This is for a gentleman who introduced me to fly fishing.
It is Purple leaf plum, from a branch at my mother in laws house that I've been watching for 5 years now. Finally decided it was time.
I imagine this bow was kind of like raising a teenager. It was stubborn, it needed quite a bit of straightening out, it kept me awake at night worrying about it, and in the end I loved the little bugger.
I left the cambium layer on, I was considering leaving the bark, but it was just too thick and would have cracked. It is backed with silk, and finished with 3 coats of tung oil. You can hardly see the silk. I'm going to polish it with beeswax and mineral oil to try and cut the gloss some.
This gentleman happens to have a very long draw of 31". The bow is 64" long so it was a tall order to tiller it out. There were more than a few gut wrenching moments, but in the end it turned out ok. Draw weight is about 45 lbs at 31", just a hair under what I was hoping for. Just unstrung it takes about .5" set and returns flat after a few minutes. It can whip my 500grain hunting arrows out pretty nicely at 20yards.
I'm looking forward to giving it away, but I'll miss it. Maybe kind of like a teenager.
Thanks for looking,
Pics are inside because I live in Humboldt and, as usual, its raining.
Gabe
ha ha, art is evidently not my thing
It Finally Stopped Raining long enough for me to get outside.
