Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Zion on September 27, 2012, 01:46:24 pm
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Hey guys, a while back i harvested a little Serviceberry stick that was about 1" at the bottom and like 3/4" at the top. Midway through the bow-making process, when i was starting tillering, it popped about a 15" splinter off the back of the top limb :'(. I decided not to give up and i attempted fixing it with epoxy and some thin cotton string, however it was difficult to correct the tiller with the huge chunk of wood gone. It has survived, though, and very well! I am shocked at how accurate of a shooter it is, especially since the string tracks to the opposite side that i shoot on....besides this it is a very smooth, fast shooter and is my funnest bow to shoot so far! I didn't bother with much sanding/cosmetics, since i wanted it to be a a real 'paleo' bow. ;D
54" ttt.
60# @ 25"
I know the tiller is not even close to perfect, much less the prettiness, but the goal of this bow was not to be pretty but to survive! OK, i know i'm getting side-tracked ;D... here's the pics :)
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Nice tiller as always! i love seeing your work and it is always impressive what you accomplish! thanks for posting! ;D
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Nice, looking at your pics it gives me hope for my "stick," right now it's still all thick and blocky. I see I have to really thin mine down.
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Oh, I like that bow!
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Very nice. Jawge
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Nice work young man! You got a great future ahead of you in this biz. I keep lookin at your pics (the ones in the past also) and trying to figure where in Washington you're at. I'm in Seattle and grew up in the Yakima area. What's throwing me is that thick sagebrush on the hills. It's not usually that thick anywhere that I can think of so I'm guessing either way up in the Wenas Valley or up in the Chelan/Okanagon area.
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Nice sapling. You did justice to that tree. I like the way the color looks, gives it that primitive look.
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Thanks for the comments guys!
Randman, i live about 30 mins away from Okanagan, outside a little town called Tonasket. Are there many good bow woods in Seattle besides the Vine Maple i saw? There seemed to be quite a few trees i was not familiar with when i went over there.
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Nice stick! cool background 8) great save way to keep it going when it look like the end ;)
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Nice stick Zion, came out good in spite of the problems you had with it.
Greg
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Way to stay with it and make a bow out of it! Looks good. ;)
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I was close Zion. Tonasket was the name I was going to put down then I generalized with Okanagon. There's tons of bow wood in Seattle. There's Ocean Spray, Hazel and yew in all the big parks (not to mention the forests of Scotchbroom). The streets are lined with Purple leaf plum, hawthorn, Hornbeam, dogwood and Black Locust. I have 3 baby Serviceberry trees (not big enough yet) in my front yard. The first bow I made I got from a cut off pile in the park I have since learned is Hackberry. All I have to do is keep an eye out for the tree trimmers and I can get more than I can use. I kind of stopped collecting wood cuz my pile got to big for my space. Now I just have to find time to work on all my sticks.
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One tree we don't have here is Osage :'(
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Hazel, Locust, dogwood, hornbeam, broom....
Damn, now i'm getting envious ;D When i go over there again i hope i can get some of that stuff ;).
Yeah, i wish Hedge grew somewhere close :-\
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Hey Zion,
I would have thrown that stick into the kindling pile, but you went and turned it into a 60# bow! Amazing! Good job Zion!
I live near Granite Falls, not too far from Everett. If you ever get over here, Give me a call or email me, and we can for sure find some ocean spray and probably some vine maple, cherry and cascara. I'd be glad to be your guide. Seriously, I love to share with my primitive brethren!
Dale
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Looks like a shooter to me.Nice job. :)
Pappy
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Thanks Pappy, i'm glad i got it to shoot ;)
Dale, that would for sure be cool. Now that i'm talking to you guys 6 hours away i'm realizing how many more woods than what i know grow in WA... shows how drastically climate can change things :o
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Zion,
I just had another thought. I know for a fact that you can find Douglas maple or mountain maple over there, (I think they are the same thing), and that is some mighty fine bow wood! It grows along streams up in the hills. You've probably walked by it hunting a thousand times and didn't notice it for what it is. It's worth taking a look. Dale
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OK, thanks for the info i'll keep my eyes open. The vine maple i've been working with has been failing under strange circumstances... lets see what the other maples can do >:D
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Sweet bow!!!
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Zion,
I've built lots of vine maple and mountain maple bows. I like them both. When I lived in NW Montana I built all my bows out of mountain maple and hardly had any fail and all of them were heavy bows, 60 to 75#. Give it a try. Dale