Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: DarkSoul on June 04, 2014, 11:04:41 am
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Here's my latest creation. It's a Cornelian cherry a.k.a. European cornel (Cornus mas) stickbow. It is closely related to the wood that North Americans call 'dogwood'. This wood species is supposedly highly sought after by Eastern European archers back in the days, because it is really good bow wood. Rated similar to yew. The specific gravity is one of the highest of any European wood species, and it sinks in water. I've yet to test this, though. The plant doesn't grow very big and is often more like a bush. Straight branches that are long enough for a full sized bow are rare. Five years ago I came across an old Cornelian cherry hedgerow that was planted maybe two decades ago. It was very densely planted, and some shoots were remarkably straight. Most of these plants don't grow higher than six feet, yet these specimens were sometimes up to 12 feet! You can see more about how this bow started in this old thread. (http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/24775/Score-Elm-black-locust-and-dogwood)
The wood was slowly dried (bark on!) for about four years, before I started with this bow. It was then dried another year in a semi-floor tillered state. Although the stave didn't have many visible branches coming from the surface, there were a lot of surprises hiding inside. A lot of knots were to be dealt with! Since this stave was less than 2" across and loaded with knots, the only option was to make a narrow, longbow-ish stickbow. It was impossible to make this a wide limbed flatbow, or to get rid of the character, so I'd better make that a feature! This stave just wanted to become a character loaded bow, that looks to be coming straight from the forest. I wanted to preserve the natural look of this wood and add nothing to the natural beauty. I just removed wood - that's it. No stain, no heat corrections, to leather handle no tip overlays. It is a true stick bow. Right after the bow was roughed out, I knew what this bow should look like. It is greatly inspired by another well known bowyer from the message boards. I don't think I have to provide you the name of the bowyer that I was inspired by :) I hope I copied his style and photography in a good way. I would feel privileged if this bow pays tribute to this great bowyer.
Some stats:
Cornus mas self bow - one piece
71" nock to nock
44#@28"
Width about 1 1/8" at the handle
Thickness about 3/4" at the handle
Flat oval cross section
Physical mass 20.56 oz (582.7 gram)
She is about straight, with very little set.
She has 19 (!!!) clusters of knots, about one every three to four inches.
(http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/HPIM2249.jpg)
The stave on the left in the Cornus mas stick that was used for this bow.
(http://i58.tinypic.com/vh5k06.jpg)
(http://i61.tinypic.com/j8z4g6.jpg)
(http://i60.tinypic.com/2drh1rd.jpg)
Belly side facing up.
(http://i61.tinypic.com/23trt6v.jpg)
Simple self nocks. Not ultra narrow, but just sturdy enough.
(http://i61.tinypic.com/4jxn2g.jpg)
The wood has a very subtle grain. You can hardly distinguish the growth rings. Very small medullary rays on the quartersawn surface. The darker color of the outer wood, near the back of the bow (bottom), is probably caused by the bark that was left on the wood as it dried.
(http://i58.tinypic.com/2rnk9id.jpg)
(http://i60.tinypic.com/35l85kz.jpg)
(http://i60.tinypic.com/9rrb53.jpg)
(http://i58.tinypic.com/33df2ag.jpg)
Full draw.
(http://i59.tinypic.com/14dd0m0.jpg)
(http://i60.tinypic.com/4pyxdh.jpg)
This little known wood species really impressed me! With all these knots and high crown, it shows no signs of stress. No chrysals and it has hardly gained any set, which is probably caused by its high elasticity.
Jorik
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Wow, that bow is beautiful! Tiller looks great
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Beautiful bow. What did you finish it with?
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Simple. Elegant. Beautiful. Great work!
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Great looking bow with beautiful character! It definitely has resembelence to one of druids bows. If I only saw the pics of the bow sitting on the fencepost I would swear it was one of his creations.
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Why are the string grooves rasped into the back?
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Cool bow..those string groves kinda scare me...imho
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Oh yes, beautiful bow.Love that back.
Del
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Very nice.
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Superb! :-* I really love the undulations on this one. And how lucky you were to get that stave... Did you do any bending on it?
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Very nice bow and pictures! What did you use for the finish?
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Nice work! Looks like a really comfortable shooter. Tiller spot on and like how you let a simple design show off that back. Great set of pics too.
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Wonderful bow to look at. I was curious about the tips filed into the back also.
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Great looking bow with beautiful character! It definitely has resembelence to one of druids bows. If I only saw the pics of the bow sitting on the fencepost I would swear it was one of his creations.
That's exactly what I thought when I saw the first pic. nice work looks like a smooth fun bow.
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That is one great looking how my friend. Fantastic job. The nocks do worry me a bit but tiller finish and everything is top notch. :). I love the look of a simple stick bow.
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Sweet bow Jorik! You've folllowed all the undulations very well. An eye pleasing tiller :)
I've been looking for cornus mas for ages with no joy. I only want a 12 inch piece for a hornbow handle.
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Cool bow. I like the simple design and finish. Great Pics too!
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Very nice ,simple and loaded with character. :)
Pappy
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Real nice work, very graceful looking full draw bend as well.
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Thank you for the comments everyone :)
@SeanStuart and @matthijsc: this bow was finished with a water based parquetry varnish, Hermadix brand.
@okie64 and @killir duck: you are right! :D This bow is inspired by Druid! The pic on top of that fencepost gives it away. I tried to copy his photography as well.
@Pearl Drums: I'm used to nock overlays, which I purposely did not want to add to this stickbow. Normally I file in a string groove only to the back of the bow (overlay) and not on the sides. In this case, I had to file in the grooves on the sides of the limbs. When rounding the corners of the grooves, they kinda automatically grooved the back a little. If that makes sense. It's funny you all notice the string groove... It's really minor, in my opinion. Only 1/16" deep. There's still 7/16" of wood underneath the string groove, so plenty of thickness for the draw weight. It also has plenty of width at the tips, and combined with the fact that this is not a ring porous wood (which is more sensitive to string grooves cut into the back), I'm not so worried. The other nock has hardly any groove in the back.
@Jodocus: no heat correction was performed. It wasn't really necessary either, although there is a little bit of reflex and deflex here and there. I was indeed lucky to find this stave. I have one more stave of this wood left (same quality), but that's probably it. I doubt I can ever find more of this dogwood. However, I have just harvested two more staves of Cornus sanguinea a few days ago :) Here in Europe, we have two indigenous species of Cornus. Cornelian cherry, and common dogwood. I have not yet tried the Cornus sanguinea, but it is said to be excellent bow wood, although slightly less than Cornus mas. The fresh wood seems very similar, although maybe slightly less dense. I should be able to compare the two species, once this new Cornus sanguinea has dried. Probably takes another two years at least...
@mikekeswick: following the undulations was the most time consuming part. You want a knot to be little bit stiff, but how can you do that with 19 knots? I meticulously followed every bump of the back with a little dip on the belly. You can see that nicely in the pic where the belly is facing up. It made tillering difficult for sure. A scraper is useless with this many knots.
I would have no problem finding a 12" section of this dogwood, but it will probably have knots every 3-4 inches, just like this stave. The longest section of clean wood in this bow is 13 cm.
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Jorik, Very interesting bow, good job working through all the character... 8) The back of the bow, tiller and photography are great...I like the all natural look...
Don
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Very nice humpy bumpy bow Jorik, what's about the performance?
I have made 2 out of cornealian and 3 in progress, I'm still not shure what's the best design for that wood
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Nicely done. You definitely projected a Druid influence with the bow and photography. Josh
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Thanks Don and Josh :)
Simon, I'm much more of a bowyer than an archer. I can't tell you much about the performance. I've only shot a few dozens of arrows from this bow, and it shoots fine. Draws smooth as heck and no handshock at all. I don't expect a speed demon with this much character and slightly overbuilt tips. But it shoots fine. Please let me know about how your Cornelian cherry bows turn out. This is only my first try as well, but the stave didn't offer many options as far as design goes. However, given the high density and high elasticity of the wood, I'm convinced a narrow longbow is better than a wide flatbow.
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Inspiring!
Thanks for sharing!