Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Poggins on October 29, 2013, 12:31:13 am
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Not having a shop to work out of is a pain , I have to drag my bandsaw out every time I have to cut stave down and put it back up when I'm done .
Well this last week I decided to cut more than one out at time so I chased some rings on some staves and marked the bows out .
I've got three that I have been working on already , the KCT that I started a while back that I heat treated the belly on , I tried to line the tips up but one side is still off and the string doesn't lay down the center of the handle . One of the osage is the one for my supervisor at work , still have some tillering to do on it , one is an osage that was twisted and warped and the string was almost two inches off to one side , got the string centered on it but due to a crack on one tip I need to put tip overlays on it to keep from cutting into it .
One is my third attempt at a chittamwood bow ( first busted second I set aside because it may be a kids bow later ) , this time I removed the sapwood off the back ( the sapwood is similar to the early growth rings in osage , crumbly and no tension stringth , breaks every time you bend it ) and about ready for a short string . I have another KCT stave on the right side , I chased the back down to two sapwood rings this evening , still a lot of moisture in it so ill let it dry some more .
I've got three osage cut out and ready to work on , thought I'd challenge myself with one with a hole in it , the small one on the edge about halfway up the limb will have to be watched closely .
Behind all them is the spoonbill skins I have drying for the KCT bow .
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Looks like you've got enough to keep you busy for a while. The one with the heat-treated belly is gonna be a looker. I like the contrasting colors in the growth ring pattern.
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The one with the hole and the one next to it on the left are no good. I'll take them off your hands at OJAM if you want. ;)
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Could you please explain how you treat that fish skins?
I've allready ridden some method but trying to find the best one. Thankyou
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Yeserrie Poggins you'll have some good dry wood to work with this winter for sure.Those skins look like enough width to do a few bows there too.
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JonW , I plan on having it finished and shooting it by OJAM , I need to get a trade bow done by Febuary ( possible cantadate ) . All this wood keeps me out of trouble , hunting helps also ( if I could get some antler in close it would be nice , may have to take one of the does soon ) .
Going to try and heat the Kentucky coffee bow again and line it up better .
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Your pic looks a bit like my world. I went from no bows started once the Bow Trade finished, to 4 going at once. Good luck with them.
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GliGlis , this is my first round with fish skins , I've talked to a few that has used them and tried to find as much info as I could . Most have told me to scrape the meat off the back then where the skin is thicker to thin it down a little to get it about even with the rest then stretch it out and let it dry , after it has dried remove the oils ( have herd both alcohol or dawn dish soap) and apply like snake skins .
I hit the search button last night and used the key words " fish skins " and several posts popped up , using the right words help , and ran across a post by Timo back in 09 where he used spoonbill skins and he did it different , he scraped the skins with a serrated butter knife to break up the oil pockets and washed them in a strong solution of dawn dish soap and used a brush to help get the oil out and applied them green ( may try that with some new skins next year ).
When I get back to the KCT I'll update my progress in that post , sort of a build along , just need to align the tips better and a little more on the tillering tree after tip overlays are put on .
Thanks Beadman and SLIMBOB .