Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: loefflerchuck on August 27, 2018, 09:50:20 am
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I met Springbuck, he lives less than an hour from my house. He said he had an elm stave. I stopped by and he gave me enough wood for at least 7 bows. Elm, mulberry, osage and plum. He has a side job of cutting trees and claimed if I didn't take the wood it may be wasted if the bugs get to it. Great guy!
This is Siberian elm. It is considered a trash tree here. Invasive, grows all over down in Salt Lake City and much of the west. I've had plenty of chances to get plenty of this wood but have passed. Someone asked me for a Holmegaard replica and I needed some elm for the project. The stave I got was a sapling with knots but split totally straight. The 7000 year old bow also had lumps along the back from knots. Google Holmegaard bow to see photos of the 7000 year old bow. One limb took no set and retained all the setback the limb began with. The other had more knots and i left all of them with more wood for a long lasting bow. That gives it less bending length but it still has barely any set in that limb and still a slight setback. Elm is now one of my favorite woods. It gives off a wonderful smell when working with it. I recognised the smell from the two HHB bows I had made that is related to elm. The color is beautiful too. The wood is as fast as any I have worked with. Maybe I just got a great piece of wood. I'll see after making a couple more elm bows.
The bow is 64" long. No nocks, just a taper to the tip. I added a sinew wrap so I could use a 10 strand fast flight endless loop string. Draws 53# @ 27". Finished with a few coats of tung oil. I did have a chance to test the bow with a 468 grain target arrow. I'm in the second driest state in the US and When I tested it the weather had been dry for a extended time(fire season). I usually keep all my bows is a room with RH at least 30%, but had this bow in my hot shop where the humidity dropped well below that. The bow was drawing 51 to 52# at 26" and felt very strained. It felt as if it would blow if i took it to 27". I tested it at 26" draw. Average arrow speed 189 fps. 5 of the shots were between 191 and 193. I think the bow was at the optimum moisture level for the 26" draw as far as performance goes. As far as a long lasting safe bow too dry. I put it in a room with 60% rh for 2 days and drew it 27" again without fear. The draw weight was only a bound or two over the 26" dry bow draw and the speed no faster. Still a great shooting bow.
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Full draw
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Wow, thats a good one. great to hear your comments regarding humidity and performance. 70% humidity here in pa :(
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Very nice Chuck and nice performance numbers to. I know a few people that really like Elm. Especially saplings. It does sound like there's lot of different sub species and ring thickness variations. I've only made one Elm so far and I pretty much screwed that one up. It's really humid here now and raining.
Bjrogg
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Very nice! I was beginning to think you couldn't get speeds like that from a straight(ish) bow. Good job!
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Very nice work. Great to see a faithful replica of a holmegaard style bow.
Kyle
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Now that's a sweet replica!
Absolutely great thing and a pretty nice wood too. That hump'de bumps looks so nice and you've managed to get a perfect tiller on that character stave. That arrow speed is impressive - I never got it with a straight bow.
Thanks for your texting - all interesting.
As a side note, a few years ago I've blown 3 good elm longbows within 30 minutes. The reason was to dry, rh below 30%. If I remember right is was ulmus glabra.
I love this one - a primitive European.
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Great looking bow. I love the simple clean lines .
Del
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Thanks everyone. Simson, this bow was too dry when I tested it. It was as fast as it could be but also a little dangerous. After it absorbed a little moisture it was fine but even with a extra " of draw the speed slowed by a few fps but still in the mid 180s.
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That's a heck of bow Chuck, w/ truly awesome performance. You certainly got the most out of that wood. Congrats!
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Beautiful bow! Really nice with the character. Glad you did not put anything on like it should on a bow like that!
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A beautiful spot on replica.Great job on a tricky stave.
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Great looking bow and good numbers! A lot of knots to work around, too.
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Great looking bow Chuck.Like the outcome.Tiller is spot on.Love the character to it too.It does'nt get a regular 30% humidity even in the winter here.Goes to show a person what moisture levels in wood mean.I always try to make the bow at the moisture level I'm going to store it at.
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Very nice in all aspects!not hard to believe the northern European had designed a bow 7000 years ago that still holds it's own against the most modern of today!I love lever bows!bush!
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Cool bow Chuck
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Neat job!
Hawkdancer
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That is a beautiful bow. I was reading about the original. Did the original have sinew on to keep the string in place? Or was there some other method?
Can you take a close up picture of the string attach on the bow how you did it?
Is it the actual measurements that make it a Holmegaard? The wood species? or more?
Thanks!
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Love the natural look of it.
By the way, handled one of your bows this weekend and spent a little time talking about you behind your back with Ken Woody!
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Awesome, Chuck! That tiller is a thing of beauty!
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Beautiful bow Chuck, and your bends are always just right.
A plentiful good bow wood that no one cares about sounds like a good idea.
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Nice bow! Great tiller...and all that character. Mike
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Great job, Chuck! Got to find a piece of good elm! And specs! One of these days, maybe a complete bow will come out of the bogs to really enlighten us "moderns".
Hawkdancer