02, 2014, 04:08:50 am
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Greetings from Finland!
After finishing my previous ELB-stylish HBHB in the beginning of November I´ve now, in the beginning of December, succeeded to make another ELB stylish bow. This bow combines the world as the British Commonwealth did earlier: Bamboo back and water buffalo horn decorations from East, Bulletwood core from South, Osage Orange belly from West and the bowyer from North... :-)
First I glued 15 mm osage thick billets at handle by Z-joint and after planing that a 5 mm thick bulletwood slice on top of it. I used Titebond III for this. Then I formatted a bamboo slice near the final bow width, 30 mm at handle and mid limbs and 15 mm at nocks. Then I sanded the slice down to 4 - 5 mm at edges and glued it on top of bulletwood, now 4 mm, with Urac-185. No reflex induced, the stave was kept staright while drying.
After drying I sawed the stave according to the bamboo shape and the osage slices got from the nock ends I glued on the belly side to thicken the handle area. Then I shaped the sides to final bow width, 26 mm at handle to mid limbs and to 12 mm at nocks. After rounding the bamboo backing´s edges normal tillering work started by removing extra wood from belly side. When the bow was bending enough for shorter string I attached the horn nocks wit Araldite and continued the tillering proces after that. After test shooting I made the handle from a bag found from a flea market. I tried to deepen the brownish colour of the leather by bathing it in coffee before sewing it on the handle.
My aim was to reach the same poundage as with the earlier made HBHB-bow and I succeeded precisely: 74 lbs @ 28". The bow length is 70,5" between the string grooves. So, now I´ve got two bows ready for IFAA Indoor World Championships, WIAC 2015, Pärnu, Estonia, next March.
Some photos attached - Hope you´ll like this.
T: Esa
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Yep another beauty, very nice job. :)
Pappy
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Very handsome bow :)
Del
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Gorgeous bow
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Really nice bow! Europeans dont seem to mess around when it comes to bow making.
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VERY nice bow.
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Great job man. That thing is a beauty. Love the horn nocks.
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One of my goals, an ELB. Nicely done!
George
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Very nice ELB! Very classic design and nice tiller. Well done.
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Sweet looking bow
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Thanks (kiitos) guys, for your kind comments!
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Sweet bow and nice bend. I have been wondering about that combo. I have some of the same materials I was thinking about putting in a bow.
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That's a stylish bow with a great tiller sir.
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This Bamboo-Bullet-Osage combo sounds quite OK so far. Just before this BBO bow I made similar one by size and strength, from back: Hickory-Bullet-Hickory-Bullet. While gluing this HBHB it was bent ca. 3" reflex which disappeared during tillering. After few hundred arrows this HBHB bow has now few mm gap between the handle and loose string in rest. I didn´t put any reflex on this BBO while gluing the parts but it is still less deflexed, less string follow, after shooting than the HBHB and it´s loose string just touches the handle in rest. Bamboo´s ability to resist stretching and osage´s elasticity/compression strength seem to fit together. Also this BBO sounds and feels faster than that HBHB; not chronographed yet.
This was my first attempt to use osage, simply because of it´s not easily and cheaply available here. Based on this experience, easy to work and handle with common tools and it´s known properties there, I´ve now ordered four billets for future projects. So, as many of you already know, bamboo and osage work fine together. My purpose to glue bulletwood between them was more or less to get some decoration on my bow but seems it´s fine working combo also.
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Yep, you folks from across the pond really know how to make a pretty bow. Nice Job. Killer tiller
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Very well executed. I really like the grip.
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Shot today with this BBO bow my personal training record 252; 20 yards / 60 arrows according to IFAA rules. Never shot better with any instinctive bow, including modern commercial glass fiber longbows. Perhaps this was one way to honour Finland´s 97th Independence Day which is also today.
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Congratulations! That's some great shooting. And happy independence day.
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"Nice shoot'n Tex!" eh em I mean "Fin!" :laugh:
Seriously.. AWESOME BOW! very nicely done! Great shooting too. Well done.
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Got a new toy, Chrony, and got to test it, naturally. I checked the speed of my latest BBO and HBHB bows and for comparison the two real ELBs from Pip Bickerstaffe and Mike Eaton, UK. Fifth one was Falcon Force Diamond Carbon flat bow from Estonia. The same 8 cedar arrows, spined to 65 lbs, weight 34 g (525 gr), were shot by all bows. My draw length is slightly abowe 28".
Results (not too bad for my hand work, I suppose):
My HBHB-ELB, 74", 74 lbs @ 28", Hickory-Bulletwood-Hickory-Bulletwood, Dacron: 49,0 m/s (160,9 fps)
My BBO-ELB, 70,0", 74 lbs @ 28", Bamboo-Bulletwood-Osage Orange, Dacron: 50,0 m/s (164,1 fps)
Pip Bickerstaffe ELB, 77,5", 70 lbs @ 28", Hickory-Purple Heart-Green Heart-Osage Orange, FastFlight: 49,7 m/s (162,9 fps)
Mike Eaton ELB, 74,4", 70 lbs @ 28", Bamboo-Ipe-Lemonwood, Dacron: 47,6 m/s (156,0 fps)
Falco Force Diamond Carbon, 68", 65 lbs @ 28", FastFlight: 53,6 m/s (175,8 fps)
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Very nice bow, great job! :)
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Almost as sweet as the HBHB! :-* Convincing chrono results as well. Industrial production is rarely outdoing handwork.
Nice work!
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Fine looking good bows you made. Thanks for sharing.
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Very pretty and a great combination of wood.
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Didn't. Notice this until bow of the month. Awesome work! You have my vote.
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Kiitos, Jesse & others who have been voting my bow.
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Now this bow has been in serious action and I won Gold and World Chamionship with it in IFAA´s World Indoor Championship Competition last week in Pärnu, Estonia. Well over 320 Archers from over 20 countries attended making the event the biggest IFAA indoor competition ever. Only big question mark was: Where were you, dear US archers, especally HB Class representatives? Only Julie Robinson reperesented USA in barebow class, also winning it. In Historical Bow Class the competition was between Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Romania and Finland and I succeeded to handle my nerves a bit better than the others.
The link to WIAC 2015 pages: http://www.wiac2015.org/
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I especially like the work on the amenities. Nicely done handle. Super job on the tips. Is that inlaid horn at the arrow pass as well? You do good work.
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Jep, domesticated water buffalo horn on tips and arrow pass.
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While your bow is a work of art, I'd like to compliment you on wining the championship, Not many accomplish that result......very well done, sir.
rich
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Congrats on a fine bow and your win.....that is excellent work on both accounts.
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Very nicely executed ! She shows her strength with grace !
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Very nicely done :)
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Congratulations, quite an accomplishment!
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Good looking piece. Markus