"Survivor" bow

[WillS]

This one's daft!

First stave from a tree I cut down a while ago - wanted to see what it was capable of.

The timber was pretty green but only took 1/2" of set, on top of the 3" or so of natural deflex through the whole stave.  Bottom limb had a horrible deflex kink, flipping out to a straight-almost-reflex bit at the end.  Really plays tricks with your eyes on the wall!

The back was full of wood worm, with holes and larvae tracks all over the back, but I cleaned it up fairly roughly and left them as they were.  They look kinda cool, I think.  There's about 8 or 9 of them.

Horn nocks were from two different salvaged bows, so they don't match but the top one is quite nice - local cow horn tip with side nocks.

Anyway - it's 116lb and 77" long after piking from 82".  No full draw pics yet as I hate leaving ash at full draw to take photos.  I am gonna be shooting it in at the EWBS shoot this weekend however, so once it's been through a full weekend shoot I'll be more comfortable leaving it at full draw long enough for a pic or two.

Because the string follow isn't actually "set" per se, it's still punchy as heck.  Normally I'd heat treat the deflex out for a proper bow, but like I said this was to see what the wood is capable of for the next batch I make and heat treating a green stave is a baaaad idea!

[Del the cat]

That bug damage looks V similar to Dutch Elm disease which only goes under the bark and not into the sapwood AFIK.
Which limb did you have as the kinked one upper or lower? It's always a dilemma for me.
Cool character bow.
Del

[WillS]

Kinky limb is the lower one, but only because it looks even more daft the other way up.  It shoots nicely both ways in all honesty.

When I took the bark off this stave, there were actual bugs inside the wood still wandering about, and whole colonies of larvae wriggling about.  I toasted them with a heat gun to kill them off, as I didn't want them getting into my other timber.  I'm quite pleased that I left the damage however, as it shows that ash can take quite heavy violations to the back with no problem.  If I encounter any more I certainly won't be too bothered about it now!

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

I don't know, the kink side up would kinda resemble a japanese yumi, lol.