After I heard the roar of a chainsaw at my neighbor's house I ran over there and asked him to cut me two logs off of the trunk. He was happy for me to take some wood off his hands. One of the logs was a bit short so half the bows I get from that stave will be the same length as this one. The rest will be a tad bit longer I guess.
Anyway, this is the first bow I made from that haul. I've been playing with it so much that I haven't gotten around to messing with the other staves. The bark came right off and this stuff splits like a breeze. I'm really impressed with hackberry.
I did rush the bow a little bit so I just kind of eye balled everything and went with "instinct" and it shows in the placement of the handle. The bottom limb is a bit longer than the top limb. Someone on here mentioned tillering just based on feel so I gave it a try and I really like it. I don't think I'll ever take another picture of the draw and tiller based on that or a tillering tree. However I will mark a nocking point on the string because it's important where I knock and where I grab the handle if you're going to tiller like this. I'd be interested on more input on the subject.
What matters is this bow shoots much faster than my last and is way lighter.
As is my custom, I went all primitive on this one. Made my own stain, which I am very pleased with, greased it with pig lard, and made my string from agave fibers that I harvested and processed. One of these days I'll keep everything Florida native.
I realize that there are a few things I could have done that may have enhanced the performance a little but I'm interested to hear what y'all have to say.
