Black Locust for my buddy Matt

[Hans H]

nice bow, well done
Hans

[Academonicon]

Thanks, folks!  It's a sweet shooter for sure.

(One warning about the black locust: I boiled in the recurves, which has usually been a pretty safe way to do a steep curve, but the wood splintered like crazy during bending.  If I hadn't been really careful and clamped down the splinters, I probably would've lost the bow.  Not sure if this is a common problem with BL, but it was almost a project-ending issue.  It's the main reason why the BL is narrowed down on the tips and there are pieces of maple on the belly side of the curves.)

[Stixnstones]

that's a beaut for sure

[Snake River Stickbow]

That's a great looking bow. I was wondering how the maple performed as a backing? I've never made a static tip recurve, sweet looking bows like yours are giving me the inspiration to try it.
Do you leave the limbs wide and thick before boiling and shaping them, then thin them down during tillering? Or do you have a the limb tips pretty close to finished dimensions before bending them?

[Academonicon]

Thanks SRS!  You should definitely try the static tips, I love 'em. 

The maple as backing was recommended by a few people here when I was starting the project, and hasn't let me down.  Both the BL and the maple came from board, so getting that straight grain on the back was crucial, but it's worked out nicely.

As far as the tips go, I shape them down most of the way before boiling-n'-bending, just to make the bend easier and (hopefully) less prone to splintering, but there are definite down-sides to that: for one, it's better to leave the tips wide during bending so that if you end up with string-alignment issues, you can shave down the tips accordingly to correct the problem.  That was actually something I learned the hard way with this bow.  Plus, as I mentioned above, the BL splintered badly during bending anyway, even though I'd thinned it down, so I'm not sure that's actually the way to go.

[BowEd]

Academonicon....I would think you put the BL to brace and aligned tips before putting on maple backing correct?Otherwise heat correction to tips for alignment would be a problem with the glue there.You did a fine job with it though.

[Academonicon]

Beadman: Yup, that would've been the way to go.  Unfortunately, this being my first wood-backed bow, I didn't realize it until the backing was on, so I did end up with alignment issues.  I fixed it by reshaping the handle a little bit, but next time I'll definitely be bracing the bow first.

[Mounter]

Beautiful bow!!