Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Mo_coon-catcher on February 05, 2021, 11:48:12 pm

Title: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Mo_coon-catcher on February 05, 2021, 11:48:12 pm
Here’s a project I’ve been working on for the last few months. My girlfriend wanted to try out traditional  archery, so I decided she needed a proper kit to call her own.

The bow is bamboo backed eastern red cedar with a fiberglass takedown sleeve pulling 30# at 25”. I floor tillered the ERC before I fit the bamboo, which I thinned as much as possible before glue up, which is noticeably less than 1/16”in between the nodes. The nocks are blood wood for like a traditional  horn nock. They are a bit deeper than necessary to the having the intent to carve them and wanted plenty of room for my imagination, but could never get a good idea for what I wanted to do, so I opted to carved in grooves. Which can always be tweaked later. The bow starts out just under 1” wide in the handle area remaining parrallel 12” from center tapering to 3/4” about 12” from the nocks where it tapers to 3/8” at the nocks. The depth started out just under 1” at the handle tapering to 5/8” midlimb to 3/8” at the nocks. Then was adjusted from there for tiller. The handle is laced raw kangaroo leather and the tags decorated with hand carved beads of pink ivory, maple burl, and leopard wood. The feathers are pheasant feathers dyed blue and painted with acrylic paint to mimic blue jay feathers. The bow was super low mass before the takedown sleeve. It felt like the sleeve added as much mass as the bow itself. It’s still very light though.

The quiver was painted with acrylic paint with a multi floral rose vine and flowers. The bow sleeves attached to the quiver are made from from tanned Burmese python skins backed with cotton cloth, which is glued on with titebond III. The snake skins are pretty delicate without a backing.

The arrows are 5/16” POC fletched with pheasant feathers, tied down with red silk thread and created with pained in vines. They average 400gr, so a little heavy for the bow but they shoot pretty decent.

Overall I am very happy with the way this kit turned out. I’m hoping she can get lots of use out of it and get it all well broken in.

Thanks for looking,

Kyle
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Mo_coon-catcher on February 05, 2021, 11:49:16 pm
More pics
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Mo_coon-catcher on February 05, 2021, 11:50:04 pm
Some more
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Mo_coon-catcher on February 05, 2021, 11:53:06 pm
Last batch
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Kidder on February 06, 2021, 12:31:41 am
Fantastic work! I’m excited to see this combination of wood as I have one rolling around in my head. You definitely did it justice!
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: sleek on February 06, 2021, 07:03:56 am
Daggum man, you make stuff like that for your girlfriend, shoot, id consider being your girlfriend too!

Say Kyle, is she coming to Mojam? Yall gonna need a bigger hammock though....
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Allyn T on February 06, 2021, 01:54:59 pm
I love ERC bows
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Hawkdancer on February 06, 2021, 02:03:00 pm
Very nice work on the whole set!  She must be a "keeper",  hope to meet her at MoJam, assuming it is a "go"!  Might have to try to work a trade for an ERC stave!
Hawkdancer
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Pat B on February 06, 2021, 02:19:29 pm
Beautiful bow and set. Very nice.   :OK
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: gifford on February 06, 2021, 03:29:31 pm
Nice work Kyle, that is a fine looking set. The BBERC (I think I just made that up :-))
looks great! Hope to see you and the young lady at MoJAM. I'm thinking positive on MoJAM 2021. Artwork on the quiver and bowcases is top rate. Kudos, my friend.
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Bob Barnes on February 06, 2021, 09:37:22 pm
way to go Kyle...you can definitely be proud of that one.    :OK
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: RyanY on February 06, 2021, 11:11:15 pm
Looks fantastic. Always cool seeing wood tips like that. I’d like to get a wood stabilizing setup to be able to confidently use a variety of woods and go crazy with it. Like the bead work with the feathers as well!
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: JW_Halverson on February 07, 2021, 12:00:53 am
YOU AIN'T CATCHING ME OUT AGAIN WITH THEM DANGED OL' FAKE JAY FEATHERS!   >:D

Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: bownarra on February 07, 2021, 02:04:16 am
Looks fantastic. Always cool seeing wood tips like that. I’d like to get a wood stabilizing setup to be able to confidently use a variety of woods and go crazy with it. Like the bead work with the feathers as well!

I've done a lot of stabilizing, whilst useful it ain't all that :) Best used on semi decayed/spalted wood so you get loads of resin in. Normal wood - it doesn't make much difference, especially dense woods like bloodwood...there are no spaces for resin!
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Will B on February 07, 2021, 08:16:36 am
Beautiful bow!  She’s a lucky lady.
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: M2A on February 07, 2021, 09:06:33 am
Cool set. lot of thought and work into all them details.
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Mo_coon-catcher on February 12, 2021, 02:52:20 pm
Thanks everyone! It’s been a fun kit to build and fun to shoot too! I’m hoping to get her to mojam to meet everyone. I’m confident of there being a mojam this year, and I she will fit right in with us.

Kevin, I feel like I may have to put a barrier up around the hammock once I get you your bow for out trade

I may have to make some artificial owl feathers next 😁 I feel like that’s doable

Hawkdancer, I should have an ERC stave or two up in the barn I can bring along to mojam. And some more bamboo if you’d like to make one of these this year

This was my second BBERC (thanks for that one Gifford) and I’m a fan of this combo. Though the first one I attempted to tiller with a belt sander and got a little carried away in one spot making the tiller a little too much bend in the inner third making it take light crystals. So you almost have to treat it like I tempered black locust, if your not careful with the tiller it will tell you where you went wrong. But is a beautiful combo that shoots well when it does

Kyle
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: gutpile on February 12, 2021, 03:48:50 pm
I literally tilled my sinew back ERC with sandpaper.. wood is that soft... this is a gorgeous bow brother..great job.. I am going to build a perry reflex boo backed erc here soon and a erc recurve sinew backed.. they are top on the list... when I finish this osage shorty.. again great job...gut
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Mo_coon-catcher on February 12, 2021, 04:06:47 pm
That’s kinda what I learned from the last one. So after bracing I tillered this bow with 80 grit paper. Plus the wood is so soft that if I tillered by scraper I would shift the bend by the time I pull sand out the scraper marks. And tillering with sandpaper there are no marks to remove.

Kyle
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Selfbowman on February 12, 2021, 04:33:18 pm
Very nice bow! Kyle well done!
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: sleek on February 12, 2021, 06:14:21 pm
Thanks everyone! It’s been a fun kit to build and fun to shoot too! I’m hoping to get her to mojam to meet everyone. I’m confident of there being a mojam this year, and I she will fit right in with us.

Kevin, I feel like I may have to put a barrier up around the hammock once I get you your bow for out trade

I may have to make some artificial owl feathers next 😁 I feel like that’s doable

Hawkdancer, I should have an ERC stave or two up in the barn I can bring along to mojam. And some more bamboo if you’d like to make one of these this year

This was my second BBERC (thanks for that one Gifford) and I’m a fan of this combo. Though the first one I attempted to tiller with a belt sander and got a little carried away in one spot making the tiller a little too much bend in the inner third making it take light crystals. So you almost have to treat it like I tempered black locust, if your not careful with the tiller it will tell you where you went wrong. But is a beautiful combo that shoots well when it does

Kyle

I'm gonna do my best to have it done for you bud! I'm out on contract right now, soon as I get home ill get more done on it.
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: PaulN/KS on March 01, 2021, 02:35:21 pm
Wait, What, Kyle's got a girlfriend...?  (A)
When did that happen?  ;)
Oh, and great looking bow Amigo.  :OK
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: organic_archer on March 01, 2021, 03:02:09 pm
Nice work! I bet she's pumped to have a legit kit of her own!
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: Mo_coon-catcher on March 01, 2021, 04:46:54 pm
Wait, What, Kyle's got a girlfriend...?  (A)
When did that happen?  ;)
Oh, and great looking bow Amigo.  :OK

I know right! That’s just not a sentence you ever hear 😁

The weather finally turned nice when she was here and I was able to get her out shooting. She loved it! It shot very well for her. And she did very well with it in a short amount of time. I’m kinda surprised at how quiet it is. 5’ away and if I wasn’t watching her shoot I wouldn’t even know she loosed and arrow.

Kyle
Title: Re: Bamboo backed Eastern Red Cedar takedown ELB
Post by: silent sniper on March 02, 2021, 09:24:26 am
Awesome work Kyle, that’s an impressive setup you built 👍🏻