Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Marc St Louis on June 12, 2017, 07:38:41 pm
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I was walking alongside a train track several years ago and came across this small diameter Elm growing between the tracks and the Ottawa river that had been beheaded, every once in awhile the railroad sends out these trains mounted with huge brush cutters to take care of anything growing too close to the tracks. What was left of the tree was about 6" in diameter, about 6' long, straight with only a couple small branches at the top end. I went back with a saw and cut it down )W(. Turned out to be fairly good Elm. The wood from this tree was not very dense but it was elastic. At between 3/16" to 1/4" thick the growth rings were fairly thick, pretty sure that was because it was growing near a river and probably getting a lot of nutrients. This is more than likely one of the reasons why it was not very dense wood. I made a few bows out of the tree and had 1 stave left, the side with the branches. The stave was fairly narrow so a narrow bow was all I could make out of it; I couldn't get more than 1 1/4" of width out of the limbs. I used dry heat to take out some dips in the wood which added about 3" of reflex and to take out a sideways jog but didn't do much else in the way of heat-treating. The bow kept about 1" of reflex after tillering :BB. The limbs have a rubbery feel when bending them which doesn’t do much for performance and I couldn’t quite get 40# @ 28” despite 5/8” thick limbs on a 65” N to N bow, not a big problem since I didn't want a heavy draw weight anyway. Still it flings an arrow reasonably well. The elasticity of the wood is its redeeming factor. A couple pictures of the bow
(https://i.imgur.com/Cu0G1vP.jpg)]
(https://i.imgur.com/BBFkFjM.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/jusKR88.jpg)
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I really like the handle and character of the wood. As always, the tiller is a thing of beauty. (-S
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The character looks cool.very nice work.
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Came out great, Marc. Very nice. Jawge
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Very nice. I like the handle shape.
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Cool story, and as always very nice bow. I really like those knots on the top limb. Cheers- Brendan
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Very nice bend Marc and nice of you to give that tree a new life.
Bjrogg
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that turned out so nice, thanks for sharing, bet it shoots great (SH)
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Very nice bow from a tormented tree.Gave it a better home I'd say.Nice bend on it too.
I just did a winged elm from northern Arkansas.That paticular elm was'nt as dense as the winged elm from South Carolina so I did'nt get the poundage exactly I wanted.Very mallable wood with dry heat though.Holding the corrections I put to it.
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Nice back story, cool bow :)
Del
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Very cool bow, and I like that you "saved" the elm from rotting away next to the train track )-w(
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Cool story Marc. Clean and simple, just the way I like them.
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Very nice looking bow, nice job. :)
Pappy
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Thanks guys
I harvested another tree near a train track many years ago, this tree was growing at higher elevation with no water nearby. It was similar to this tree, thicker rings, mostly sapwood, but was much more dense. It was one of the best Elm I ever harvested
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Very nice bow, Marc. Kind of an uncommon bow for you but nice non the less.
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I really like the knocks - they go well with the knots. Love hearing where the wood comes from.
Cheers,
George
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Marc, I have a technical question.
I have a lot of elm, both American and Winged, and I’ve had several failures with cracks across the knots. For the most part, I just remove the bark layers and use the wood surface for the back of the bow. This works fine if the knots are pin knots or rather small (less than 1/8” wide).
From your “Elm ALB” post, I copied the picture of the knots on the back of the upper limb and enlarged the image to about 300X. It looks like you reinforced the areas around the knots with one, maybe two, growth rings. Is that because the knots are so large, or do you typically leave extra wood for knots on elm?
BTW, you did a great job getting that section of the limb to bend with an even arc…I haven’t been that successful.
Thanks, H
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Great looking bow. Nice work on those knots.
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Thanks guys.
The knots on this bow protruded quite a bit from the back. I trimmed about half of them out leaving them protruding around 3/16". This, along with the thick growth rings, was enough protection for the back. The knots were mostly on the back with only a dark spot on the belly to indicate where they were.
All knots and wood are different, sometimes they are flush with the back, sometimes you have thin rings, sometimes the rings come up flush to the knot. If the rings are very thin then leaving leaving extra wood so the limb doesn't bend much is the only way to go. Essentially experience is the best teacher when it comes to knots and there are quite often no clear cut solution or procedure.
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Nice bow Marc. I like what you did with the knots, I may try this on some yew staves I have with similar big branches
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I'm a little confused. Did you chase a ring and leave the knots proud or did you use the natural back and the knots were naturally proud?
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No chased ring here. The knots were naturally proud
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Good proud Canadian knots. Can't get any better than that ;D ;D ;D
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that is another piece from a master, thank you for posting
Hans
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Always a pleasure looking at the profiles of your bows!
The reflex to the f/d shows the elasticity of that wood.
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Beautiful bow! Simple and stunningly elegant at the same time. I really like how you shaped the nocks. SS
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Thanks guys