Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: skerm on February 25, 2010, 04:22:09 pm
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Hi!
I made this bow from hawthorn with an average diameter of about 1 1/4 inches for a sapling bow contest in a german bowyer forum. It's the first wood bow I've made in a year and I am very happy how it turned out, so I like to share it with you. Measuring 72 1/2 inches ntn it is probably a bit long for your tastes, but I like it that way. In any case I could not have made it shorter without steam bending additional "snakyness" to keep the string in line with the grip. It will be clear from the pictures.
The bow draws 46#@28". I added the linen patches on the knots, because I originally planned for a heavier bow and as I never worked with hawthorne before I was not sure how much it can take. Give the small diameter I also could not add width at the knots, so this was safer. I will replace the patches with new ones when I get new linen. The present ones were partially removed by the tillering. I hope you enjoy the pictures!
This the stave before I started working it.
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Stave.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Stave.jpg)
All pics are thumbs, please click to see the larger versions
String alignment
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Sehnenverlauf01.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Sehnenverlauf01.jpg)
I needed the vice to keep the bow from dropping from the tiller tree because of the single sided snakyness (is that actually a word?).
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Tillerbaum.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Tillerbaum.jpg)
Unbraced:
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Ungespannt01.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Ungespannt01.jpg)
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Ungespannt02.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Ungespannt02.jpg)
Braced:
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Standhoehe.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Standhoehe.jpg)
Tiller:
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Tiller.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Tiller.jpg)
Tiller with ellipse. I planned to make both limbs bend equally, but since there was almost no set in the reflex limb I decided to let it bend a little more because I like symmetry in bows.
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Auszug.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Auszug.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Auszug_Ellipse2.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Auszug_Ellipse2.jpg)
Drawn with a 32" arrow.
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Gezogen.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Gezogen.jpg)
The grip wrapping feels good, but it is irregular because the cross-section is not the same through its length.
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Griffwicklung.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Griffwicklung.jpg)
Cherry overlays:
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Tips01.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Tips01.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Tips02.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Tips02.jpg)
(http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Tips03.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Tips03.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/thumb_Tips04.jpg) (http://itp.tugraz.at/~skerm/Weissdorn/Tips04.jpg)
Daniel
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Awesome bow but pictures are so small!! i need to find my magnifying glass lol
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Awesome work! Very nicely done. Jawge
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i love them sappling bows!
good job!
jamie
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Thank you! :)
Awesome bow but pictures are so small!! i need to find my magnifying glass lol
You have to click on them, then you will get a larger picture!
Daniel
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Cool handle.Great bow.
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I like your bow. Nice tips and thoughtful work throughout. Tiller looks great.
Great Job.
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That's a good job of bowyery with a nasty piece of wood. I've been on the lookout for a hawthorn stave for a while, but everything I find here is so twisted and crooked that I don't want to deal with it.
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That is a great looking tiller with a really crooked piece of wood. I like it.
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I really like that bow. What a great bow from a tough looking sapling. Fine tiller work and detail work as well.
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Thank you very much! I'm glad you like it!
I suppose as long as the tips are kept in line, it's alright when it is crooked in between, except that it won't stay on the tiller tree. I could not use a clamp because of the circular grip cross-section.
Hilbilly, I got 4 staves from this hawthorn shrub and none of them is straight. This is also the one with the least knots.
Daniel
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A great looking bow, I like the tips.
Just a thought, most guys want to do as little work as possible to see the pictures, you might want to post the bigger ones to begin with next time.
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Beautiful bow,ya Justin we are a lazy bunch. :) Nice work skerm. :)
Pappy
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Ok, thanks! I will make some medium size pictures next time!
Daniel
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I can't see any pics or do I have a place to click to make them larger. ???
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Really nice bow. I'm surprised how even the tiller looks given the natual deflex in one of the limbs and the reflex in the other. Did you heat those out?
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Gordon, I don't follow. By deflex limb, do you mean the straight limb that points down a bit? I used steam to reduce the reflex in the snaky limb (left in the pictures) because otherwise I figured the string would be too close to the grip when braced. Somehow it hasn't occured to me to add reflexed to the other instead when I did that.
The (almost) full draw pictures shows that the tip of the reflex limb doesn't move to the same level of the straight limb's tip. I measured how far each tip moves in the tiller picture. The tip of the reflexed limb moves by 130 pixels from unbraced to drawn, the other tips moves by 114 pixels. So the reflexed one is a bit weaker which is why I picked it as upper limb. I did that on purpose because I don't like my bows too asymmetric.
The first picture of the rough stave shows a view of the back of the bow. I think this picture may be a little confusing because I didn't indicate where I placed the bow. There is a big cut off branch right of the number 2. This spot is on the lower limb just below the grip.
I'll attach the pictures in a smaller size, I hope this works for everyone!
[attachment deleted by admin]
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more pictures
[attachment deleted by admin]
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last pictures
[attachment deleted by admin]
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Oh, never mind, that's the front view I'm looking at. The tiller looks perfect then. Well done!
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That is the coolest sapling bow I have seen in awhile man! Great job! :)
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Yes very well done that bow :)
The handle wrap looks pretty cool, did you forget to post that foto in our local forum at least I didn't recognised it there.
Gruß acker
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yes very nice bow! I too liked that handle wrap, and was trying to do something like that on my last bow, but gave up. any chance we could get you to do a how to on it?
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Thank you guys!
@acker: I am sure I did!
There is a good video on how to do this wrapping on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSYPALS433M
I did it with shoe laces because I did it at short notice. It worked, but it takes some care because the laces become substantially thinner when stretch, so they must be stretched the same all the time. I added the occasional drop of super glue here and there to keep the whole thing from unraveling because a bow is much more cumbersome to handle than the grip shown in the video.
Daniel
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Skerm, nice bow! I love the grip too, as I'll be doing something similar with my bow but with leather tsuka-ito (Japanese sword hilt wrap) that Fred Lohman does ( google is your friend ;))
I've got a nice piece of samé (rayskin) to lie underneath it too.
Do you wear a glove when you shoot that bow? How does your hand feel after shooting it a few hundred times?
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Thanks! Today was a warm, sunny day (about time!) and I shot this bow about 100 times without a glove. I didn't notice anything unusual or uncomfortable with the wrapping, it felt fine.
Daniel
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Thank you! :)
Awesome bow but pictures are so small!! i need to find my magnifying glass lol
You have to click on them, then you will get a larger picture!
Daniel
oops lol i see now ;D
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Great job on a very challenging piece of wood. God Bless
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nice work, skerm!
tiller looks great
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Very nice,looks great. :)
Pappy
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Thanks for the compliments!
I can hardly await the other staves to dry and make a heavier one!
Daniel
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Cool bow!!
How long do you let the saplings dry?
Thanks!
Jay
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You really did a tremendous job with your tillering on this bow. And I really like your picture presentation to show what's going on. Nicely done!
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Thanks a lot! I appreciate it!
The saplings were cut on January 08. I gave one away, two others are drying sealed with the bark on. The one I used for this bow had a grip diameter of about 1 1/4 inches, the others are about 1 1/2 or 1 3/4 inches, I didn't measure yet.
I left the bow in the workshop (cold basement) for a few days, then removed the bark and some wood in the outer half of the limbs on the belly side. After a few days in the basement (about 6°C or 43F, I am glad it's getting warmer now...), I left it in the kitchen for another couple of days. There were no checks, so I removed the bark on the side, and left it in the basement again. When it did not show any checks after another few days in the kitchen, I removed the remaining bark and took it to the kitchen after another few days in the basement for the final drying of about 3 weeks. Total drying time must have been 6 weeks, maybe a few days more. I didn't write it down.
There were several knots that I planed through on the belly side. They checked (~5mm cracks), so I recommend sealing these spots. I will do that with the next ones.
There is a larger knot beneath one of the lines patches. This turned out to be a weak spot. It is midlimb and I had to thin the limb near the grip down to the same thickness (!) to get an even bend. This is the reason why I ended up with only 46#. It's still great wood, but I suppose it is better to leave a good extra thickness on knotty spots - I thought 3mm would do, but it didn't.
Daniel