Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Marc St Louis on January 29, 2011, 01:57:05 pm
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I started this bow about 7 years ago. Initially it was a sinew backed Black Cherry recurve, I thought that a sinew backing would take some stress from the Cherry and it wouldn't chrysal as readily. I was wrong. The Cherry started to chrysal badly as I was getting to full draw. I had done 4 courses of sinew on this bow and I didn't want to waste all that work so I decided to work the belly down and remove much of the Black Cherry then I glued on a strip of Osage. This made the bow a sinew backed Osage with a Cherry core. The bow was giving me more trouble than I cared for at the time so I shelved it, probably in favour of another projext. A couple weeks ago I was looking at it hanging from my ceiling and decided to give it another go. The Osage had turned quite dark from age and so had the Cherry. I started work on it and it actually didn't take too long to finish tillering the bow out, I guess I had done most of it before I shelved it.
The bow is 60" long with limbs 1 3/8" wide and pulls 53# @ 28". I've shot it with 600 grain arrows and it spits them out there pretty good. It maintains about 5" of reflex after shooting so braced string tension is pretty high. Here's some pics
(https://i.imgur.com/8NI0uZy.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/adls5PA.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ySJVJkE.jpg)
I made this bow at the time I was making kerfed recurves. You can see the kerf line in this next picture. I was also trapping the back of the recurves, which you can also see
(https://i.imgur.com/x3BmM1P.jpg)
You can also see how I glued the Osage belly on in the next couple pictures
(https://i.imgur.com/Ux5MFMo.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/RXlWUBO.jpg)
All in all I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. The lower limb is a bit stiff coming out of the fade but the Osage has issues there so I did that on purpose to keep the stress down.
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Marc you are a Master Bowyer. Great story on how you saved that one and gave it new life. Thanks for sharing. It certainly shows the rest of us what is possible. Danny
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That is quite a bow and offers many ideas.
Jeff
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Amazing bow. So the sinew has pretty much been seasoning for 7 years? Plus the wood seasoning for 7 years? ;D
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Now that is slick, I love it.
George
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Nice bow Marc, what kind of speeds do think it is shooting?
Its often the way if you have a problem, leave things alone and come back to them later and you can see the right thing to do, looks like it worked this time!
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tiller is perfect , nice save
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Thanks guys
Yes this bow has been seasoning for about 7 years.
This bow is easily shooting 10 GPP in the 180's. I may try and chrono it but it's pretty hard to do in my shop and it's to bloody cold with too much snow outside
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looks great marc there s hope bows have 9 lives ha brock
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Thanks guys
The Osage I used was some scrap pieces I had left over from another project, they were worth saving
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woah sweet osage
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Thanks for sharing this...I really like the recurves. It does look like a great shooter.
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Wow Mark! Who'd of thought those 3 would work good together!
You! ;D
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Very nice.
Must be satisfying to to get that one off your plate.
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Beautiful bow Marc,great save.Bet it's fast to boot. :)
Pappy
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Thanks guys. It does shoot quite well. I'll try it through my chrony as soon as we get some nicer weather up here, it's -26 right now so a bit too cold to do any shooting.
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Beautiful bow! Great talent in salvaging that bow into a success story!
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Very Nice bow Marc! Wouldn't ever expect anything but the best from you anyways... And this one was 7 years in the making too, nice save! :) :) Got it bookmarked for January Laminate BOM Contest.
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Great looking bow,Mark. It looks like a fast, little, sexy thing. Ought to sling some arrows.
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Thanks guys. I'm glad I saved this bow, it didn't deserve an early death.
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Nice save. Sometimes problems like this lead to new discoveries. When I first saw that you posted the photos at Photobucket (I am a subscriber so it sends me a notice when you upload new photos) I just thought that you had built it up as a complex composite on purpose. I've been thinking about trying this for some time but have not tried it yet. The sinew makes perfect sense. I've wondered about building up a complex composite blank using boo on the back, something lightweight in the middle like walnut and a thicker strip of osage or ipe on the belly that can be scraped for tillering. Jim
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Didn't see this bow as well Marc with everything going on. Very interesting and really beautiful profile.
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Great save Mark, nice bow!
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Thanks guys.
I wouldn't build one of these on purpose Jim but I have done this on more than one bow, for the same reason
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Excellent bow Marc.Great work. God Bless
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Nice save Marc. Denny Such a pretty bow too...
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Very Nice, indeed.
Frode