Elm warbow 76" 155# @30"

[JNystrom]

Here is another warbow i finished the past summer. Its a bit knotty and also a "little" too heavy for me. Its elm from south Finland with deer antler nocks and heat treated "brutally". By which i mean the back is also heat treated, as you can see from the pictures 

[JNystrom]

Some more pictures...

[JNystrom]

And the full 30" draw.

[FilipT]

Beautiful and so knotty! It even has beginnings of branches. Do they slow the bow down because of extra mass? Can you tell us how did you make the layout and what are dimensions of cross section, it looks really thick.

[JNystrom]

Thanks. Its 43x31mm in the handle. I don't think the branches slow it down quite at all. It's 155 pounds and it weights 1080 grams after all. Also almost all of the branches are in the inner limbs, which makes them effect even less. I like the appearence of them, so that is a big factor too.

[FilipT]

Wow, it is really big in cross section. Do you think you could have done it narrower and thinner or was it that particular piece of elm that dictated it? How did you make initial layout of the bow, is it gradual taper from parallel handle to the tips done freehand?

Btw, this bow looks so wild, I am imagining as a something wood elf would use.

[Ruddy Darter]

That looks great, nice work and it does look very middle earthy 

R.D.

[JNystrom]

Thanks guys.

Wow, it is really big in cross section. Do you think you could have done it narrower and thinner or was it that particular piece of elm that dictated it? How did you make initial layout of the bow, is it gradual taper from parallel handle to the tips done freehand?

Btw, this bow looks so wild, I am imagining as a something wood elf would use.

Yep, its a pretty big lump of wood. Could use it as a club also! Sure it could have been anything i wanted, but i wanted the heaviest i could make out of it. Just a nice little test. Well this past summer i made 4 bows i'm not strong enough shoot (yet), so this might be enough for now. There was nothing special about the wood, quite ordinary elm, but free of pin knots. I just narrowed it down with smooth taper and then started to tiller. Just leave a bit of meat around the knots and everything is cool. I don't use any rulers or gauges in the making. It would just slow me down i think. Biggest problem i had with the nocks, i had left only really small pieces of deer antler(13mm thick in the base) so i really had to tweak the nocks to make them work. They are around 10mm thick in the string loop curve, which would be comfortable for a 100 pound bow, but not for a 155 pound bow. I broke two nocks in the making.

That looks great, nice work and it does look very middle earthy 

R.D.

Well thats ok, it stays in the shelf until a strong uruk hai appears and wants to shoot it.

[FilipT]

I should try the freehand method next time. I have been making bows until now exclusively with precise measurements. Of course I would allow the wood to dictate curves around "tricky" places but at the end I would have specific measurement plans for initial roughing out.

[JNystrom]

If i only used measures i wouldn't have any bows. All my bow wood is crooked, knotted, wavy and reflex or deflexed, which prevents me from using exact measures. Bow making is about learning to adjust. Sure you can make bows out of planks with measures, but i haven't been too interested in it. Only measures i take is the length and handle dimension. These two measures will basically tell you how heavy the bow is and lets you configure the stress. For example now that i found out 43x31mm handle will make a 155# pound and it doesn't take too much set, i could go for 41x33mm in the next bow. It should be little bit heavier (~170-190#?), but actually about the same in mass.

[FilipT]

Even though my wood is not too "perfect" in shape, I managed always to use measurements when tracing initial layout and shaping bow to it. I don't use it for thickness taper though. But now I will try to do everything except length and handle by free hand, should save me time and maybe it will be more fun.

[Badger]

   Good job, your mass weight was spot on.

[willie]

I like it. gotta believe that many similar bows got the 'brutal heat treat" in more primitive times

[JNystrom]

Thanks, i'm also happy with the mass. A lot less compared to that 140# osage bow.

Don't know about the heat treatment but it seems to hold itself just nicely, so yeah i don't think wood cares that much! This is not my first bow with a scorched back.

[FilipT]

How does you process looks like? I did first and only time heat treatment on some hazel bow and bow got brownish color after couple of minutes per lets say 1.5" of length. It seemed that it didn't anything regarding poundage increase or set decrease aside from nice smell.