Serviceberry Sapling Bow

[Gordon]

Here are some pictures of a bow I recently made out of a 1 ¾” diameter service berry sapling. The bow’s length is 59” ntn and it pulls 63# @ 27”. The limbs are 1 3/8” wide from the handle to mid-limb then tapering to ½” at the tips. The handle is 1 ¼ “ wide and flexes slightly when the bow is drawn. I used a heat gun to flip the tips up a bit and the bow holds about 1 ½” of reflex. The handle is deer hide with a Strunk style wrap and the wood is stained with medium brown leather dye. I used Tru-Oil to finish the bow. A sinew patch was applied to the upper limb to reinforce a small knot that started to crack. I’ve drawn the bow 1500 times and put about 200 arrows through it so I think the patch will hold. I used simple self-nocks and no arrow rest so that I could qualify this bow for primitive shoots. I hope you like it.

[aruge]

Beautiful bow.  Al

[Jesse]

Great bow Gordon. I really like the colr and the tiller looks great. Is it just an illusion or did you file across the back for the string grooves?

[Gordon]

Is it just an illusion or did you file across the back for the string grooves?

Oh heavens I would not do that with a self nock! The wood does, however, tend to compress at that point because I use a FF string.

[tdog]

Very cool. I really like the colorful job in dyeing the limbs. Beautiful!

[Keenan]

 Now that's a bow   The profile on that is awesome Gordon, and love that you kept it a clean primitive.  So share your thoughts on service berry. I was very supprized by the strength. How dose it shoot.

[Pat B]

Very nice Gordon. I wonder how our serviceberry compares to the Western variety.    Pat

[Gordon]

Keenan,

How are you doing my friend? I hope your recovery is going well.

I found service berry to be a surprisingly strong bow wood. A vine maple bow with similar dimensions would pull about 45 lbs. So the wood is very dense - almost like osage. I don't have a chrono so I don't know how fast it shoots, but I'm very confident it would take down just about any N. American big game if the arrow is put in the right place. The wood is easier to scrape than vine maple because it does not chatter like VM will. I kept the belly flat so I'm not sure how resistant to compression it is. The next one I make I'll radius the belly somewhat and see how it holds up.

Gordon

[hawkbow]

beautifull bow brother, looks like a meat maker for sure.. great job Hawk a/ho

[koan]

Gordon..you have done it again! ...everyone else wait to post your bows till next month, this one will be hard to beat! ....Brian

[FlintWalker]

Very beautiful Gordon.  Not just a bow, but a work of art!  Saw Filer

[adb]

A super bow, as usual!

[AKAPK]

It's like a miracle how a person can work a piece of wood like that, really inspiring, hope I can do that with the maple branches I got Curing. Sure would like to know more about your Arrows those always look good also.  :)Phillip

[DanaM]

Another beauty Gordon I have several pieces of serviceberry drying, problem is they always end up having terminal twist
Oh well I will keep looking.

[John B.]

Very, very nice.  You got a lot of bow out of that little sapling.