Driving back from the classic, sleep deprived and hypnotized by the road, I was contemplating future bows to be made. Thinking to myself, what would be a more interesting shape for a paddle bow, I see a raptor fly over head. I get a crazy idea, "what if I made a bow limb in the shape of a wing?" Could it work? Thinking to my limited bow wood supply I recalled a piece of ash I had not used for backing strips due to the curving of the grain that could be a perfect fit. Over the last few days I got started on what will hopefully become a bow with limbs shaped like wings!
Please let me know if you think it'll work, won't work, how poorly it'll perform, what problems I'll face, and if you think I'm downright crazy.
I started by planing the ash to make sure the grain was straight and luckily it was. I was also surprised to see some beautiful fine figure which will hopefully not cause any issues. I then drew out the shape on paper that I taped to the board. I drew out the handle and centerline of the limb and approximated the shape of a wing. Osprey seem to have some cool looking wings and a google search resulted in lots of inspiration. I started out with a bow 66" ntn but felt the proportions of the limb were a bit too stretched out.