Primitive Archer

Thank you Hamish,  that sounds like a good plan.  I haven't drilled out the knot yet, it is still the original rotten knot wood in there.  Yes, the plan was to use sinew on the back for sure. I just wasn't sure if I was even going to get that far before I screwed it up hahah.

Thank you for your help

[Hey Simk, European hornbeam is a wood I’ve been keeping my eyes out for. What kind of size bows were you making when it was fretting?
[/quote]


Hey James, me thinks the ones  that fret were about 35mm wide and around 67"ntn - that worked well up to 40#. I'd say if you go 45mm you can get the 50#. Its good wood.

I was wondering if I could use it as a backing - I read somewehere the english bowmakers used it for backing in the victorian age. that might work, it feels like interlocking grain. however, I have made so many experiments, maybe leave that one to someone else 

hello all, 

I am looking for some advice on this juniper stave.  Its about 59" long, limbs 2" wide until the last 8", and about 1/2" thick with a fairly flat belly already and decrowned back. 

The main issue is the larger knot on the edge running into the belly. There is not much room for tillering before the knot is exposed fully and may already be too much of a weak point.. im not sure.  Will I need to just make a narrower bow? It would have to be as much as 1/2" narrower to take out the knot in question.  unfortunately Iv already narrowed the handle somewhat, so taking one side off the limbs will make for an asymmetrical look.

The limbs also have much more bend already than I expected at this thickness.  So I'm worried narrowing will make the bow way lighter than Im hoping in the end. Id like at least 40lbs but ideally more. The plan was to hopefully put sinew on it.

I guess Im wondering what some of you might do with this stave.

Thanks for any help!

Well that knot took a minute to clean out. But ring is chased, I only could go down one without getting too thin in the handle. Working on marking it out now

Kyle

Before I got this site, our largest number of visitors per day was 2,000 something people. Right now, as of yesterday, its 10,700 visits, in one day.

That's fantastic, but growth often causes challenges.

The end of year giveaway is supposed to help finance the site. The first one was semi successful, it raised enough money to pay for 3 months of operation ( im billed quarterly ) but im hoping this next one will raise the funds to fix this site. Im sorry its not what any of us want the page to be, but it can be, I just need participation.

I appreciate all your efforts and also would like to see things get better. Keep us informed and I'll be happy to chip in.

How about the resizing of pics issue?

If you use a third party site to host your pictures there is no resizing required and the pictures come in big enough to actually see something in them. It's less work and better for the people reading the thread.


Mark