Yew Selfbow - sinew backed "backless"

[armymedic.2]

??  COOOLLLLLLLL story now if you please...........

[Cromm]

very nice work.......

[OldBow]

This is one intriguing bow. Congrats! And bookmarked for December Self BOM, too.

[Bowbound]

Nice bow, does it shoot any quicker than most other bows? Its cool anyway though.

[majsnuff]

WAY COOL!!! Can't wait to hear the full story.

[mitchman]

thats freekin awesome.

[ravenbeak]

Thanks everyone for the compliments.

I'm recovering from a knee surgery right now,  so i'm gonna keep this brief as the head is starting to spin.  The full story can wait.

Creek is 58" tip to tip.  It came from a blowdown,  so no yews were harmed in the making of this bow.  Tip overlays are yew,  with the sapwood matching up.  I tried the same thing with the handle,  with the heartwood matching up,  but Creek bends through the handle and my glue on popped off while stringing and I thought I broke it.  Glad I didn't.   This is the tightest growth rings i've ever seen.

This is bow number 5 i believe from this tree,  and we are just getting started.  To all of you who i sent wood out to,  this is the same tree.

The sinew and hide glue are from salvaged road kills.  3 deer in total so 6 backstraps. 

The cutouts were done on the drill press,  and actually went very quickly.   The handle section of the bow was pretty thin to start,  so I knew I wasn't going to get a heavy bow out of it,  but I was hoping to get legal hunting weight.

The handle is red cedar lashed on with linen string.  It fits really nice into the hand.  The first time I pulled it,  with the new handle on it sounded like an old door opening.  "CCCCRREEEEEAAAAAKKKKK".   Red cedar dries out really dry and since the bow bends but the handle doesn't it's a bit noisey.  Although it seems to be decreasing over time.

The handle is wrapped in buckskin and lashed with linen cordage,  first attempt that went suprisingly well.  I am most impressed with the floppy rest,  I've shot many arrows and it doesn't hurt the hand at all.

The string is continuious loop linen,  served with linen. 

Creek is a play on words,  I was referring to the sound the bow makes when drawn,  but thinking back,  the tree its self was growing in a creek bottom surrounded in water,  so it seemed rather fitting.

It shoots amazing.  and it is quite a conversation piece.

 I finished it with umpteen coats of tru-oil.

Glad everyone likes it.   

please fire any questions my way. 

I'm going do a full length story on this one,  becasue there is so much i've skipped over.  but for now,  i need to hobble back to the couch.

Jamie

[ZanderPommo]

get well soon

Zander

[Cool-Aid]

Thats a cool looking bow for sure hope the knee gets better.

[redwasp]

How does it shoot? looks like that could split in the middle to me.  cool looking bow hope it holds up.. keep us updated.

[ravenbeak]

I am doing much better now,

RedWasp  It shoots great,   both my dad and I shot it in and agreeed it was snappy.   I'm looing around for a chronograph,  so i can start to really check true speeds.

you're right it did try to split on me once,   I had it on the stick at 26.5" at 45 ish and the next cutout was at 28".   I pulled it into 28 took a step back to look at it and heard "tick"   I quickly took it off the stick and looked it over,  feeling rather silly.     The section between the first and second cutout of the top limb i believe split laterally along the belly but not very deep.    That was when and why I decided to sinew wrap the connecting sections.    It hasn't been an issue since then.

I heard somewhere that the best bows are 97% broken,   i think i've got that one covered.

I also thought I ruined this stave during bending the tips,   I had a jimmy rigged setup and had more of a kind than a smooth bend which colllapse some fibres on the back.   I also wrapped there and again it hasn't been an issue.

ravenbeak