Mini mini mini locust

[GlisGlis]

Hello
While waiting for my staves to dry and reading all i can on the subject i stepped in this very nice piece of wood.
It's a 58cmx3cm (22.8inchx1.2inch), well dried black locust.
In the picture you can see all sides. Thinner section have less than two rings to use.
I was wondering if it could be possible to make a small working bow.
It would be a mix of a training and a toy/indoor/desktop shooting project as i unfortunatly pass more time indoor than in the woods. I could even make mini arrows with mini knapping 
Someone allready did something like that? I tried to search the forum but apparently did not found.
have a nice day

[TimPotter]

I once made a bow from a short piece of BL but backed it with sinew. I'm not certain weather it was poor tillering skills at the time or that the sinew over powered the belly but it fretted up and down fairly bad. If I did it again I'd do it unbacked with a shorter draw factored in. Either way I say go for it and can't wait to see how it turns out.

[k-hat]

Go for it.  Del did a mini yew longbow (well there's an oxymoron! no, not Del ) a little while back.  Thinking it was about the length you're talking about.

[BOWMAN53]

ive been wanting to make a tiny bow like that just for the fun of it.

[IdahoMatt]

Sounds like a fun.  That is the one I thought of when I read this hope this helps http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,38778.0.html

[huisme]

I tillered it down from sixty at twenty five to fifty at twenty six to fit be better, but it throws arrows just fine. Two in wide limbs, one and three quarters wide handle, forty two inches tip to tip.

[mikekeswick]

What like this one.......
http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/reply/425868/Re-mini-hornbow
Just to give you all a laugh 

[IdahoMatt]

I forgot about that one.  Love it  .  Just too cool

[mikekeswick]

I have made loads of mini bows in the past for friends of mine, they certainly come with a large fun factor. 
By the way that hornbow shot over 200 yds.....mini bows aren't just a laugh they are very valuable ways to determine how unknown woods will perform without having to make a full sized bow. A mini bow can be done to a good standard in an hour and if it's to scale will act just like it's big brother would.

[GlisGlis]

@k-hat
Ty. will search for that post.

@IdahoMatt
Thankou for the link. That bow is awsome!!! really really nice! oh, and the baby too is sooooo cute
I have to make a small tillering tree like that!

@huisme
very nice bow. Mine has to be smaller as my piece of wood is really little.

@mikekeswick
Great great bow!! love it.
If you got pictures of other smalls please post here!

In the meanwhile I've worked a bit on that wood.
The depth at the middle point was almost as low as the thinnest point so i reduced all the wood at the same uniform minimal depth. I guess there is no room to make a narrow handle (without attaching additional wood). isn't it?
One tip had a natural relfex so I added some on the other side with dry heat trathement.
In the picture the back and profile views.
the belly has a little concave as i tried to follow the natural ring profile.
Now i'm open to all suggestions as my lack of experience allready showed me the difficulties of this project.
the lower shape (referring to the picture) is influenced by a former knot near the center and 2 bumps more on the tip side(sorry not to be more accurate but english is not my first language).
My main doubts are the shape I should give and if such a wide center could cast properly the arrow.

By the way. Black locust is such a good wood. It's a pleasure to work with.
Never tried before and allready in love with it.

[IdahoMatt]

What weight are you looking to get out of it

[GlisGlis]

Weight is not really a goal for me on this one.
I'm more interested to nail a good tillering, make experience with this kind of wood and learn as much as I can from your suggestions 

[JLoranger]

I have had a lot of fun building various scale bow designs out of bamboo chopsticks, so I definitely say go for it! It is fun to see the exact dimentions scales down and how well it represents a full size bow.

[bowsandroses]

Just for fun I built a 26" juniper bow with a little stiff handle was drawing 12" @ 20lb. handle was 3" called it my bolstel carried it on my quiver for fun. really zipped the little wild rose shafts I made for it. The down side to this story is I made the arrows around 16" of draw able arrow behind the tip. One day I was shooting at a sage rat out the pick up window surely you can shoot rats out the window wright. I was not paying attention to how far I was drawing the already over drawn bow and yep you guessed it snap or more like blang in the epic juniper fashion. had all of us in the truck ducking splinters. Morel of the story size arrows for the bow to remind you to stop pulling.

[GlisGlis]

Morel of the story size arrows for the bow to remind you to stop pulling.

Definitly a good advise !

Well. I'm slowly keeping on with this toy.
It allready showed good character today when my ultracheap tillering rope snapped and that bē°#!.rd jumped in the air and then down from the third floor balcony almost hitting a woman passing by. 
the main problem to see tillering issue is that it has some twist in it.
Tips plans are parallel but not the whole limbs.
How do you deal with it? you allways try to correct the twist or it' only fault of experience on my side?

The lack of planning is evident in this project but as i proceed things starts to come toghether.
At present I'm trying to keep some stiffness in the tips and in the handle region to possibly allow an arrow rest but i could at some time drop the idea and convert to a more flexible center.
Any suggestion is wellcome.