Primitive Archer

Hey gang. It’s been a couple weeks since last layer of sinew was applied. I made some measurements to see if I’m in line or close enough to hit where I expect to some degree. Today I just added the third layer to both bows giving a total of 100grams to each bow. The core on the heavier bow (b) was left thicker with most other dimensions very similar. I will reassess in a couple more weeks and see how they look. I will add more reflex as the days progress by adding twists to string.

Both bows here will be 50” ntn with hopes of getting a draw length of 29-30”. Neither of them are build to be flight bows and are more or less based on war bow or target bows of Turkish/ottoman style.

Bow A. Dimensions. Projection approx 70-80lbs

-Mass 490grams (tips still long and includes glued on wood blocks for looping string for backset/reflex)

-grip

Wide:20mm

Thick:37mm

-Sal at mid limb

Wide:41.5mm

Thick:12mm

-Sal/kasan

Wide:38mm

Thick:11mm

-kasan

Wide:37mm

Thick:20mm

-kasan/tip

Wide:19mm

Thick:20mm

-tip

Wide:18mm

Thick:20mm

Bow B dimensions. Projection 100-120lbs

Mass 510grams ( includes reflex blocks glued on)

-grip

Wide:21mm

Thick:37mm

-Sal at mid limb

Wide:41.5mm

Thick:14mm

-Sal/kasan

Wide:41mm

Thick:12mm

-kasan

Wide:40mm

Thick:20mm

-kasan/tip

Wide:22mm

Thick:20mm

-tip

Wide:15mm

Thick:24mm

A single, thin coat of shellac is sufficient to seal the back, correct?

Hunker down and stay warm and safe, Pat.

Temperatures are finally about down to normal for this time of year here in western Wyoming, but still no snow.

This is what I call a hail Mary stave. You may not pull it off, if you do then you are the G.O.A.T, if you don't you then look brave and passionate about your craft, and in the end learn more about making bows than you ever could with a simple stave.

After finishing university and getting rather lucky with work, I am now able to be back at home in Germany most of my time again and finally found back to bowmaking, so I wanted to be a bit more active  here again, especially since I am back and forth between Europe and North America (mostly BC) regularly now thanks to work The world has become quite small

Here's a little one I already built a few month again, was an order for a young woman who's rather on the short side. The bow is from European Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), has strong trapping and a proper heat treatment on the belly, same logic behind that as with Black Locust. Ash is rather strong and tolerable on tension, thus also making great backings, but it kinda sucks on compression, so to rectify that I give the belly more volume (trapping) and make it more pressure-resistant with the heat treatment. The mental image I always have in mind there is using the belly almost like a hinge over which you stretch the back of the bow. I always tiller close to full-draw before the heat treatment (sometimes doing that multiple times, you often end up with one limb stronger afterwards, you can even make slight changes to the tiller with it) and the difference in terms of performance when shooting before vs after is always astounding. Great way to optimize bows out of species strong on tension but weak on pressure (Hazel, Ash, Black locust, you name it).

Length ntn 139cm / 54 3/4 "
Drawweight 28#@24"
Weight incl. string 261g/ 9,2oz
Handle from Laburnum
Tips from water buffalo
String 8x FF
Finish 4x boiled linseed oil
Stringfollow directly after shooting 2"
Permanent set 1 1/4" (should've hung more weight on the limbs during heat treating  )

Width after fades is pretty much exactly 1" (on belly side), keeps that for about a foot and then to 0 at the end

Let me know your thoughts Hope the pics work, I linked them from another side.

Unbraced



Braced



Full draw



Back/ trapping (the darker spots are that suuuupeer thin layer you get on the outside of the late wood rings with Ash, was very careful when chasing it to keep the optics)



Belly (excuuuse the irregularities, first time doing that since like 8 years, has gotten better again  )



Handle



Centershot. I always try to go for that with such light bows with short draw weights because almost any wooden arrow will be too stiff in spine, this way it doesnt really matter, just make the arrows very similar in weight and you are good to go)



Overlay from the side




Bit of a needletip. Arrow is 5/16" for reference








Hope you like it. If you don't, I'd love to hear why