handshock and wrist slap- one bow sweet, the other demonic (pix now)

[richpierce]

I built 2  bows recently with deflex in the handle and recurved tips.  Both were from marginal wood.  One is osage orange and 53" long and the tips actually do bend quite a bit now that I look again.  They uncurl at 50 pounds and 28" draw.  It just barely bends in the handle.  This bow shakes my teeth and tries to draw blood from my wrist when I shoot it.  One limb has a twist at the tip so the string does not track down the recurved tip.  I don't think I have too much mass at the tips.  Not sure why it kicks except it's short.

The other bow was a quicky character bow I made from a dead black locust tree limb. Thin rings, several snakes and some prop.  I made it deflexed in the handle and recurved the tips a little crudely (no caul to do it that way).  The tips are about parallel to the string when braced.  It is a bend in the handle bow 58" long and is crooked, twisted some, and one of the tips is off center but not as bad as the osage bow.  It draws about 42 pounds at 28".  Cast is average but it shoots sweetly and feels great whyen shooting- no kick.  I was going to clean up the remaining twist in the middle of the right limb, but the bow shoots well and it's never going to be pretty, so I'll leave it as is and it will be a fun bow to use.  I'll probably paint it with natural pigments.

Is there anything I can do to fix the osage "kicker" and what determines whether a bow kicks or not?

[1/2primitive]

You already mentioned the mass at the tips, how wide are they on the Osage bow? With a hard wood like that, you can get the tips down to 3/8" or smaller. Also, the tiller can affect hand shock. if it is stiff in the outer limbs, it is likely to have more severe hand shock.
    Sean

[Justin Snyder]

Shouldn't be to much mass if they are uncurling unless they are wide. Shouldn't kick to much if you don't have to much weight on the ends. How about some pictures.   Justin

[richpierce]

Here are poor indoor pix of both bows.  I need to get that tripod.
First- both bows strung.  The locust bow is the longer one and shoots comfortably.  The little osage bow shoots hard but kicks and tears at my wrist like it has fangs.

Here's one tip on the locust bow (wide in style of Eastern Woodlands bows)

Here's how the recurved tip lies when the bow is strung

The locust bow at near full draw (crooked bow to begin with):


This bow is comfortable to shoot.  It was my first attempt at an Eastern Woodlands recurve flatbow.  I found the dead limb then made the bow in a week.  Next will be a scalloped Seneca from a clean straight piece of black locust and I will do the deflex/reflex better.  I know it's ugly- but you should have seen the stave.  I was happy to get a bow that did not blow up and that shoots comfortably.

Next, look closer at the shorter osage bow and no, you are not drunk- the pictures really are that blurry.
Here is one of the recurved tips with the bow strung:


Here is the twist at one tip


Here is the little demon at near full draw (upper limb to right):


This is the kicker bow.  I made it from a left over osage split.  It was a pretty small piece of wood but clear, no knots.  I tried 3x to heat the dogleg turn at the tip but it won't cooperate and I don't want to mess with that any more.

[Dano]

It's kinda hard to tell, your tiller stick looks to be off toward the lower limb, but even so tillers looks even to me. What does it measure, is the top limb a bit weaker?

[Minuteman]

I'd straighten the bent tip and see if that helped it out any. Looks like you could definitely narrow the tips some too.
 After you get the tip straightened out and both tips thinned down I bet it'll be much less demonic to shoot. I've had some real slobber knockers in the past and they are NO fun!

[George Tsoukalas]

The handle is bending but not that much. Tiller looks good.  When you draw and let down does the bow tip in the hand or is the handle pressure even. If it's tippy that's a sign tiller is off and that will  make it kick.  Sometimes flipping the bow around and shooting it that way helps. Jawge