bamboo back and belly ELB... now finished w/new pics

[medicinewheel]

hey guys!  -  my friend chris made this blank and lost interest in it, so he gave it to me. it's an bamboo back and belly stickbow with a core of tempered vertical bamboo stripes sandwiched between two stripes of black walnut which is the typical cross section of a japaneese yumi. the limbs are 1 3/16" of an inch at the widest tapering down to 5/8". this very narrow-limbed bow pulls beleave it or not 65#@29"
i tillered the bow today and started shooting it in. great pleasure to shoot!! very smooth draw and shooting really hard, flat and accurate so that even i can shoot it!
here is a picture that shows the cross section of a bow i made the same way and unstrung and braced profile.
i'll post more pictures when the bow is back from the beauty shop, okay?!
frank

ps: the belly bamboo is heavily tempered
pps: the bamboo used is madake. that's the kind used in japaneese bows

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[1/2primitive]

Very neat, looking forward to more pictures.
      Sean

[Justin Snyder]

That is cool, encourage him th start anotherand hope he looses interest again.  Maybe this time you can suggest the type of stave he makes.  I cant wait to see the pictures. Justin

[medicinewheel]

well justin, the story is a little bit longer then that. a while ago i tillered an osage recurve on his tillerwall when a hook came loose and my stave broke, so he gave me this blank to make up for that a bit. but most of all you should see his other bows: he makes the most exciting double-curved bows with cores like that. so he didn't care for the ELB much.
chris is a perfectionist. he is not using the internet so i guess i should post some of his bows for you guys.

[comix]

love to see them !! 

[Dustybaer]

absolutely!  i've seen one in bad kreuznach.  simply stunning.

[medicinewheel]

yeah dusty!  -  you probably know chris glauben. i had initiated the koppedrayer seminar at chris' place. chris picked up this technique just like that.
frank

[Dustybaer]

yes, and he's not only an excellent bowyer, he shoots well too.  he won the wood-bow class that day, and the kid with the bamboo bow took third place.

[Pat B]

Frank, How many vertical strips make up the core of your bow? I have a Vinson Minor Cane Dragon that is made with a simular set up. It is raw boo back, tempered boo belly and 5 strips of maple with osage strips on the outside, so its 7 strips in all. I believe this is the same set up as yours but yours is boo and black walnut. Do you have a close up pic of the handle?     Pat

[medicinewheel]

hi pat! - yes, that's the same principal used; with my bow here it's 4 stripes of bamboo between 2 stripes of black walnut.
the amount of set such a bow develops seems to be depending a lot on the woods used in the core. black walnut is lightweight AND keeps the reflex well.
here is the picture of the handle. it's build up with tapered stripes of osage on both sides: 3 towards the back, 2 towards the belly (slightly reverse handle)
frank

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[Pat B]

Thanks Frank. She's a good looking bow and the color combo is beautiful.   Pat

[OldBow]

Sure looking forward to the full draw on this one, Frank.

[heavybow]

Frank what a nice looking bow. Thanks for the email. marlon

[medicinewheel]

thanks marlon!  -  if further help is needed feel free to ask; ulli has my dates, too.
frank

[medicinewheel]

well gentlemen, i didn't have much time to work on bows lately but i finally finished thisone here.
 i wanted it to be real fancy so i gave it a potassium permanganate dye first, coloured it up with a little red aniline stain.
the wrappings are of irregular patterns; black and brown linen and rattan (rattan makes a really good arrowpass, can also be used for handle wrappings)
the handle is red leather wrapping
the overlays are buffalo-horn

with the fulldraw-pictures it seems to be a constant problem that the tiller looks a bit off when you angle the bow even just a little bit. the bow is tillered with 8"-stiff tips.

the pictures i took while stump-shooting this morning at the Cat Stones, a celtic holy ground near where i live.
hope you enjoy,

frank



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