Simon & Martin's BowSwap Build Along (-;

[simk]

Hey there,

Me and btw (back-to-wood-Martin) have decided to give each other a personal bow and to document the building process here on a little build along.

As my bows - I dont know why - always end up at my personal comfortable drawing weight of around 40# it will be a challenge for me to end up with martin's 50#. But I will try.

Today I went into my stash to pick up a suitable stave. Lookin' forward see with what Martin will chime in...

Cheers

[bjrogg]

Should be interesting.   That sure looks like a dandy stave.
Bjrogg

[mullet]

Looking forward to seeing it.

[jeffp51]

sounds like a lot of fun.  Keep posting a ton of pics all along the way

[willie]

good looking stave, what kind of tree did it come from?

[backtowood B2W]

Wow, very nice stave!!!!
So, I had to go through my dry stash to find something very nice too.
I was looking for something suitable for a D/R design, and found about 3 staves - this is the best of them.
Ash
b2w

[simk]

Hola Martin!

This looks like a promising stave too...3 or four rings to take down, 8 to get to the really luxurious ring 

I today roughed out my stave. Got really hungry and therefore needed some swiss cheese and bacon 

Next step will be taking down some sapwood, it's still .5"

Cheers

[Artus]

Another excited spectator here! 

[Dante_F]

thats some crispy lookn bacon and some dry cheese, was the cheese left out to long and dried up?

[backtowood B2W]

I wanna see you eating that stuff!!!
Found some time to follow up a bit. Cleaned up the stave and decrowned 2 growth rings. I´m not sure if there is enough wood for my desired crossection (which will be tapered towards the back) mid limb, and enough wood for a proper handle, when I go for the luxury growth rings 10 rings beneath.
I think I will take one more down, as this worked out quite good so far.
My challenge is going shorter with this one. I already cut it to 63". Desired draw length 28", draw weight around 45#.

[simk]

Hi

Just curious: That hump will be the grip I think. Will you shorten top limb or will there be a yumi for me 

I have a beginners ring chasing tale:

There was a man who started chasing the seventh ring on his stave to have a decent amount of sap in the working limb. when he reached the other side of the stave there was one ring left. He learned two things: 1. Where the top of his stave is. 2. Yew is growing so slooooow. End.

Cheers

BtW (by the way): Nice old shaving horse and tools!

[backtowood B2W]

Hola!
Yes, the hump will be the grip.
Sorry for the pic, its canted. the upper will be a bit longer but not that much....
did some work yesterday. got it down to the 4thgrowthring. the luxury stuff was to deep and I wouldn't be able to get the desired width and thickness mid limb. Also the grain run didn't help as it was the opposite where more wood is left.
I changed the handle and inverted it as I discovered a nice close to center design.
Thickness is abut 3/4" now and thin enough to keep over the oven. It weighted 1246 grams and lost 10 overnight. I will keep it some days there maybe prepping the limbs for steaming.

[Deerhunter21]

looking good!

[simk]

indeed, looking good martin, like the character on that stick!
mine starts looking bowalike as well. there was a big knot right after the fade => big relief when I found out that it just dissapears at the level of the belly - hopefully. Next will be steaming the recurves. Your turn again! Cheers

[backtowood B2W]

Cool some progress as well!
But I'm not sure it's gonna be my turn : the stave lost 40 Gramms since the last post, so some more days above the oven - heating season is over soon, hopefully.