It's been a while since I've posted one up! Here's one I finished this week. It came from a Hackberry split I've had seasoning in bow-blank form for about 2 years or so. It was a clean stave with a slight natural reflex/deflex profile. This one started out at 66" long but I misjudged the initial thickness (forgot hackberry had to be thicker!) and it came out at 38#. I piked 3 inches off each end making the final length 60 inches. Then, I heat treated it twice. This brought the finished weight up to 53# at 28" and it settled in at 50#.
The limbs were left intentionally offset making the bow nearly center-shot. Only one heat correction was made to a really wonky tip. I've been experimenting with this style and so far I like it. The arrows are bamboo with turkey feathers and 16 penny nail blunt tips. I whipped up half a dozen more but three is plenty for the pic
I've never tillered anything other than a flat bow so this was definitely a challenge for my eyes. It took me a while to be happy with the bend. I was still kind of iffy about it while it was on the tillering tree but once I took it off and shot it in, it was completely dead in the hand and had nice cast so I left it alone. This might be my deer hunting rig this fall. I prefer a heavier bow but this one is a lot of fun to shoot!
Heat treated Hackberry
50@28
60" length
2" width until 10" from tips
3/8 tips
Slightly working handle
String nocks are wrapped jute fiber
String is 8 strand FF
Finish is Mission Oak stain and BeesWax
^^^ Hard to see the yellow string, but this is the string alignment pic. That little black dot is a knot, not the arrow pass. Top limb is facing down.
Top limb is facing up in these two.
