Sinewed Juniperus Virginiana

[Pat B]

Very nice bow, Chris.  The ERC and sinew sounds like a good marriage.

[Keenan]

That is a very impressive bow. Great profile and great tiller. Perfect tip flips to help with string angle as well. Congratulations on a very well made bow.

[toomanyknots]

Pyramid profile is really pretty efficient, even though it might get thrown to the side to make way for molly or basic flatbow profile alot of the time. I bet that bow is wicked fast. I am really starting to loose my love for denser woods. Really nice job on that one. I like your paint job.

[blackhawk]

Thanks Clint...go for it...
thanks lesken...yeah id go at least a couple inches longer for the safety margin with this finicky wood...altho a lot of woods n sinew will easily pull that far at this length of bow
thanks mp
thanks matt..I first dyed the whole back(sinew)red,and then just used some black paint i picked up at a craft store for the designs and side edging
thanks cesar
thanks patb...im awaiting to see yours in the future...n yes a beautiful marriage indeed if treated with love and respect
thanks keenan
thanks toomanyknots

[PAHunter]

That's pretty sweet man!  I love the design and the fur.  I'd definitely like to get into painting/dying my bows in the future.  Time to get some sleep, there's bows to be built tomorrow!!

[Pappy]

That's a beauty,love everything about it,always had bad luck with ERC ,May need to give it another try.
   Pappy

[straightarrow]

Another great bow, Chris. I like the design and the fur wrap. Your finish work seems very thought out.... tiller looks great too!!!!
Jon

[Parnell]

Very nice, don't see many of that combination.  Glad yours turned out.

[Stickhead]

Beautiful!  I love ERC myself, but I've never had any luck bending it with steam or dry heat.  How long did you boil the tips?

[blackhawk]

Thanks pahunter...first worry about the bending of wood,then we'll get into the finish stuff ...we'll b bending ur elm tonight
thanks pappy...just go easy on her,and don't be so rough with her...she's a shy sensitive lady 
thanks jon(straightarrow)..im sure you'll get to see her in person soon
thanks parnell
thanks stickhead...I boiled em for almost an hour

[coaster500]

That's a great bow Hawkman   I like your style!!!

[blackhawk]

Thanks coaster 

[Dazv]

oh man what a bow

[Mark Anderson]

Great looking bow. Awesome finish job, and I love the looks of a pyramid bow.
I do have a question. I have a two stave of ERC that are 80" long and clear end to end but the have only a small amount of heartwood. It it necessary to keep some heart wood in the belly to handle compression or do you think all sapwood would do? I love the look of a heartwood belly but ther just isn't enough on these two. They were both split from the same 4" diam log and have been seasoniony for almost two years.
Mark

[blackhawk]

Thanks Dazv

Thanks Mark..I hear the heartwood is a lil better in compression than the sapwood,but an all sapwood belly is fine as well. But one of the reasons for making a bow with this stuff is because of the beautiful heartwood. I think you wood be able to reduce some of the sapwood down and at least keep a strip of heartwood down the belly. For future reference when harvesting ERC try to cut n find a bigger diameter tree because a lot of the times the sapwood is an inch to almost two inches thick depending on the tree. Cutting larger diameter will ensure you have enough heartwood to have in your belly. This stave if I remember correctly was 84" long to begin with. Make a short wide sinewed bow n you might keep some heartwood,because the shorter and wider you go the thinner it'll be. You'll just have to reduce enough sapwood to ensure you'll keep some.