I found this wild growing apple some years ago in the woods. The wonderful red-brown-orange color on the back appeared soon after debarking, no dye here. It has eight nipple knots on the back, is that cool? The little sapling had a diameter of about 2”, full width can be seen at the handle. It has grown dead straight but with a good propeller twist. I heated out some amount of the twist, but some is remaining. I made a compromise to minimize that twist and accepted heavy grain run out, the string shows the grain direction. Cross section is lenticular. I did some corrections with the heat gun, alignment, untwisting. I gave her long fades, widest part of limb is 7” from handle. The handle is straight and covered with cherry bark, glued on with TB3 after 15 min cooking. The cord is hemp. Tip overlays is two tone (brown and nearly transparent) cow horn.
She turned out as a surprisingly good shooter, apple is definitely class A bow wood.
Specs:
66½” ntn
70'/28”
mass: 644 grams
w/d handle: 24/46 mm
w/d fade: 48/18 mm
w/d midlimb: 3/16 mm
wd tips: 13/13 mm (below horn)
10”: 13,6
12”: 21,8 (+ 7,7)
14”: 28,5 (+ 7,2)
16”: 34;7 (+ 7,2)
18”: 40,5 (+ 5,8)
20”: 46,5 (+ 6,0)
22”: 52,2 (+ 5,7)
24”: 58,3 (+ 6,1)
26”: 64,0 (+ 5,7)
28”: 70,0 (+6,0)
The back view shows the long fades
Heat treated to about 2” reflex and after shot in she still holds ½”
8 nipples on the back
The nipples came from alive branches, I cut them with about ¼”.
Nipples on the back …
… and viewed from belly
Here is the pic showing the grain running out, string shows direction.cross
if you look close you can see the grain turning to the right
The cherry bark handle has a leather triangle insert for arrow shelf
Here is the joint of the bark at the back
You can see the pith and some drying cracks developing from there.
Sorry for that much pics!
