Author Topic: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow  (Read 32838 times)

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Offline RyanY

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Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« on: February 14, 2010, 04:45:44 pm »
So I posted pics of this bow while it was unfinished and here it is finally. Hickory selfbow, 48" ntn about 50#@28". Drawn to about 31" in the pics. It is stained with ebony stain. This bow was extremely fun to make. It took a lot of string follow so it has very little tension at brace height so its actually slow. But it looks pretty sweet and thats good enough for me. Thanks for looking.








Offline El Destructo

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2010, 04:58:34 pm »
That Tiller is Scary Good!! I like the Bow...it's way cool....... :P..Looks like a Korean Bow ...drawn back that far!!
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Offline KenH

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2010, 05:23:20 pm »
Really nice work.. Did you steam or dry-heat bend the tips?
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Offline RyanY

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2010, 07:15:41 pm »
El Destructo - Thanks. The whole point of this bow for me was to see if I could get a selfbow to look and draw like a korean/turkish bow. I'm just glad it turned out.

KenH - I boiled the tips. Thanks for looking.

Offline Del the cat

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2010, 07:31:30 pm »
Are you sure you are pulling it back far enough?  :o  :o  :o
Cool bow (and not just cos you've stuck it in the snow ::) )
Del
(BTW I like the "don't mess with me" expression on your face in that bottom pic  ;D )
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Offline Keenan

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #5 on: February 14, 2010, 07:36:03 pm »
Wow Ryoon, that is amazing how far that is bending. The tiller looks very good and to be together at the draw length to bow length ratio is incredible. Did it have some deflex to start with?.

Offline NTD

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #6 on: February 14, 2010, 07:45:44 pm »
 :o :o :o  That is a really neat little bow...It's a little bit of a shame about all that string follow but I guess you need a trade off with all that bending it's doing.  Great Bow man I'm really impressed. 
Nate Danforth

jessepeltan

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #7 on: February 14, 2010, 07:55:29 pm »
If you want the bow to take less set you should temper the belly.  The temper allow the bow to pull further, reduce set, and will increase draw weight a bit.  Hickory takes well to tempering.  If you're up for more work on the bow (or for the next one) it'd be an easy fix to heat the whole working area and put it in a form (I'll explain that in a min).  Once in the form and cooled down, you temper the wood until it starts to change color.  The form is basically a 2by3 or 2by4 cut to the length between the big bends before the statics, with a block of wood in the middle.  You clamp the handle to the block of wood (cut off of 2by4) and the weight of the tips should bring the ends down to the ends of the board with heat.  If it's not enough you can add pressure with weights or even clamp the ends down. This should give you 1.5in of reflex before the static tips right at the big bends.  It will take some set again but the tempering will help with that.  So it should end up .5in +or- of straight.  An important thing to remember is to not temper the back.  Unlike the belly it will make the back brittle.  Also remember to temper the whole belly of the bow not just the working area.  It will add strength to the whole bow not only the bending parts if you do it that way.  Tempering will make the bow perform better and in my opinion makes it look cooler too.

Offline sulphur

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #8 on: February 14, 2010, 09:17:47 pm »
throw some sinew on that thing!!!  should get some reflex or less deflex in it.

Offline Scowler

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #9 on: February 14, 2010, 10:33:40 pm »
Amazing that you got a self bow that short to have such a long draw.  Very impressive.

Offline Gordon

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #10 on: February 14, 2010, 10:40:42 pm »
Holy crap! I can't believe the amount of stress that wood is withstanding.
Gordon

Offline ken75

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #11 on: February 14, 2010, 10:45:49 pm »
awesome bow !! and they used to think hicory was not a good bow wood. great looking and good craftmanship !!

Offline Pennhawk

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #12 on: February 14, 2010, 10:48:33 pm »
Verry impressed.

Offline RyanY

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #13 on: February 15, 2010, 12:18:55 am »
Thanks guys. There was no deflex in this stave when I started. Pipe straight.

jessepeltan - I actually did heat treat this bow. TWICE! Still took this much set.

sulphur - I didn't want to sinew it even if I had some. I just wanted to see if I could make it a selfbow.


jessepeltan

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Re: Finally - 48" hickory recurve selfbow
« Reply #14 on: February 15, 2010, 01:16:34 am »
Wow it still took that much set after heat treating!  Was the wood too wet?  Hickory is sensitive to moisture.  I understand that that's a lot of stress on the bow, but that's a lot of set for a heat treated bow.  The tiller is spot on so it wasn't that.