A Hickory backed Birdseye Wampanoag by Michael Roberts (El Destructo) of Stinnett, Texas
Receives the Nod for Laminate Bow of the Month for February
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,17497.60.html
This is quite the craftsmanship:
Well Deer Season is over...We got 14 inches of Snow...the City Plows ain't Plowing...so I hit the Garage Yesterday...and started on a Glue Up I put together this last Summer....It's an Air Dried Birdseye Maple Board from Upper Michigan....I backed it with Pignut Hickory for a little added Assurance against the massive amounts of fugue in the Maple....when I glued it up...I induced way too much Reflex... ...5 Inches to be exact! Anyways...I cut it out....and started drawknifing it late yesterday afternoon...and here is where I am at as of right now...I have it Tillered to 25 inches....at 65 pounds...I am shooting for 28 at 70 pounds...so I should have no problems there at all...I just hope that the Maple can take that kind of weight....we'll find out...eh! The Bow is 66 inches long 64 NTN.... 2 1/4" wide at the widest parts of the Paddles....It carrys 2 1/2" of Reflex after being Unstrung...and relaxing to 3" in less than an Hour...This was my first heavy reflexed Bow...and what difference there is in the Tillering Process...Man you have to go slow to make sure that you don't remove too much too fast! All in All ...this was a great learning Experience for Me....
And here is a lot of praise for real craftsmanship!
"That's a fine looking bow! Great craftmanship! Yeah, snowstorms have a way of bringing out the bow and/or arrow making time. I got a bunch of arrows made during our big snowstorm. But, this is actually ancient tradition as I understand winter is when a lot of tribes would make arrows or new bows. What else they gonna do? Well, they could tell stories. "We're going to hear the story about Coyote and the---" "Awwww, all the Coyote stories are re-runs!" - Tsalagi
"You've turned out another incredibly crafted bow of my favorite style in some of the prettiest maple I've ever seen. Remarkable bow and thanks for sharing this lethal piece of art with us." -xin
"Mike that turned out sweeter than apple butter man one of these days i might have to try and talk you out of one of them paddle bows of yours,them suckers always turn out sweet" -sailordad
"Mike the bow is stunning, that is one of nicest pieces of birdseye I've ever seen and living where I do I've seen lots of it
The Paint job is over the top, tiller is excellent, and the attention to detail is stupendous BOM material for sure even though
its not an osage recurve Sorry just couldn't resist I suffer from a bad case of impulsiveness donchano eh" -DanaM
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