Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: superdav95 on September 26, 2021, 10:47:56 pm
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Hey guys. To snake or not to snake? That’s the question. I made this great shooter and tillered out really well. It kept a good reflex and shoots like a rocket. It pulls at 60# at 28” and bow is 66”ttt. 65”ntn. It’s widest is just a hair over 1 3/4” tapered down to just under 1/2” tips. It’s got dark ebony tip overlays. The handle I kept really basic more in line with a style of pyramid bow. At least as far as I figure. It’s shoots my 450grain arrows 192fps. I shot it a bunch today and really love this bow. I’m not sure how else to describe it as it’s such a no frills basic bow. I just love the way this shoots. Had one of my molle bows set up for hunting with side mounted quiver all set and then I get shooting this thing in! I’ve changed my mind I’m taking this beast instead. Is this crazy or should I just start really practicing now with this bow. I’m torn. Decisions. Decisions. I now have to put a backing or paint or snake skins to break up the stark white of the hickory. I’ll be using a beaver tail skin for the handle wrap once I make up my mind on a pattern or backing first. I’m also debating on tru oil sealer or poly spray afterward to protect the skins. Thoughts. Suggestions????
Here’s a few pics
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A few more pics…
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Nice job. I hate snakes, so I don't do snake skin, but I like the looks of dyed rawhide. I'm going to try my hand at painting one as well. Whatever you choose, it'll be great.
I've use tru-oil a lot in the past for everything from firearms, to knives and bows, and it works really well, but I bought a can of marine varnish and really like it. I think it will provide a bit better moisture control.
Nice job on the bow and food luck in the woods
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I use 5 coats of shellac, and wipe on min poly to finish. You can still radius the arrow shelf. Makes for easier arrow tuning. Just a thought.
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Nice job. I hate snakes, so I don't do snake skin, but I like the looks of dyed rawhide. I'm going to try my hand at painting one as well. Whatever you choose, it'll be great.
I've use tru-oil a lot in the past for everything from firearms, to knives and bows, and it works really well, but I bought a can of marine varnish and really like it. I think it will provide a bit better moisture control.
Nice job on the bow and food luck in the woods
Thanks Don. Try oil is good stuff. I’ve also been looking fir other other stuff too like spar urethane. I like that I can get it in satin finish too. As far as snakes skin. I guess I’m in agreement. I also hate snakes when they are alive. I do however like the on bows. I’m not a big fan of rawhide myself. I’ll have to try it on one and then make my judgement. As for this one I may just put the skins on as I do want a break up pattern on the back so as not spook the deer. I think it would be cool look with the beaver tail handle wrap too.
Cheers
Dave
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I use 5 coats of shellac, and wipe on min poly to finish. You can still radius the arrow shelf. Makes for easier arrow tuning. Just a thought.
Bassman. Yes I know the arrow shelf is a bit square yet. I’d been holding off until I made up my mind on adding anything on top of shelf or not like a sliver of horn maybe or price a ebony like on the tips. I may just leave it wood and lime you said just radius it. Thanks for the feed back. I’m gonna go look at coating options today.
Cheers
Dave
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The sliver will work too. Nice bow.
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Nice job on the bow and food luck in the woods
;D
Are you hungry, Don, and thinking of grilled venison? That was a very interesting Freudian slip of the tongue wishing food luck.
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Looking good. Stain it. You pic the color.😁
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Nice job on the bow and food luck in the woods
;D
Are you hungry, Don, and thinking of grilled venison? That was a very interesting Freudian slip of the tongue wishing food luck.
;D
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So I decided to add the snakes! It turned out alright I guess. Still little more clean up to do and some artwork touches to add but they are on and drying.
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Great looking bow. I like the looks of the snakeskin also. I’ve put rattlesnake on 2 osage, and copperhead on 1 osage. I use Truoil on all mine, then a light spray of satin poly over that to dull the shine on the ones I hunt with. So far it has worked well for me.
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Thanks bentstick.
I was planning to put spar urethane on it that is a brush on satin finish. I never thought to use poly spray. Would it be ok over top of the true oil? I’ll have to consider this as the finish using the spray will be nicer as I plan to hunt with this bow. Can it come in a matte finish?
Thanks again
Dave
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Dave.....
Epifanes has a spar wood matte finish in conjuction with it's gloss finish that gives a dull matte finish to my bows.It's a top quality spar varnish.Dries completely within a couple of days too.All depending on humidity of course.
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Very nice, but you have to tell us about those fancy looking sticks in the back ground. ;D
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Dave.....
Epifanes has a spar wood matte finish in conjuction with it's gloss finish that gives a dull matte finish to my bows.It's a top quality spar varnish.Dries completely within a couple of days too.All depending on humidity of course.
Thanks for the tip Ed. I’ll have to see if I can source some of that.
Dave
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Very nice, but you have to tell us about those fancy looking sticks in the back ground. ;D
Thanks Tradcraftsman! Good eye! Yes those are a couple of my bamboo horse bows I made earlier this year. I bought some horn off of Ed and just waiting for it to arrive and I’ve got a Turkish style horse bow I’m gonna belly lam with buff horn. I’ll see how it goes from there if I will sinew the back or not. I guess to see how well or poorly it goes before wasting too much time and good sinew and horn. These bows shoot well now just using heat treated bamboo slats. Hoping for some testing out some ideas in near future with these guys. We shall see. I’ll be sure to post some results. Here’s a few pics of those “sticks”. Ones a 40lbs and the other is 50lbs at 30”. Both shoot very well.
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Dave, yes I have had good luck just spraying Deft brand poly Satin finish over Truoil. I have always thought satin and matte where basically the same in the dullness factor, some brands call it satin, and some brands call it matte. I could be wrong on that though. Locally I have only found the Deft brand stocked in satin, semi-gloss, and gloss. I have one snake skin backed bow that’s probably 5 years old and has been shout 1000’s of times and finish has held up well.
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Here’s a short video of the 50lbs bamboo bow shooting 450grain arrow at 30” draw. 194fps isn’t bad. The 40lbs is no slouch either at 185fps at same draw length with same arrow.
Here’s the video link
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1Q1LsQ27LzrPuaeD8
Cheers
Dave
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Dave, yes I have had good luck just spraying Deft brand poly Satin finish over Truoil. I have always thought satin and matte where basically the same in the dullness factor, some brands call it satin, and some brands call it matte. I could be wrong on that though. Locally I have only found the Deft brand stocked in satin, semi-gloss, and gloss. I have one snake skin backed bow that’s probably 5 years old and has been shout 1000’s of times and finish has held up well.
Ok. This is awesome. Just what I want to hear. I’ve been wondering how to really protect these skins now. Good stuff thanks again
Dave
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Next bow try Tung oil. It has superior warer resistance and has none of the issues varnish has :)
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Epifanes has a tung oil base.
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I actually have some tung oil and have used on a couple bows. I wasn’t sure about it as it seemed quite thin. But now that I think of it it may work really well as a penetration first layer then apply the finish coat of spar urethane (epifanes) or other brand. Am I limited to tung oil based products as a finish coating if I use the tung oil first? Here’s the tung oil I have. It says interior use only though. Do you think it matters?
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Got a cool looking bow there.... been using 8 coats of tung oil on all my bows without issue. Cant wait to see that beauty all dolled up and bent to full draw
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Got a cool looking bow there.... been using 8 coats of tung oil on all my bows without issue. Cant wait to see that beauty all dolled up and bent to full draw
Thanks stixnstones. I ended up doing a light coat of the tung oil to penetrate as a base the a few coats of the spar urethane by Helmans. Just waiting for it to dry now. I’m gonna do some decorative paint with white and black along the sides.
Cheers.
Dave
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Beautiful bow! I didn't know hickory could work at 1-3/4" wide and not take set...esp without heat treat (seeing that the belly is pristine white). Was this a stave that you dried in reflex?
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Beautiful bow! I didn't know hickory could work at 1-3/4" wide and not take set...esp without heat treat (seeing that the belly is pristine white). Was this a stave that you dried in reflex?
Thankyou. sir. Yes the bow was clamped to a form and sun dried for couple weeks to get it to below 10% mc. The form had a little reflex built in. Maybe around 3” or so. I lost a tiny bit of this when tillered and shot in. I did bake this one for about 3 hours over hot coals. Wood removal on belly lighted it up quite a bit. Still got the benefit of heat treatment though. Here’s a pic of belly I stained or any finish
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Thanks for the details superdav95. I want to try baking one over coals someday, its the "hottest" new thing to do. ;D
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Hey guys. Here is a quick little video of me shooting this pyramid bow with a luminok on a carbon arrow. It’s pretty fast for a piece of hickory!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/S12ses1rReZaNmyP8
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Just did a third coat of poly urethane and waiting for it to dry. Any thoughts on some artwork along the sides of the limbs? Looking for ideas. Show me what you got or have done in the past. I’ve rounded the shelf a bit more and still have to put the beaver tail skin on but coming along. Let me know what you guys think I should do to break up the white sides of limbs.
Cheers.
Dave
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Finally finished up this bow! Took a long time to dry. Used an initial coat of tung oil and first layer then a few coats of spar urethane over the snake skins. I noticed I had a few scale lifts and let it dry for a few days or more and then tried to lightly sand the rough edges off. It was still too tacky. I let it dry few more days and then was good to go. Not sure maybe humidity was a factor. Sanded and made smooth then put several finger coats of tru oil more sanding then sprayed with poly satin finish. I added some gold and black painted dots along the sides to spice it up and break it up a little bit. Added the beaver tail handle and felt on the pass. I’ll shoot it tomorrow and try and get some full draw pics. Happy with the way it turned out even though it tried my patience with the length of time to dry.
Cheers
Dave
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Few more pics…
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Some full draw pics…
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killer bow dude! super clean and tiller looks good!
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So I noticed today that at 82%+ humidity that this bow shot 10fps less on average. It still shot well just slower prior to finishing with the snake skins and coatings etc. I also noticed that the draw weight was 3-4 lbs less too. I became curious and tested my other bows to see if it was just this bow that I messed something up. All my other bows were the same on average 10fps slower. It appears that humidity seems to play a role as far as I can tell. Just an observation I made today after shooting during very high levels of humidity.
Cheers
Dave
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killer bow dude! super clean and tiller looks good!
Thanks man it was a fun build.
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I like it! Nice curve. The paint dots really tie it together.
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I like it! Nice curve. The paint dots really tie it together.
Thanks Thomas
The paint was little time consuming but worth it.
Cheers
Dave
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Very nice bow . Humidity will make them spongy in my opinion for what that is worth. Arvin
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Turned out real nice.
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Hickory seems to love moisture. I use 5+ coats of spray-on Spar Urethane to try and seal mine.
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Thanks guys! I did put about 4 coats of spray on. They were thin coats though I may add a few more to moisture proof it more. Thanks again for suggestions.
Cheers
Dave
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Thanks guys! I did put about 4 coats of spray on. They were thin coats though I may add a few more to moisture proof it more. Thanks again for suggestions.
Cheers
Dave
Eric krewson told me about a finish that is 2 ton epoxy cut with acetone that is supposed to be the bees knees of water proofing. You could ask him about replicating it.
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Fit for a king. Great work.
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Thanks fellas. Shot this bow a bunch today before the rain came and man this thing is whisper quiet and smooth. I’ve also been trying out a new technique for shooting that a friend recently told me about. I’ve been testing out the method that I’ll call drawing at eye level for lack of better term. I typically draw to just the corner of my mouth as this is how I’ve always done. All other aspects of form remain the same for the most part except the draw hand holding string is brought up to level of your dominant eye closest to the string and you look down the length of the arrow somewhat blurred by the string lined up with arrow. You could imagine a peep placed here even. But we won’t say that here lol. I tried about 100 arrows this way and the verdict is still out but I found my consistency was better. Still tweaking a few things with it. Anyone heard of this technique???
Cheers
Dave
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I've heard of it. I've never tried it. After deer season I was going to play around with some different forms. I've heard of using a peep like you mentioned, but to keep it more traditional, just use a thread marker. Same thing without the need to keep the peep in the right direction.
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I've heard of doing it, and I tried it some, but I could never find a consistent anchor spot. My biggest drawing/anchoring improvement came when I started really pressing my cheek fat enough so the bone in there contacted my knuckle bones...that and getting my bow arm shoulder under control.
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looks very nice.. gut
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looks very nice.. gut
Thanks man!
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Beautiful pyramid bow! Very nice bend and finish work.