Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: RBLusthaus on April 16, 2014, 12:53:46 pm
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This bow is made from the wood from the very first tree I cut specifically for bow making. The fact that I had no idea what I was doing at the time apparently did not stop me and my brother in law from cutting one of the worst specimens in the forest we were in. In a NH forest surrounded by white oak, HHB, Birch, hickory, locust, and elm, we decided to cut an 8in dia red oak. We were trying to cut something we could handle, and hide, I guess. At least it was straight. Made my first few bow attempts from this wood, none of which made it to a finished bow. Left 4 or so staves on the rack and they got buried. Flash forward bout 12 years, a little digging into the pile, and my desire to try again where once I failed . . . . .equals this 67 inches of red oak, 1 7/8 at the fades, gentle taper to 1/4 inch tips. rosewood, hickory and ipe make up the overlay. Leather handle and tru oil finish. A real smooth shooter. She has been sitting around finished for some time, but I just recently got a chance to put her thru her paces. Thanks for looking. Russ
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Looks like one fine bow to me Russ. Ive yet to build an oak stave bow. Gotta cut some first I guess!
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That is a beauty! ...and the history just makes it all the better!
OneBow
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Good job Russ. Looks like waiting awhile worked out for you.
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What a story. And 12 yrs in the waiting?? Very nice bow Russ, to my eyes tiller looks right on. Now go back out there and get the rest of that white oak, HHB, Birch, hickory, locust, and elm… ;D ;D ;D .Ron
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Cool backround story on that stave Russ and a beauty of a bow you got out of it,looks real nice. Probably wasn't your lack of experience on the early attempts that made them break, the staves just needed to season for 12 yrs. ;)
I wish I had saved a few of my first staves from when I started, instead I plowed ahead and made some extremely over build bows with a lot of set and poor tiller. I think I actually made about 17 bows before I blew one up. Could have been dumb luck and over building but they were some premium dense osage fence post that would have made
some sweet bows in the hands of a experienced bowyer. :)
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I love the story too and that bow turned out really nice. Good work!
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Nice bow. I bet you got real nostalgic when you dug that one out of the wood pile! I haven't made a red oak stave bow yet. There have been some decent r.o. stave bows posted on this site, so it must be good bow wood. I looked through some old posts and saw where twistedlimbs posted some nice red oak stave bows years ago. Now looking at this one makes me want to cut a little red oak. I bet you couldn't help but grin at how much easier building that bow was than those first attempts so long ago. Cool post.
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That came out great, Russ.
The f/d pic shows you did an excellent job.
Always good to crap in the wood pile, some supises are waiting. I found some interesting cornealian cherry in my pile recently.
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I like when a bow has a story. Great job. Turned out very nice and clean. I really like lighter weight bows. They are just fun to shoot. I'm working on a couple right now.
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Really like those tips!
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Very nice Sir. Sweet shape to it.
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Nicely done! That is a fine bow indeed! Jawge
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Very nice bow,that looks like a mighty fine job on that one. ;)
Pappy
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Like it a lot! Nice bow and story!
Tracy
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Looks great man! Great attention to detail. Been there before Q1: will that tree make good bows Q2: can I hide it? ;) cut low and cover the stump with dirt! ;) Just sayin. :P ;D
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Nicely done Sir! I don't recall seeing many red oak stave bows. It looks good! Josh
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Very nice Russ. We need to get together for beer and arrow flinging.
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Thanks for the kind words, guys.
BB - - I agree, it was not me, the wood just needed time to season.
PAHunter - - I am still laughing - - cause that is exactly what we did, cut low and dirty the stump. We also had a story all set and ready to go - - it started with something like- - "Thank god you found us, we were lost and thought we were gonna die . . . ".
John - I agree. I will drop you a line soon - - as soon as spring soccer season gets fully underway and I know which ten minutes of each weekend I get to call my own. I also got this blacksmithing project I want to talk to you about . . . . .
Russ
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Beautiful Work! As I recall, the Sudbury Bow was of Red Oak. So you're in respected historic company. :)
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Its a beauty.
Simplicity and elegance, all in one.
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all is great together nice piece of work